J and M Sheep Lambing Thread, THE STORM HAS BEGUN

[CrazyFlocksters]

SheepGirl, Southern is takeing all our photos when she gets here, so take it up with her.

Southern, I don't do night shift.

 

[Bridgemoof]

So cute!

 

[goodolboy]

Update: another set of twins this morning. SH on her way in to work.

 

[Bridgemoof]

 

[Southern by choice]

I need proof....

 

[goodolboy]

Where are you Southern? Your getting behind!!!!

 

[Shelly May]

Hi, you all, I can say that right, not because I live in the South, but because I am talking to more then one person, HaHa.

Firtst: I need to say sorry to all the cattle people out there, Because I have been two days without make-up, No time for that, So all you cattle people your stocks may drop a little this month.

Second: Oxytocin, No when to use it and when not to, Oxytocin Meds has three uses, Firtst is to induce labor, Second helps Milk let down and more production, Third Helps with clean out of after birth if ewe having problems expelling it. The ewe I had to help pull her babies was a first time momma as goodolboy said, found her 4:00 pm with Not just one water bag hanging but TWO water bags hanging out, she was walking around eating and didn't have a clue that she was going to be having babies. At 8:00pm checked on her and still eating she still doesn't know, she was not laying down pushing and not having contractions at all, So this is 4 hrs that we KNOW of that she has been like this, no telling how long it really has been, So best decision was to give her a shot of Oxytocin to induce labor, this could still take hours to kick in and start working, or could take a few minuts.

Two hours later, she finally is laying down with contractions and pushing some, two more hours later, now midnight I decided to go in, this is not easy as I was by myself, but she is a Katahdin so she is calm and gentle, First baby was right at the opening when I checked, but ewe is not dialated enough to get the baby out on her own, so I help stretch every thing out and pulled first baby, Alive and weak, Me and momma cleaned baby off, After 45 minutes baby still to weak to stand and suck, so drove home and got bottle with colustrom just in case, came back momma down and pushing again, so I took care of first baby gave it the bottle so he would quit crying.

Around 1:30 am she still has had no luck getting second out, so I went in again, I knew it was bad right away, crown of head was there, not the mouth and no feet, pushed baby back in to get mouth facing correctly, then go head out, need to know if baby was alive, No movement and not breathing, so went in to find the feet, they were both back against the babies belly, So I knew baby was dead and not helping momma come out, got front feet out and pulled baby, it didn't make it, It was alive earlier but stressed out and sufficated because the first one took so long to get out. Second one was Pure white with a Black tear drop under its one eye, So sad. I have a picture but won't post it can pm to anyone that might want to see it.

After getting everything cleaned up it is now 2:15 am and first baby screaming for some milk, only brought 3 OZ out with me so had to drive home to get more, it is 20 degs out and we are inside the barn, so fed baby and left everyone and went home. Get home around 2:30 am, and DH yelling at me because every time I came home, the wienner dogs went off and barking their heads off and waking him up. Sorry DH, and finally got to sleep at 3:00 am and back up at 5:00 am. No I was not upset with DH as he is the boss at work and has employees working for him and he goes in early to open up shop and gets everyting planned out for the days work, So he needs a clear head.......He works with a lot of blue prints and Numbers.

So after coffee, shower, hair dryed, NO MAKE-UP, dressed and out the door to go break ice and check sheep, NO LAMBS OUT OF THE LAST TWO AT HOME YET, , off to the farm I go. First thing I see when I pulled up was a black and white new lamb in field, and It is crying its head off, so I venture out to see why and walked up on a ewe with a white lamb, so I leave her and go see why other one is crying and find it with its momma, so all is good. So I say a few choice words like dam it, not two singles So I stand around for a while and observe everyone, momma with white baby full of blood on back side and baby drinking off her, all is good there, turned to watch other set momma talking to lamb and baby still crying its head off trying to follow her but she wont stop and let it nurse, So I looked to see if she had blood or any indication as to the fact that she really had a baby.

NOPE no blood on milk bag, no blood on her back legs, no blood on her inside of her tail, , Looking close she hasn't had her lambs yet, still fat, has no signs of even dropped yet. Then I throw out a few of those choice words again at that ewe and call her a thief. So I have to get these lambs and the two adult sheep out of this pen into a different pen to observe things better. Again I am by my self, but this is not my first RODEO, So I grab the lambs, and put them into an attached lot threw a gate and knew out of the approx 70 ewes in this lot, that the real mommas would hear them cry and come forward. well two mommas came forward and threw the gate, Gesh, so I close gate and watch, and watch and watch. The brown ewe keeps the white one next to her and lets it drink, the tan momma keeps the black and white baby with her, but doesn't let it drink... baby keeps crying, but when it approaches the brown momma she head butts it away, seen this happen several times, some of these hits are hard hits. So I get ear tag Numbers from the mommas and call DH on the phone.

DH is at work, but has his lap top computer with him and has all the ewes lambing records in it, He tells me based on the computer info that the tan ewe had a single baby last year, she was a first time momma then. Now checking the second ewes ear tag number, he tells me she didn't lamb last year, so this is her first lambing. So now I know I am dealing with a thief and a momma with the FIRST TIME STUPIDS as we call it, she must of had one and went to lay down to have the second one and the thief stepped in and stole the first one while she was having second one.

FYI, we try to start lambing around the first of march, this year my decision, we put the rams in 1 week early because of a schedule and time allowed weekend to get it done in. So because the nights are still cold enough to freeze the water, the ewes will lamb up close to the round bails and the hay waste to keep warm, on above 32 deg nights they will usually leave the whole group and seperate them self and go farther out in the field. So it is common for another ewe that is close to lambing to try to steal a lamb that might not be hers. BUT they usually wont let it drink, they just talk baby talk to eat and try to keep it with and around them. It is important to know the difference when lambing for the shepard..................................................................

Back to the events, I know that I am going to need help to try to get this momma to except her baby back,, DH at work, DD's off to school, so I call ELLIE MAY on the phone, another BYH member, for some help. she is new into sheep and is going to lamb hers in april and could probabley use the experience any ways, doesn't hurt the fact that she too loves little LAMBIES, by the way THANKS Ellie May, So she is on her way out. Mean while I have a bottle with me for the one from last night and I decide to go check him and see how momma was doing and if she was feeding him yet on her own, NOPE she is laying down and having hard contrations because the OXYTOCIN is in full blown mode now, GESH..........that is why I said earlier no when to use it and no when not to use it, I had no choice because of the length of time the water bags where out and they had broke and I still gave her many hrs before giving it to her. So I kinda new this and brought a bottle just incase, so gave baby the bottle, he is still weak, but drank all.

So as I was still waiting on Ellie May, decided to get the real momma of the two lambs into a yet even small pen for what was to come, and double check a few more things like walk the pasture and look for TWO AFTERBIRTH PILES, another signs that there is only one real momma, got ewe and two babies in smaller pen through another gate, I just love having attached pens and gates to be able to do this kind of stuff when you need to seperate things out. I run the thief momma back into pen with the other ewes and start walking around looking for two after birth piles. Looked every where and I could not find two, hell I couldn't even find one, I could see not finding just one in the wasted hay, but not finding any really tells me that only one ewe lambed. Now the black and white lamb is really hungry and screaming for food and the brown momma keeps butting it with her head, hurry Ellie May and get here. she called and was at my house, and says where are you?????????????????, miss communication as she thought it was one of those fat as---es at the house, those two left have experience and better not give me any trouble.........................No I tell her I am at the other farm, we have three hard to keep track some times for others.

Good god I need a coffee break, this is wearing out my fingers, Thanks Southern for the e-mail telling me you want all the emotional stuff, Ok so everyone take a break and get the Vise of choice. So she now gets to farm and the first thing we need to do is get the baby something to drink so it will shut the heck up, NOTHING WRONG WITH ITS LUNGS!!!!! very healthy lamb, so we hold mamma and get baby under her and the baby (PINK) drinks and drinks and drinks, we let mamma go and watch for a while and all seems good, turn our backs and baby walks over to momma a she slams her against the fence, ouch that hurt, Go we go we try some proven tactics to get her to take the lamb including making her believe she is having another baby, that is something I will explain later if someone needs to know, We tryed every trick in the book and nothing worked, she would be real nice to baby and let it drink if we were standing right there, but turn your back and she would nail it with her head. So baby has a full belly and is laying down, Ellie May wants to see the other big group of ewes in the back pasture, So off we go, after stareing at them awhile I see a ewe with two water bags hanging out of her and she is walking around eating. , so we watch for longer and did see her pawing the ground and thinking about laying down to give birth, So all will be good I hope. After we visit everyone and see babies it is time for ellie may to go, and I need to get to vet to pick up some things, so on our way out we go by the other momma who doen't want her lamb and give her hay and water in the pen with her, and she is still butting the lamb, .

Southern are you tired of reading YET? HaHa, so I head to vets and ellie may heads home and I have one of the wienner dogs in the car as she goes to work with me everyday and I didn't make it to work, at this time I believe its around noon or so, go to vets pick up stuff and head back home to drop the wienner dog off at house, and get some more COFFEE, it is around 2:00 pm now, as vets love hearing my stories and joking with me, they are great people and call me and DH the sheep pro's in the area. So I leave home but not until I Have checked on the fat sheep yet, no lambs UGH!!!!!!!!!!

I drove to other farm (lodge) to do all chores there, feed chickens, feed dogs, water, collect eggs, observe sheep in pasture, Thanks gosh these wont be lambing until June (50 ewe lambs). Head to other farm to check the ewe that had the water bags hanging and do chores there. While driving past my neighbors farm he has cattle I see a cow who is in a sitting postion, really a cow in the sitting position, she must be going to calf is my thoughts, so I keep looking and watching and the cow gets up, and I see nuts hanging , it was a bull and he was scratching his Butt on the growned, that made me smile, then as I drove to other farm I noticed the easter lillys are all blooming out, that made me smile too. Then a thought came to my head a guy from work saw me feeding the weinner dog hotdogs and told me thats CANNIBALISM, a wienner dog eating a wienner...........................................................
I smiled again and chuckled alittle.

So I get to farm and check on ewe in back lot who had two water bags hanging, no babies and still walking around eating, Not again I say to my self, so did all chores there and DH shows up from work and we weighed and tagged all lambies and we move the ewe that doesn't want her baby and the lamb she does want into barn and we put a halter and lead rope on her and tie her damned as- up, So she can reach the water and food but she can't turn her head around and Butt no Baby away, They can both drink all night and she won't know which baby it is. , We do this as a last resort, but has worked, so it was last resort, Once the baby starts to poop and the poop smells like mommas milk all will be good, it might take a day or so but she will except it sooner or later, You can graft a lamb onto a ewe the same way................Just keep your records straight as to who the real momma was and who the foster momma was. Its getting late now and I decided to take the bottle baby home to ensure its getting milk and checked on the one in the field NO LAMBS YET, checked her ear tag number and we all ready know because this field only has ewe in it that have lambed once already that she can have them on her own if all is well. So we went home to eat and so I could catch up on sleep and go to bed early

This am after all morning things done at home, no lambs from fattsos, head to farm to see what was happening, rained hard most of the night wasn't looking forward to trumpling around in the dark with a flash light, Momma who is tied up laying down with the two lambs next to her, all is good. The ewe I pulled babies from laying down, no new lambs in front field, went to back field to check on momma who should of lambed last night, found her and two new lambs and another momma who was trying to steal one of the new lambs, No not again UGH So I chase the one ewe off and stand between them and the babies are soak and wet and full of MUDD, it was all dry yesterday, and she waited until after the rain had come and made everything a big mudd hole again last night to give birth.

So I stood there for about 20 mins and momma was taking care of her two new babies and the other momma was hollaring she wanted in the group too! I moved baies up hill some on dryer grown, like there was any of that, but at least they weren't down hill in all the run off water. This ewe has experience so I don't think she will let the other momma steal her babies so off to work I go, as I have catch up work now at work and to all of you on BYH, thats all you get for now SOUTHERN, and maybe next time you wont want a up date of the emotional stuff.

 

[EllieMay]

All's well that ends well.

I gotta say you guys certainly know your stuff.

And, ShellyMay, you don't have to apologize for hubby yelling about the dogs barking... you've got an awesome hubby and you know it and take good care of him. Likewise, he's got an awesome wife and he knows it and takes very good care of you. You, two, make an awesome team!!

It was a fun experience helping out with the mommas and babies.
Call me anytime!

 

[bonbean01]

Oh man...you have to be exhausted!!!!

I really could not handle that many by myself...that lamb stealing is something we've dealt with only once and it is a pain in the butt! Once the thief ewe had her own lamb is was okay, but the rodeo to get her out with the real mom and lamb was something else!!! There are two of us, yet it was still a rodeo...you need a helper...really wish I lived closer to you

Nice that EllieMay is close enought to come help!!!!

As to a weiner dog eating weiners...glad you are keeping your sense of humour...that helps so much!!!!

 

[Straw Hat Kikos]

must be going to calf is my thoughts, so I keep looking and watching and the cow gets up, and I see nuts hanging , it was a bull and he was scratching his Butt on the growned

Ok nice job Southern!! Took my like an hour to read and I about had hand cramps! Just one Q, how long did that take to type up? lol