SheepGirl's 2012 Lambing Thread

[autumnprairie]

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[Southdown]

Is this for real? Wow, that is cool. How many lambs can sheep actually have? I've heard of triplets, but I thought that was rare.
You must share pictures. Will you need to bottle feed to supplement?

 

[SheepGirl]

Okay...here's the complete, thorough update I promised you guys

So I was starting to think my ewe wasn't bred because she just did not have an udder (and she always udders up real heavy 2-4 weeks before lambing), even though her belly was getting big and round. Well, Friday came, and my neighbor had called my grandparents (who then called my mother) that my ewe had lambed. My mom came and picked me up from school and my cousin had came with her. I was so super anxious, but we had to stop and order a cake at Safeway for my grandmother's 70th/dad's 50th bday mini-party we were going to have the next day while the whole family was up. So I got home and she parked near the barn and there were two white babies, both girls!! (Last time when bred this way she had the exact opposite...two black boys.) So we put her in a pen with the babies and snapped a few pictures and left.

(These pictures are from when I had first gone down)

Then we headed to Harper's Ferry and stayed there for a couple hours, doing touristy stuff.

Afterwards, we stayed home a little while and then I went back down to the barn (some cousins came down a bit later). Well there were two more babies! One was another white girl, though she was stillborn (either that or my ewe didn't clean off the placenta, because she was stiff, like there was some oxygen in her). It was actually pretty cool, though, seeing all the different colors of the umbilical cord (pink, green, yellow, red, purple). But she went in the compost pile. I didn't get a picture of her though because I didn't want my cousins lookin' at me funny haha. The other baby was a black girl, but I knew she wasn't gonna last very long, and my ewe did not want her or want anything to do with her. So I left her down there and she survived the night. My neighbor found her still alive, so he brought her up to my house and she was still kickin', so we tube fed her some milk replacer (my aunt is an RN, so she had fun doing that lol). We had a family reunion/picnic at my great aunt's house and so we took the lamb with us. Before we left though, she was looking pretty good, she was standing and taking a couple steps before she fell down (the day she was born, I never did see her stand up).

As the day progressed, she got worse and she was cold and she was limp as a ragdoll, though her heartbeat was still strong and her breathing was hard and heavy. Around 6:45ish I called the vet to see if she could see her, so we took her to the clinic at 7:30ish. To be honest, if we didn't have family up we would've just let nature take it's course, but because we had a house full of 25 people that all really liked this baby, we took her to the vet. Well Dr. Link said she was already too far gone, and her lungs weren't developed completely, so there was nothing we could really do for her. So she stuck the needle directly into her heart to make it quick and she passed away. And I knew they would've wanted to bury her, so rather than letting Dr. Link take care of the body or putting her in the compost pile, we buried her behind our shed and they made a little funeral out of it.

I never did weigh the two white babies that are still alive, but I did weigh the black girl and she was 5.5 lbs.

But the remaining two babies are doing fantabulous, and my ewe and her 2009 daughter (Ali) are both taking care of the babies. Ali doesn't have any milk (I checked), but thankfully both babies are getting fed by Ciqala (my '06 ewe), even though they do try to nurse Ali. So it's pretty cool they are like tag teaming here taking care of the remaining two babies.

So last night it was so funny. I had docked their tails (below is a before/after set of pictures) and tagged their ears (just the scrapie tag; I didn't bother with the farm tag).

(don't worry--I didn't use the one that was on the ground...it fell out of the bag so I just threw it out, since they cost less than 2 pennies each)

and then they were both sitting in the barn, and the one got up and walked away with it's mommies, but the other one stayed there.

Okay, here's one baby.

Oh, no! We're missing a baby!

Running back to where they last saw it. (Ali's a bit slow.)

Is this everybody? (Even Paulie needed to help them double-check.)

Okay, so this is everybody, so let's go back out to pasture.

I love watching momma sheep reactions when they realize they don't have all their babies in tow

 

[Cornish Heritage]

Congrats on your new babies. Sorry two didn't survive - 4 ewes?! Someone told me that if a ewe has triplets that it is very rare for the triplet to survive as the ewe does not break the bag. Apparently you need to be physically there to help. Anyone know about this? Of the triplets we had here this year it was certainly true. The ewes lambed in the middle of the night & the third lamb was always dead although looked perfect in its bag.

Liz

 

[Southdown]

Sometimes the ewes can really surprise us. I bet you never guessed there were four in there.
Have fun with the new babies.

 

[aggieterpkatie]

Congrats!! Too bad that natural colored one didn't make it (or the other one too). That's great though!

Cornish, we've had triplets before that the mom cleans all three. Could be just a wivess tale about the third never making it I guess.

 

[Southdown]

They look like babydoll lambs. They are babydoll crossed with what other breed? Does momma still have a helper? So cute. I had two cats once that both raised their kittens together and would let the other ones nurse them. It was funny.

 

[SheepGirl]

Congrats on your new babies. Sorry two didn't survive - 4 ewes?! Someone told me that if a ewe has triplets that it is very rare for the triplet to survive as the ewe does not break the bag. Apparently you need to be physically there to help. Anyone know about this? Of the triplets we had here this year it was certainly true. The ewes lambed in the middle of the night & the third lamb was always dead although looked perfect in its bag.

Liz

Yep, four ewes! I would've been sooo happy if they could've all survived because then I would've had a six ewe flock to breed. But four ewes is good enough. I'm debating on whether or not I should sell these two (like I was planning) or keep them to breed. I imagine being inbred and then outcrossing them would result in some really great heterotosis in the lambs.

As for the triplets, we have had two sets of triplets before, and all survived. But one ewe had mastitis so 2 out of 3 of her lambs became bottle babies. But my fourth lamb did look good in the placenta. Such a shame she didn't clean her off.

Sometimes the ewes can really surprise us. I bet you never guessed there were four in there.
Have fun with the new babies.

Nope, most I would've guessed was a big single or a set of twins!

Congrats!! Too bad that natural colored one didn't make it (or the other one too). That's great though!

Cornish, we've had triplets before that the mom cleans all three. Could be just a wivess tale about the third never making it I guess.

Yah. But I'm kinda happy she didn't make it I know that sounds bad, but...it kept up my streak that all my boy sheep are natural coloreds and my girl sheep are all white

They look like babydoll lambs. They are babydoll crossed with what other breed? Does momma still have a helper? So cute. I had two cats once that both raised their kittens together and would let the other ones nurse them. It was funny.

They are Babydoll crosses. The momma sheep is 1/2 Babydoll 1/2 Montadale and she was bred to her 3/4 Babydoll 1/4 Montadale son, so that would make these babies 5/8 Babydoll 3/8 Montadale.

 

[SheepGirl]

Little #0016 has flystrike

I noticed that her tail had fallen off today (she had only been banded 3 or so days ago), and I knew it was wayyy too early for that to have happened. So I caught her, looked at her, and was completely disgusted by all the maggots. I was in panic mode because I knew the maggots were eating her alive and if not treated she would be dead in the next couple days. So I brought her up to my house and picked out all the maggots I could find with tweezers. I cut off the eggs embedded in her wool, too.

Then I sprayed her behind with water and waited until my mom got home so she could help me spray her wound with iodine and then the prozap screwworm spray that was down in the barn. So right now she's in my house in a dog kennel sleeping. I also gave her a shot of Pen G because it is an open wound and all the muscle around her tail has been eaten away. Maggots even got into her vulva. I hope they didn't damage anything in there because if they did, I'm not sure if I could use her for breeding.

I sprayed her sister with the screwworm spray as a preventative. Now they both have blue butts (Well #0016 has more of a green butt thanks to the iodine.) So we'll she how she is tomorrow.

 

[aggieterpkatie]

She should be alright once she's treated. They heal amazingly fast. This is one of the bummers of having a late lambing, isn't it? The temps are so nice but the stupid flies ruin it. I think I'd rather deal with heat lamps and freezing temps. Two years ago one of my ewes lambed in June, because she was supposed to have been bred when I bought her, but she wasn't. I swore no more late lambings!

You may want to give her some antibiotics if her wounds are that bad. Good luck with her!