Tuesday, March 30, 2010

New Lambs!

We have a number of ewes who look like any minute they will go in to labor, but they've looked that way for three days! Nate was up every two hours last night to check on our Jacobs ewe. She was larger than we had ever seen her and had twinned the past two years. She waited until I had gone to work to go into labor.. Nate was on the phone to me a number of times this morning with concerns over time, presentation, etc. Well, Jacobs did well. She gave us twins, a ram and an ewe. These babies are 1/2 Jacobs, 1/4 shetland, 1/4 suffolk, so we knew they would be bigger than our pure shetlands. Well, they were. 10 lbs. 6 ounces, and 11 pounds! Big, vigorous babies.

As Nate was finishing up with Jacobs, he noticed that Sugar was going into labor. Sugar is the twin to Plum who lambed on Saturday. The labor went well, but the lamb was unable to stand. She is strong enough to nurse well if held up, and has a good sucking reflex, but is still unable to stand. She weighed in at 5lbs. 5 ounces, with no visible deformities. So far we have treated her with nutridrench, BoSe, and vitamin B. Any other ideas? I plan on giving her assistance to nurse a few times tonight, and just give her some time. She tries to stand, but can't. She does have movement of all her legs and tail. Time will tell.
Kizzy and Scar look to be next, but I'm not placing any bets!
Sugar's ewe lamb.

Jacob's ram lamb, 10 lbs. 6 ounces pounds! (somehow the ewe lamb picture didn't load, I'll try again tomorrow.

2 comments:

Chelsi said...

The lambs are so cute! Lily was pointing at them and trying to sing to them while I read your post!

Sabrina Wille Erickson said...

You could also try giving the lamb Vitamin E. The people version in the little clear "bubbles" are what I use. You can buy them at the grocery store.

When I was going through out Selenium problems, that is what quite a few shepherds recommended. Se and Vit E are very inter-related and affect each other quite a bit.

Good luck...she is so precious.
And that Jacobs boy is so impressive! :)