I had all these fabulous new pictures that I accidentally deleted, so tomorrow, I will have to take more.
This morning I had to pull a lamb whose leg was backwards. Lambs should present with the two front feet and nose first. This one had one foot and the nose and the other foot was back. I tried to stuff the baby back and find the foot, but no luck. The only option was to try to pull the lamb out when the mother was pushing. Fortunately, we did it and the little ram lamb was born. He was weak, but not as weak as his sister, who followed shortly. When there is distress in multiple births, the unborn can be deprived a good oxygen supply and sometimes, they are not quite right. The little ram is pure black and the sister a beautiful deep chocolate moorit. Her front and one back legs are not quite right. This is the first year that there have been any deformities or weaknesses in the sheep or goats. Neither twin was strong enough to nurse, so I milked 8 ounces of colostrum from the mom and bottle fed half to each of them. That perked them up to try to nurse on their own. The male is still very weak but the the ewe lamb, despite her bad legs, is quite spunky. I think her legs will straighten out in time. If they have not improved by tomorrow, I will put her in splints.
Shortly after that birth, Sharon the goat gave birth to triplets, all boys. What is with the males this year. So far, there is on set of female twin lambs and one of the twins born today is female, and only one out of 9 goat kids is female. There are still a lot of goat babies to come. They are all white Angora looking and all have blue eyes at this stage, and beautiful white curls. That was the last of the Icelandic ewes to birth, but the ram busted through the fence when he had bred his ladies, so it will be a wait and see event now to know how the lambs will turn out. Hopefully Walter will have done his share of breeding before the Icelandic ram got in. The Babydolls were bred Babydoll, but it appears only 3 became pregnant and one has lost her lamb. The Jacobs ewe was bred Jacob, but the Jacob ewe lambs were in with the Babydoll ram until the last when the Blue Faced Leicester ram came in for clean up. I cannot wait to see how the Jacob Babydolls will look and their fleece should be amazing.
Tomorrow the Tunis ewe arrives. She is heavy in lamb, so will give birth to one to three babies in a day or two. Tunis are naturally reddish sheep with somewhat fat tails left over from their original breeding and they have moderate wool. Time to snooze....zzzzzz. Tomorrow is another busy day!
This morning I had to pull a lamb whose leg was backwards. Lambs should present with the two front feet and nose first. This one had one foot and the nose and the other foot was back. I tried to stuff the baby back and find the foot, but no luck. The only option was to try to pull the lamb out when the mother was pushing. Fortunately, we did it and the little ram lamb was born. He was weak, but not as weak as his sister, who followed shortly. When there is distress in multiple births, the unborn can be deprived a good oxygen supply and sometimes, they are not quite right. The little ram is pure black and the sister a beautiful deep chocolate moorit. Her front and one back legs are not quite right. This is the first year that there have been any deformities or weaknesses in the sheep or goats. Neither twin was strong enough to nurse, so I milked 8 ounces of colostrum from the mom and bottle fed half to each of them. That perked them up to try to nurse on their own. The male is still very weak but the the ewe lamb, despite her bad legs, is quite spunky. I think her legs will straighten out in time. If they have not improved by tomorrow, I will put her in splints.
Shortly after that birth, Sharon the goat gave birth to triplets, all boys. What is with the males this year. So far, there is on set of female twin lambs and one of the twins born today is female, and only one out of 9 goat kids is female. There are still a lot of goat babies to come. They are all white Angora looking and all have blue eyes at this stage, and beautiful white curls. That was the last of the Icelandic ewes to birth, but the ram busted through the fence when he had bred his ladies, so it will be a wait and see event now to know how the lambs will turn out. Hopefully Walter will have done his share of breeding before the Icelandic ram got in. The Babydolls were bred Babydoll, but it appears only 3 became pregnant and one has lost her lamb. The Jacobs ewe was bred Jacob, but the Jacob ewe lambs were in with the Babydoll ram until the last when the Blue Faced Leicester ram came in for clean up. I cannot wait to see how the Jacob Babydolls will look and their fleece should be amazing.
Tomorrow the Tunis ewe arrives. She is heavy in lamb, so will give birth to one to three babies in a day or two. Tunis are naturally reddish sheep with somewhat fat tails left over from their original breeding and they have moderate wool. Time to snooze....zzzzzz. Tomorrow is another busy day!
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