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.
2 comments:
Fantastic, thanks for sharing!
...so many sheep jokes, so little time...
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