- Thread starter
- #11
Well I am overdue for an update!!
Back in mid January, Ciqala was having a hard time standing up. She was thin, and she was being knocked over easily...and once knocked over, she couldn't stand herself up. Not sure what was going on with her, my dad was convinced she was going to die. I wasn't. I had noticed she had stopped eating hay with the rest of the flock (but she would eat other things I would bring out to her). So off to the feed store to get shredded beet pulp and alfalfa pellets. She was kept penned up and I was feeding her lots of alfalfa pellets and some beet pulp. It took her a few days to eat the beet pulp with enthusiasm like she did the alfalfa pellets. It helped I mixed some ground corn in there, lol.
We also had the huge snow storm the end of January, altogether we had around 33 or 36" of snow...and because we live on a hill with no windbreaks, we had snow drifts upwards of 8' (covering one entire side of the barn wall).
Fast forward to the beginning of February...on the 4th, what a surprise! Our first lamb of the year! A little ewe lamb. It was wandering around the barn. I couldn't tell who it belonged to. My dad and I penned everyone up and I looked at everyone's butts to TRY to find the slightest amount of evidence that someone had given birth to this little baby. Not one! Then the lamb crawled through the gate into Ciqala's pen and I was like "Dad, I think I know who had the baby!" "Who?" "Ciqala--there's a placenta in here" -- What a little miracle baby! Two weeks ago this ewe could barely stand on her own and now she delivered a little ewe lamb.
Unfortunately the next morning I found the baby behind the mattress frame aka giant pallet in Ciqala's pen (it was leaned up against the wall because her pen was the hay storage and I leaned it up against the wall to get it out of the way so she would have more room and left the hay in the garage). Her head was wedged between two pieces of wood and her body was kind of on the outside. My guess is she got stuck overnight (between 11 pm and 8 am) and she couldn't get out, couldn't eat, and got cold and passed away.
However, less than a week later, Feb 11, Katy Perry had a BIG 13.5 lb ram lamb! Such an ugly little guy. He was cold, so he was the very first lamb I had ever put a sweater on, lol. So he's doing well.
Then a couple days later, I noticed Rosie was looking really big. I was getting excited, I thought maybe she had triplets! Another day or two passed and I noticed that her left side was really distended and her right side didn't even look like she was pregnant. Unfortunately with a little research I found that my poor girl (the first lamb born at my house after years of living at the neighbor's) had a ruptured prepubic tendon (more common in horses and cows than with sheep). Pretty much everything I found said they would need help during labor and the ewe and lamb would die during birth and if not then about a week later.
Well on Feb 19, I went out to feed about two hours earlier than what I normally do, and I'm glad I did! Everyone came up to eat but her. I found her laying flat on her side, I thought she was dead. I nudged her up to get her to an upright position and I looked behind her and there was a dead ram lamb. And there was also another lamb coming! So because I had read that the contractions wouldn't be strong due to the displacement of the uterus, I figured I would go ahead and pull this lamb. And she was alive! Rosie would bleat and lick her, but only when she was in front of her. However this little lamb was a little explorer and wanted to walk everywhere to try to find mom, even though she was right there. I let Rosie sit for a little bit to see if she had anymore coming and then I stood her up eventually so the baby could nurse. I couldn't get any milk out of Rosie's udder. Her left half was the size of a cantaloupe (likely due to the ruptured tendon) and the other half was the size of a softball. Both were not easy to get to, I even had trouble finding the teats so I had to flip her on her rear. And I just wanted Rosie to rest so I ended up making the little ewe lamb a bottle baby. She's been living in the house in a dog cage and she is so adorable. Spitting image of Rosie as a baby. She's not even a week old yet and she is so thick and muscular, even for a bottle baby.
February 22nd, Bella lambed sometime in the morning. When I went out around 2 pm, Lady Gaga was lambing. Bella had twin lambs, one ewe one ram. They were both cleaned off, but only the ewe lamb looked fed. That said, when I penned Bella and her babies up to keep them separated from Lady Gaga, Bella started attacking her babies. Since I had to work within an hour or two, I didn't have time to try to make this momma accept her babies, especially since Lady Gaga delivered twin ram lambs that she wanted nothing to do with, and one couldn't walk. I ran over to Sheepman Supply and grabbed some colostrum replacer and a bag of milk replacer. I had some left over from Rosie's ewe lamb from a few days prior, but it was definitely not enough for four newborn lambs! I also stopped at Walmart and bought a dog playpen for $60. Definitely a great investment as they can be in the garage with straw -- with lambs inside the dog cage in the house, I have to change the towels out 2-3x a day because they get messy quick. So the three newborn lambs who are normal are in the garage, and the handicapped lamb went in the dog cage with Rosie's lamb. He never could stand by himself until he was 18-20 hours old. He mainly stayed splayed out and he couldn't stand up. Another couple of hours later, he had the strength to walk a few steps. Finally today he can walk on the hardwood floors without falling. Maybe in a couple days both indoor lambs will move outside with the three garage lambs. Ultimately I was surprised about Bella not wanting her babies as she was a fantastic, protective mother last year. I'm not sure why she changed her mind about motherhood. And Lady Gaga, I'm not surprised. She's a terrible mother. Honestly I don't know why I keep her around lol. Five lambs and she's raised none of them. Three of them have been bottle lambs and two were raised by her sister, who also lambed on the same day as her last year.
Feb 23 - Phoibe had a ram lamb.
Feb 24 - Elektra had a ewe lamb.
Both Phoibe and Elektra lambed within a few days of each other last year, as well.
So far, the count is 10 lambs from 7 ewes, 8 alive. 4 ewes, 6 rams. 3 living ewes, 5 living rams. 10 more ewes to go!
Back in mid January, Ciqala was having a hard time standing up. She was thin, and she was being knocked over easily...and once knocked over, she couldn't stand herself up. Not sure what was going on with her, my dad was convinced she was going to die. I wasn't. I had noticed she had stopped eating hay with the rest of the flock (but she would eat other things I would bring out to her). So off to the feed store to get shredded beet pulp and alfalfa pellets. She was kept penned up and I was feeding her lots of alfalfa pellets and some beet pulp. It took her a few days to eat the beet pulp with enthusiasm like she did the alfalfa pellets. It helped I mixed some ground corn in there, lol.
We also had the huge snow storm the end of January, altogether we had around 33 or 36" of snow...and because we live on a hill with no windbreaks, we had snow drifts upwards of 8' (covering one entire side of the barn wall).
Fast forward to the beginning of February...on the 4th, what a surprise! Our first lamb of the year! A little ewe lamb. It was wandering around the barn. I couldn't tell who it belonged to. My dad and I penned everyone up and I looked at everyone's butts to TRY to find the slightest amount of evidence that someone had given birth to this little baby. Not one! Then the lamb crawled through the gate into Ciqala's pen and I was like "Dad, I think I know who had the baby!" "Who?" "Ciqala--there's a placenta in here" -- What a little miracle baby! Two weeks ago this ewe could barely stand on her own and now she delivered a little ewe lamb.
Unfortunately the next morning I found the baby behind the mattress frame aka giant pallet in Ciqala's pen (it was leaned up against the wall because her pen was the hay storage and I leaned it up against the wall to get it out of the way so she would have more room and left the hay in the garage). Her head was wedged between two pieces of wood and her body was kind of on the outside. My guess is she got stuck overnight (between 11 pm and 8 am) and she couldn't get out, couldn't eat, and got cold and passed away.
However, less than a week later, Feb 11, Katy Perry had a BIG 13.5 lb ram lamb! Such an ugly little guy. He was cold, so he was the very first lamb I had ever put a sweater on, lol. So he's doing well.
Then a couple days later, I noticed Rosie was looking really big. I was getting excited, I thought maybe she had triplets! Another day or two passed and I noticed that her left side was really distended and her right side didn't even look like she was pregnant. Unfortunately with a little research I found that my poor girl (the first lamb born at my house after years of living at the neighbor's) had a ruptured prepubic tendon (more common in horses and cows than with sheep). Pretty much everything I found said they would need help during labor and the ewe and lamb would die during birth and if not then about a week later.
Well on Feb 19, I went out to feed about two hours earlier than what I normally do, and I'm glad I did! Everyone came up to eat but her. I found her laying flat on her side, I thought she was dead. I nudged her up to get her to an upright position and I looked behind her and there was a dead ram lamb. And there was also another lamb coming! So because I had read that the contractions wouldn't be strong due to the displacement of the uterus, I figured I would go ahead and pull this lamb. And she was alive! Rosie would bleat and lick her, but only when she was in front of her. However this little lamb was a little explorer and wanted to walk everywhere to try to find mom, even though she was right there. I let Rosie sit for a little bit to see if she had anymore coming and then I stood her up eventually so the baby could nurse. I couldn't get any milk out of Rosie's udder. Her left half was the size of a cantaloupe (likely due to the ruptured tendon) and the other half was the size of a softball. Both were not easy to get to, I even had trouble finding the teats so I had to flip her on her rear. And I just wanted Rosie to rest so I ended up making the little ewe lamb a bottle baby. She's been living in the house in a dog cage and she is so adorable. Spitting image of Rosie as a baby. She's not even a week old yet and she is so thick and muscular, even for a bottle baby.
February 22nd, Bella lambed sometime in the morning. When I went out around 2 pm, Lady Gaga was lambing. Bella had twin lambs, one ewe one ram. They were both cleaned off, but only the ewe lamb looked fed. That said, when I penned Bella and her babies up to keep them separated from Lady Gaga, Bella started attacking her babies. Since I had to work within an hour or two, I didn't have time to try to make this momma accept her babies, especially since Lady Gaga delivered twin ram lambs that she wanted nothing to do with, and one couldn't walk. I ran over to Sheepman Supply and grabbed some colostrum replacer and a bag of milk replacer. I had some left over from Rosie's ewe lamb from a few days prior, but it was definitely not enough for four newborn lambs! I also stopped at Walmart and bought a dog playpen for $60. Definitely a great investment as they can be in the garage with straw -- with lambs inside the dog cage in the house, I have to change the towels out 2-3x a day because they get messy quick. So the three newborn lambs who are normal are in the garage, and the handicapped lamb went in the dog cage with Rosie's lamb. He never could stand by himself until he was 18-20 hours old. He mainly stayed splayed out and he couldn't stand up. Another couple of hours later, he had the strength to walk a few steps. Finally today he can walk on the hardwood floors without falling. Maybe in a couple days both indoor lambs will move outside with the three garage lambs. Ultimately I was surprised about Bella not wanting her babies as she was a fantastic, protective mother last year. I'm not sure why she changed her mind about motherhood. And Lady Gaga, I'm not surprised. She's a terrible mother. Honestly I don't know why I keep her around lol. Five lambs and she's raised none of them. Three of them have been bottle lambs and two were raised by her sister, who also lambed on the same day as her last year.
Feb 23 - Phoibe had a ram lamb.
Feb 24 - Elektra had a ewe lamb.
Both Phoibe and Elektra lambed within a few days of each other last year, as well.
So far, the count is 10 lambs from 7 ewes, 8 alive. 4 ewes, 6 rams. 3 living ewes, 5 living rams. 10 more ewes to go!
