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Post by Deleted on Apr 22, 2015 13:13:31 GMT
Found first time mother hovering over dead lamb, afterbirth still hanging from her. Lamb had been cleaned, no obvious deformity, one day premature. Female. Skinny. I fed her some orchard grass pellets and milked out about 3/4 cups of colostrum (probably same amount on the ground.) Penned her up with a bale of hay for observation.
Anything else I should do for her? I don't want to root around inside her if she's passing afterbirth naturally. Is it still possible she's carrying a second or does the afterbirth signal the last lamb? I stopped milking because I was tired, not because she was empty. How much longer do I have to get the rest of the colostrum before it goes to regular milk?
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Post by Deleted on Apr 22, 2015 13:24:51 GMT
#178 (aka Eight) is one of my favorites. She has a real nice back end structure, is very friendly. I was thinking of saving a ewe lamb from her and culling my unregistered old girl. Eight did jump a damaged fence early this spring, but I told her I'd forgive her if she gave me a lamb. I'll probably give her another year to show me lambs anyway unless she makes fence jumping a habit.
I'm going to go patrol pasture and make sure the rest of the girls are ok.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 22, 2015 13:32:05 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Apr 22, 2015 13:39:00 GMT
It's too late to vaccinate the remaining flock? You're supposed to start the course at breeding time. www.sheepandgoat.com/articles/Abortion_metabolic.pdfSays 50% of tested stillborn lambs are negative. I can't read too much academic stuff right now. Too depressing to read all the possible causes. |
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Post by Deleted on Apr 22, 2015 15:30:11 GMT
Afterbirth passed. Ewe not happy about isolation, I'll let her out tonight if no further issues seen.
Debating milking her or drying her up. I don't really have the time to add another chore, but it might be handy to maintain her as a possible nurse ewe until we see how the other ladies do.
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Post by mzgarden on Apr 22, 2015 15:44:47 GMT
I have no input other than to say I'm sorry you lost the lamb.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 22, 2015 17:59:11 GMT
Mentor says I should take ewe's temperature. I'm at work now. Will do so tonight.
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Post by bergere on Apr 22, 2015 18:00:15 GMT
Sorry you lost a lamb. Never fun when that happens. Some times you loose some, no matter what is done.
When I was raising Breeding Stock, I used Covexin 8 vaccine, on all my sheep.
If they are all due now, most likely too late for this year, but I would recommend you setting up their vaccines before they are breed next year. Just in case.
Good luck!
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Post by Deleted on Apr 22, 2015 18:43:27 GMT
Being the first one of the year I'm nervous for the whole flock now. Losing one of six is sad but not a disaster, but my other 5 are not yet decided...
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Post by bergere on Apr 22, 2015 19:16:20 GMT
Keeping my fingers crossed for you, the rest of the lamb season goes well!
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Post by Deleted on Apr 22, 2015 20:16:04 GMT
Praying to come home from work to triplets that need a foster mother to help out.  |
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Post by Deleted on Apr 22, 2015 23:21:21 GMT
If it were me, I wouldn't be considering abortion diseases yet. If there is another one from another ewe, I would find out where to send the lamb and the placenta for a necropsy. No telling what happened with is one, could have been that the umbilical was broken before the lambs head got out. That can happen if the lamb comes out back legs first. The breaking of the umbilical signals the lamb to take a breath.
For the milking... I'd just get all you want today and then start trying to dry her up unless you want to continue to milk her. The longer you milk, and the more you milk, the more you will be stimulating milk production. I'm so sorry about the lamb and I'm hoping it was just an isolated incident.
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Post by Bear Foot Farm on Apr 23, 2015 1:07:44 GMT
Don't overthink all this
Lambs sometimes die for no real reason
The odds of grafting another lamb to the ewe are minute.
Dry her off and hope for better results next time
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Post by Deleted on Apr 23, 2015 1:34:14 GMT
Ok, maybe my view of grafting is overly optimistic give the "auntie" we ended up with last year. Came to us not dried off and adopted every lamb that came to her. But that ewe is from an entirely different line than the one that had the stillborn lamb.
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Post by Bear Foot Farm on Apr 24, 2015 1:01:35 GMT
Ok, maybe my view of grafting is overly optimistic give the "auntie" we ended up with last year. Came to us not dried off and adopted every lamb that came to her. But that ewe is from an entirely different line than the one that had the stillborn lamb. A ewe like that is one in a million The only time I've been able to do it successfully is when ewes were lambing at the same time and they still hadn't been cleaned up |
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Post by Deleted on Apr 26, 2015 22:07:37 GMT
I am so sorry you lost a lamb. Sometimes, these things just happen with no rhyme or reason.
Being fairly new to sheep, I have a question: Can you "bump" sheep the way you do goats, to see if there's a straggler still inside?
With your ewe, I would not worry about another lamb, because the afterbirth was there.
Good luck with the rest of your lambing!
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Post by Bear Foot Farm on Apr 27, 2015 12:52:54 GMT
Maybe.
In theory it's possible, but in reality some of the larger sheep may be over 200 lbs so "bumping" requires a lot of muscle, even if they are calm enough to allow it.
Most sheep aren't as accustomed to being handled like milk goats
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Post by Deleted on Apr 27, 2015 13:17:22 GMT
The ewe is being very aggressive this morning towards the ones still pregnant. Head butting with several on the way to pasture. She's always been the pushy one, but this is more so.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 29, 2015 12:42:50 GMT
Eight really seems to be missing her lamb today. She's wandering around the birthing area calling, looking around everywhere for it. I'm gonna catch her and see if she needs milking out tonight.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 29, 2015 15:58:49 GMT
It's hard to see them grieving for sure. But they are so resilient she will be great in no time. When I'm drying ewes up for weaning I dry lot and feed only coarse grass hay and water. No alfalfa, no grain and no lush grass, all of which will keep that milk machine in full swing. Typically, within one week I will see a good reduction in the udder and once I'm sure production has stopped, I'll gradually start them back on a little alfalfa and then start easing them back onto grass. Some folks restrict water too but I'm not comfortable doing that although I'm sure it will dry them up quicker... Another consideration is that the teats have probably formed a plug by now. Milking will open that up and create a pathway for bacteria. My first year weaning, I had no clue AT ALL, lol! I kept the ewes on full feed when I pulled the lambs and oh my gosh?  !!! Those udders got ENORMOUS. My poor sheep. Thankfully, I didn't wreck any udders and they all went on to raise more lambs with no udder problems. I tend to "overserve" my sheep anyway when feeding is called for so it was pure dumb luck that I didn't do any permanent damage. |
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Post by Deleted on Apr 29, 2015 20:29:37 GMT
Her bag doesn't look very big, it's probably not an excess milk problem. She may just be smelling the other babies and getting confused.
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!!! Those udders got ENORMOUS. My poor sheep. Thankfully, I didn't wreck any udders and they all went on to raise more lambs with no udder problems. I tend to "overserve" my sheep anyway when feeding is called for so it was pure dumb luck that I didn't do any permanent damage.