Lambing Live

Shifts three to five..

Friday March 28, 2014 (2pm-10pm)

A really busy shift for myself and Fraya! We started with the routine chores, feeding round the ewes in both yards, the nursery, the field and new mums and then feeding the orphan lambs x 10!
Earlier in the day two ewes had been treated for twin lamb - a disease that occurs during late gestation when the energy requirement of the ewe exceeds their energy intake as they try and support the babies last growth stages. We needed to keep an eye on these but as the night progressed we had another two ewes go down rapidly - the problem was, the earlier administration of a glucose solution and energy supplement had been recorded using the sheeps' herd/holding number - not the individual identification number so we couldn't tell what had/had not been treated. It was therefore decided to dose these two with glucose and energy supplement anyway!
After this we discovered that a previous lamb had gone rapidly hypothermic and so we needed to intervene and inject a 20% dextrose solution into the lamb (due to rapid lose of glucose, energy and health) at a rate of 10ml/kg body weight (approximately 100ml) - injected directly into the abdominal cavity intra peritoneally (IP Injection). This lamb was then put straight into the hot box in a bid to warm it back up to a safe temperature. (She survived!)
We then found a lamb with watery mouth - a bacterial disease affecting newborns. This lamb had become lethargic, dull, not interested in suckling. We striped the mum of some milk and tube fed the lamb to see if this would encourage the passing of faeces and perk the lamb up. But by the end of our shift the lamb remained lifeless and salivation around the mouth was now present - this poor thing died a few hours later.


Friday April 4, 2014 (2pm-10pm)

There was just one ewe and her lamb in the bonding pens - however this ewe was not supposed to be pregnant! Last years ewe lambs were out grazing when one gave birth!!! Upon further investigation of a fully castrated ram that had been turned out with these ladies, it was discovered that he was only half! castrated - and had therefore managed to produce some cheeky seamen!!! Consequently the 24 ewe lambs have been brought into one of the straw lambing yards and are being monitored for anymore surprise births!!!
We went about our routine checks and feeding and some yard tidying up! Monitoring the second batch of lambing ewes, one showed some mucus discharge but never actually showed any other signs of labour - but as a precaution (due to the length of time from the mucus showing) we decided to bring her into a pen just to make it less stressful for her to begin the proceedings.
Not born on our shift.


Monday April 7, 2014 (6am-2pm)

6 sheep and their offspring in the bonding pens (so the second batch did start to lamb over the weekend) and all seemed to be doing well. 9 orphan lambs in the lamb gang and nothing else showing any signs of giving birth whatsoever! Checked and cleaned all the waters and made sure all beds were clean and dry. Fed round at 9am of all the ewes - inside, straw years, nursery and the field before bottle feeding the orphan lambs. Swept up the yards and cleaned feed troughs out. We helped Neil bed down the Lincoln Red cows and their calves, before replenishing the silage in the straw yards for the expectant ewes. We then bedded these down on fresh straw. Kept up regular monitoring of the ewes but still nothing!
No new lambs on this shift!