Norseofcourse's lambing thread - 2015 - over, or not?

[luvmypets]

Yayyyy, they are to die for

Dont hate me if im jealous

 

[norseofcourse]

Thanks everyone... having a problem. I think Rose only wants one. This morning I watched her push the black and white one away several times. He was the second born. I did see him nurse yesterday. Rose licked him off (not as much as her first born). They seem to call to each other and answer each others calls. But she seems to be paying much more attention to her firstborn, and wasn't letting the other nurse.

I felt in his mouth and it felt cool compared to the firstborn. So I put a neckrope on Rose and held her against the wall and he nursed a few times. Rose was not happy about him nursing, and she was very unhappy about me holding her, and successfully got away several times, luckily I kept ahold of the rope.

I may need to run out and get a nipple in case I need to milk her and bottle feed him - how do I know when it's time to do that? Hopefully even if it comes to that, he can stay with her - he's cuddling up to his brother and Rose still seems a little bit interested in him...

How often do I hold Rose and let him nurse?

 

[BrownSheep]

If you have something similar to a milking head catch I would put her in that for a while.

 

[purplequeenvt]

X2 what Brownsheep said. Doesn't sound like she's outright rejecting him so if you work on it now, you may be able to fix the problem.

I had a first time ewe this year that was being stupid about her twins. I don't have a head gate/grafting gate so I put a halter on her and tied her in a corner with one side against a wall. I also took a rope and looped it around her outside back leg and tied that to the wall behind her so that she couldn't kick the babies off. I left her tied pretty tightly for a couple hours until she calmed down. Once she wasn't freaking out whenever they tried to nurse, I loosened the hobble enough to allow her to lay down. By the next day I was able to let her loose.

 

[norseofcourse]

I've held Rose twice more to let the secondborn nurse. She hates the restraint. She fought the hobbles so much she rubbed some raw spots on her legs, luckily small ones and I put healing lotion on them so hopefully they'll be ok.

This last time I put the neckrope on her and tied it short to the center support of the hay rack/feeder (very sturdy). I gave her grain to eat which occupied her but not quite enough for her to be still enough for him to nurse. She didn't have much room to move (I was right beside her blocking her), but she bashed her head into the feeder a few times, hard enough to give herself a bloody lip. What finally worked was my holding onto a hind leg (since I didn't want to use hobbles again) - she still fought at first, but finally stayed still and he nursed a couple times.

Each session so far has left her panting and stressed. I don't know if this is going to work.

I ended up putting both lambs in the small milking area, they can see and smell each other through the fencing panel but not get to each other. I'll go back out in a bit, I'm hoping Rose will be happy to have them both back (or she'll be so happy with her firstborn that she'll stay still long enough for them to both nurse). I'm running out of options, and I have to work tomorrow...

Oh, and I did check their teeth, and the secondborn had some slightly sharp bottom teeth so I filed them down a bit but that doesn't seemed to have made any difference yet.

 

[AriesX]

We had a ewe last year that didn't seem to want her single lamb to nurse but I went and forced her still so he could eat every few hours during day and once in middle of night. By the third day or so, they were doing fine on their own.

Do you have a scale? We like to weigh our lambs up to three times a day if we are worried about them. Usually even the ones that seem small and like they aren't eating enough gain weight every few hours so we figure they are OK.

 

[AriesX]

Those lambs are ADORABLE by the way!

 

[norseofcourse]

I've gone out twice so far and more successfully held Rose to let her lambs nurse. Between times they're in their own pen. So for now, she either takes both of them or none at all.

She's improving some... this last time she actually stood without being tied or having a foot held and let them both nurse - at least for a little while. She kept sniffing the second one's butt, how do I describe it... like she was mad at it. When her firstborn took a break from drinking, she wouldn't stand still for the other one to continue, so I tied her again. She let him drink a little without my having to hold a hind leg, then again wouldn't stand still, so I held up her leg and she behaved better. It's still stressing her out but not quite as much now. They both had nice full tummies when I put them back in their pen again.

It's to get down to 20F tonight. They are in the barn run-in area, I can pile extra hay in there for bedding for them, will they be ok? They do snuggle up together.

thank you everyone for the advice and encouragement! This is so frustrating. Rose was such an attentive mother with her other lambs, this is very surprising that she's being this way. It may have been partly my fault - I moved her and her lamb so I could get Elding into his own pasture, and then she had the second one. I've since read that having the second one in another spot might have contributed to her not bonding with it as well.

 

[purplequeenvt]

You could try smearing a nice thick layer of Vicks on her nose. That way both lambs smell exactly the same. That might work unless she is more visual. Obviously they are easy to tell apart by sight.

If it's a visual problem, you could make them matching jackets so she can't tell them apart by sight.

These tricks have worked before for me, but they don't always work. Some ewes can see right through our plots.

 

[norseofcourse]

@purplequeenvt - thanks - she seems pretty visual with it. I am trying to figure out some kind of jackets because of the cold temps tonight.