Thursday Threesomes

The final two ewes had their lambs on Thursday (Mar 24): Bunny had her twins, Morgana and Morgause. Winnifred had her ewe lamb just a few hours later, Lady Larkin.



Morgause came first, out in the pasture. Lorraine was getting ready to do some things around the house when she decided she had better check on Bunny and Fred. She found Morgause had already been born, and Big Mac the llama was there licking her off. Big Mac was enamored with her.



Lorraine found Bunny struggling with Morgana and had to help her along. Good thing Lorraine decided to check as Bunny was having difficulty with the last one.



Lorraine decided to bring in the rest of the flock. Not long after, Winnifred delivered her ewe lamb, Lady Larkin.



All lambs are doing well, as well as the moms. Morgana was having difficulty standing up, but once she was set on her pins she latches on just fine. Unfortunately, Lorraine had to check on her every few hours into this morning. The good news is that as of this morning, when Lorraine went out to check on her at 6:30 AM, Morgana was already on her feet and had a full belly. This is a big relief as Lorraine was not looking forward to having to check on her through the day and possibly the weekend.



So the grand total of lambs for this season is four: Shamus the ram lamb, Morgana and Morgause, the twins, and Lady Larkin. Unfortunately, the first lamb wasn't viable and died on the second day. Mom ewe had no milk to give and the lamb just couldn't keep up, even with the tube feeding. It was sad, but it happens.





Shamus is doing very well and is learning to run around and jump.

More updates later.

Erin Go Shamus - It's a Boy!

Another lamb, this time a ram, popped out. This time on St Paddy's day. Lorraine came up with a name, Paddy. I suggested Shamus. His father is named Roderick, so Shamus from Roderick sounded good.



Unlike the last lamb, he was up immediately and eager to find mom for food. After Lorraine showed him where to go for that, he latched on and has been fine ever since.



I think Lorraine is relieved that she won't have to bottle feed.




Two more ewe's to go, probably early next week.

It's Spring Lambing Time!

Yesterday (Sunday, March 13, 2011) marked the first day of Spring Lambs at our home. Lorraine has bred four ewes for this season, all are due during the next few weeks. The first one to lamb was the one we thought would be last, as her udder was pretty small.



We were checking out the indoor security cameras we set up last week as we knew we had a ewe who was close to labor, but couldn't get the cameras to sync up right. So we went out to the barn to check on them. As soon as we got out there we realized that one of her ewes, Emily, was in labor and was about to give birth. So we ended up watching the whole process from beginning to end. Three minutes later out it popped and mom was immediately cleaning her up.



Unfortunately, the small udder has produced a problem: mom ewe can't nurse her baby. This means we now have a bottle baby lamb to nurture along. The poor thing was shivering due to lack of milk, so Lorraine had to tube feed her. In fact, she tube fed her the rest of the day and this morning. We ended up bringing her inside the house to warm her up, much to the dismay of mother Emily. Sorry, but if you can't feed her, you lose her.

Lorraine took a class last summer at a wool show from a vet who talked about numerous things, one amongst them was tube feeding a lamb. Lorraine said it was the best $40 she ever spent. It went pretty well, and although the lamb doesn't like it (who wouldn't?) she gets her milk pretty easy. Lorraine is trying to get her to suckle more and use a bottle, as it takes two of us to do it.

Lorraine will be taking her to work this afternoon as they have a light schedule at the office.

More updates later, but enjoy this little movie I took of mom Emily cleaning up her baby just minutes after birth.