Lamb with weak hips

[GoldenrodRancher]

If they can be on fence line it should calm her. Keep the ewe & ram water near so they must go there near her....she'll see them. Even limit those two from access to a far field, if easily possible.

Is the ewe her mother? Normally they will stay reasonably close. Put hay near so they must be within sight, etc. While you have pasture, often something different will entice.

They don't like separation.

Yes, the Ewe is her mother. The temporary dividing fence is right against the big shed they all sleep in, so they can see eachother. The problem is that the pasture is far enough away from the main pen that they can't see eachother (too many coyotes in my area to leave them on pasture overnight.)

The lamb was born Febuary this year I don't know what the term would be for a sheep that age, and since she's still three quarters the size of her mom, I've just kept calling her a lamb out of habit. Sorry if that caused confusion. so hopefully she's old enough to handle the seperation a bit better.

I don't hear her banging against the fence or crying out anymore, so hopefully she's getting some rest. I feel awful.


Edit: Easter Sunday last year was when my previous lamb was born. I was so distracted by all this that I got them mixed up, sorry.

 

[GoldenrodRancher]

Update: They broke down the fence.
As I was preparing to move the parents, the Ewe managed to push through the fence, and the ram followed her.

I don't have the heart (or strong enough materials) to seperate the lamb again. All the struggling from last night has made it so she can barely even walk now. I'm leaving them in the pen for the day & providing a lot of hay & I'm going to cut forage from the pasture for them throughout the day. I'm at the end of my rope, I could barely sleep because off and on through the night I could here her crying and pushing against the fence.

I took this picture probably about a minute before the Ewe broke the fence down. Poor lamb was wobbling just trying to stand straight.

 

[Mini Horses]

Best you can do. Hope for the best....if limited area, plenty of hay, cut forage, they should eat & chew cud. Watch inter action between them -- especially ram. If he's attempting to breed lamb &/or ramming lamb as he's after ewe.

We don't truly know that's what caused her seeming injury but, it's the most likely considering your set up and numbers. Rams can be aggressive and difficult to contain.

Only other option is vet & X-rays. Which will still leave you in similar situation to maintain & heal.

 

[Finnie]

Do you have room to get a bigger flock? Not saying that’s the best solution, because then it brings more cost, work, and other potential issues. But if there were more adult ewes, the ram might leave the lamb alone. Or if you had higher numbers, they would be happier when you separate them. (Based on what I’ve read. I don’t own sheep or any herd animals.)

It seems like most of the shepherds on here keep some whethers for company with their ram(s) and only put a ram with the ewes when they want them to breed. Not full time. But I don’t know how much space you have.

 

[SageHill]

Somewhere along the line I lost, missed, whatever that you only had 3 total sheep. That makes things really difficult (or not). With the ram and only two ewes with him - that's not a happy place, esp if the ram is "rammy". Add in your lamb is not weaned (not a bad thing) but pretty much makes weaning impossible. Some shepherds let them self wean.
More sheep ewes and wethers ~could help in the long term - but isn't the answer for right now for the current situation.

 

[GoldenrodRancher]

Do you have room to get a bigger flock?

Somewhere along the line I lost, missed, whatever that you only had 3 total sheep.

I had 3 adults (1 ram 2 Ewes) for 2 lambing seasons, But last year's lamb was a male & I had to sell him (I couldn't handle 2 rams, and I wanted to put the money towards another Ewe). And the other Ewe passed away a day after she had a miscarrige...

Edit: I've been looking at getting another Ewe for a while, but prices have been high, and every time I feel like I'm ready to buy one, something like this happens and makes me reconsider keeping sheep altogether.

 

[SageHill]

Ah yeah, I get that. You've got a good plan, just bumps in the road. I think all of us have a story as to how we got to where we are now.
My original plan was to have about 20-30 for training dogs and teaching herding lessons. Started out ok, 6 that would work for training and 6 that I shared that were just ok for sharing. Of the original 12, five were either taken to auction as they were crazy as I call it "prevent a wreck" sheep and one died. I added 4 ewes that were not dog-broke. Got them to almost working with beginner dogs, then one lambed. It was good thing and that is how I got my ram. I kept trying to find appropriate sheep for training dogs with, and absolutely no one was or would sell anything remotely usable. Literally impossible to get. At the same time I was taking my little flock of sheep all around our ranch to graze - basically no fences and just used one of my dogs. That was the start of where I am now. The sheep are handled / ?? in a "micro-transhumant" way most of the year, taking them out with one or two dogs who move them on the ranch road and keep them in a grazing area that somehow the dogs and sheep decide on. My sheep are dorper and dorper crosses - meat sheep. So I've gone from using sheep for dog training (which I still do a little bit one day a week) to raising sheep for the freezer/auction. Along the way I've had sheep crash fences because of other dogs, a ewe prolapse, one cut it's face open (no vets), one get stung drinking water (face twice it's normal size for two days), stillborn lamb, had to pull a lamb, scours (too many acorns), etc. I guess my point is, for every bump in the road we learn something. We learn A LOT. And yes, there are times that I and I'm sure I'm not alone, think WHY AM I DOING THIS?! But then something happens, touches our hearts in a good way and we carry on.