Ridgetop - our place and how we muddle along

[Ridgetop]

P13 may lamb later. The mother of the lamb is GR42 and she is fine with the lamb. I will remove P13 this evening. Hoping that P16's other lamb will nurse on mama today. I will give another bottle later tonight. P16 seems to be calming down. I wonder if she did not realize that the second lamb was actually hers since her actions looked like a ewe desperate to find her lamb. I made out the registration paperwork for another 9 lambs today, then realized that we decided to register a ram and ewe out of one of the ewes. I did not write down which numbers went to which!
Have to catch at least one of those little stinkers who are now out in the larger pen.

DS1 and DH planning to start loading the rest of the furniture and boxes in the trailer tomorrow. Rika will ride with me in the car, and Ozel with Marv since she can get into the truck more easily. We will leave enough room at the back of the trailer for them to sleep at night. I need to finish removing everything from my desk and boxing it up. I wonder if I should just plan to buy a printer/scanner in Texas and leave this one here. When I come back for surgery I'll bring my laptop since most of my business stuff is on it.

 

[Baymule]

Buy a new printer.

 

[Ridgetop]

DS1 came in unhappy after chasing X087 around the field to get her into the barn with her twin ewe lambs born this afternoon. Apparently she had them on the far side of the field. Luckiy not in the gully, but as far away as possible on the to of the ridge. He was carrying the lambs and got halfway when she decided they had been left behind and ran back to the lambing spot. He went back for her and Ozel found the afterbirth. Great! except she thought X087 wanted her placenta back and charged X087. X087 thought Ozel was endangering the lambs and they had a disagreement. Then Skittles (the TWH) decided to get in on the action. Unlike Josie the Mule who loves the sheep Skittles doesn't like them. She charged at X087 AND Ozel and chase them both around the field. After much cussing DS1 finally got the ewe and both lambs into the barn. Why he didn't come and get help I do not know. It must have been the old testosterone poisoning at work.

We still can't decide which ewe had the lamb - P13 or GR43. GR43 had more blood and mess on her rear when I put them in the barn. P13 has a bit of bloody discharge showing at her vulva. Tomorrow DS1 will catch them both and I will check for a lamb inside. Neither is acting down or depressed though and there was no dead lamb or afterbirth on the field.

DS1 held P16 and we held the white lamb to her and it nursed. She didn't kick it away or seem unhappy about it nursing so we will try tomorrow again. It didn't get a full tummy so I will give it a small bottle tonight. Hopefully it will go for the teat tomorrow. We have 3 more days to get it on the teat. Otherwise, I will have to take t with me in a dog crate and bottle feed it on the trip to Texas. At least if it is a bottle lamb for the next 3 days Eliabeth will feed it in the afternoon and evening. Please take the teat!

 

[Ridgetop]

It seems we have a bottle lamb after all. Mama allows her to live in the jug, sleep with the other lamb, and if we hold mama allows her to nurse. Otherwise, she ignores the lamb. She prefers a bottle though, probably because it is easier to get her milk from the bottle. I ran out of goat milk and don't want to thaw anymore so put her on @Baymules formula - 2 c whole milk, 1/2 c full cream, and one egg. I would have added the Tbsp of yogurt but didn't have any so will have to wait. I will have to transport her in the car in a dog crate and feed her on the road. I am going to stop warming the milk since I won't be able to do it on the road. She will have to get used to cool milk. I can take the bottle out of the cooler and let it sit in the car for an hour before feeding. I better look in the barn for a small collar for her and a leash.
OR9 lambed split twins out on the large field today and I saw her from the yard. I got my binoculars to check and thought she had only one lamb but then saw another head or ear move behind the rock. It looked like OR9 was butting them, so I went out there. Each time they tried to stand up she pushed them down while she continued to clean the slime off. Maybe this is how she kept them close to her in a large area while getting them cleaned up before they could stand and nurse. Interesting behavior. I put up one of the extra jugs with 5' panels and moved her and the twins in.

Then I decided to find out once and for all which ewe was the mother of the single lamb. Both GR42 a and P13 want it. Its tummy is full but we can't catch it nursing on either of them. I divided the 5'x10' pen in half and put the lamb in one side away from them both. This evening when we feed it should be hungry and we will see which one it nurses off. The other can go back onto the field.

There are 2 more days before DH and I leave, and 5 days until Bob picks up the ewes. There are 13 left to lamb and at this rate they are hurrying. I have 16 on my list to lamb, but 2 definitely look open. If they are bred, they will probably lamb after they arrive in Texas. They are big, tall ewes and possibly Lewis couldn't get up to them, crippled as he was. So far, his count of lambs this April is 4 ewe lambs and 1 ram lamb which I will keep for a stud ram since he is out of a terrific ewe. 6 more ewes were exposed to him, but 2 are the tall ewes that look open. Still a nice number of daughters and one son. His son, Jr., produced 4 daughters and 2 sons, while Moyboy has 7 daughters and 6 sons. 17 ewes have lambed out of 32 so far. 2 look open, and several look like they have a while togo. The exposure dates stretch lambing into the end of May. Hopefully whoever doesn't lamb before they leave on the 4th will hold out until they arrive in TX.


One ewe whose stomach is almost dragging on the ground looks to have mastitis in one side of her udder. She has a huge half udder with one teat pointing down so her lambs will probably have to be pulled and bottle fed. I can give her a Today and Tomorrow treatment and see if it helps, but the lambs will need to be pulled and she will have to be dried up. If she is one of my best ewes, and if I can clear up the mastitis, she will get bred again, otherwise she will go to the auction.

As soon as we get to Texas, DH and I will have to put up another corral for the young ram lambs to go in. This batch will be less than a week old, but the ones from before (Wes's ewelings and the surprise lambs) will need to be separated pretty soon.

Beginning to load the trailer this afternoon.

 

[murphysranch]

My heart is starting to pound a bit for you. The upcoming trip and the stories...

 

[Baymule]

Lambing in itself will make you crazy. Lambing on the road? I know you will be so worried until they arrive in Texas. Bob May needs to call you when he crosses that Texas line!

 

[SageHill]

Lambing in itself will make you crazy. Lambing on the road? I know you will be so worried until they arrive in Texas. Bob May needs to call you when he crosses that Texas line!

Ha - call ha, she’ll be waiting at the state line!

 

[Baymule]

Ha - call ha, she’ll be waiting at the state line!

That’s what I’m talking about! Yeah!

 

[Ridgetop]

No, I will take a tranquilizer and stay home (Yantis) drinking wine.

The ewes are getting with the program! I checked outside again around 5 pm and nothing. 6:30 DS1 went out to feed and BL14 had a set of split twins out of JR. DS1 came in to get me to go make another jug. DH was able to fit a panel under the overhang on the shed and made two 5 x 5's fit into the space. We decided to wait until the morning when the single lamb with two moms would be hungry to see who she nurses from. Neither one looks pregnant so either they both lambed and something got one lamb (with 3 Anatolians loose in the pasture?) or a false pregnancy on one ewe that burst at the same time the other one lambed or one ewe that really wants to be a mama. We'll see tomorrow, then I will check the other ewe. neither one looks like they have a retained lamb or dead lamb since both are happy, and eating well.

DS1 and I have different counts on how many remain to lamb. I think 13 from counting and deducting the 2 ewes that look open. He thinks more. At the rate of 2 per day, 8 more might lamb before the trip. If they skip the 24 hours of the trip, the last 5 can lamb in Yantis. LOL

I caught DH's cold. Sigh . . . .

 

[Ridgetop]

Definitely have a bottle lamb. The ewe has decided that she doesn't like her pretty little white daughter. She just likes the daughter with the black marks on her head, ears, and feet. Some Katahdin people must have been turning my White Dorpers to the dark side!

DS1 and I went down and checked both GR41 and P13. Both have udders. GR41 has more milk. The lamb when released ran to GR41 to nurse. Against her will, we turned P13 onto the field. She has a tear in her vulva which may have been where the bloody trace came from. If she doesn't lamb she can go with the open ewes to the ram.

Now that she is out of the 5'x10' jug it can be divided into 2 5x5 jugs making room for another lambing ewe.

After a severe coughing bout this morning i took a double dose of cough syrup. Hopefully O recover enough to be able to drive on Thursday. Otherwise, it screws up the plans if I have to drive back with DH. I really need to be able to drive myself. If the motel won't take dogs, DH and I decided that we can sleep in our vehicles at a rest stop. We should be safe enough from anyone trying to get into the vehicles with the Anatolians in the car. I just need to bring some Febreze! Cutting back on what we will be taking in the way of furniture. Decided to wait on DH's recliner, the MBR TV, my exercise machine, and a couple other things since I will be back in July for surgery. Also need to wait to bring ALL the sheep meds back until we have a large refrigerator in the laundry room! Last group of stuff will come back after that allowing DS2 to paint the MBR and get new BR furniture for himself and DDIL2.

Going to lay down and try to WILL this cold away.