Pair-a-Dice Farm

A physically and emotionally draining day

One thing my son Michael hates is a first time mom giving birth to twins. Mainly because the new mom is so jumpy about being a new mom and trying to bond her new little one but then when there are two to deal with, she can be overwhelmed and occassionally will select only one to bond with. That requires us to step in and take the rejected lamb to the house to be bottle fed which is really time consuming between two hours feedings and diaper changings.

Yesterday, was a different story. A first time mom was lambing but the baby was breach and the lamb expired. The head was delivered but the rest was stuck. This was a huge lamb that was now not coming out and decomposing. Michael and I struggled for nearly an hour to get that lamb out of an exhausted, infected and very sore mom. The problem was the shoulders were jammed behind her hip bones. I was able to slide my hands in there while she pushed and we pulled and finally a release. The smell was gagging. We dosed her heavily for infection and minerals and nutrients to help her speed her hopeful recovery. Michael put her in a quiet place to recover in the barn and she will continue to be treated for infection for the next few days. She’s really swollen from the ordeal but standing on her own occassionally. Yes, it’s sad that we lost the lamb but it was more important to save a very young ewe who could give many more lambs in the future.

On a happier note, one of our older ewes had a huge baby girl who easily towers over the lambs born over a month ago. She’s not only tall, she’s solidy heavy for a two day old. The new lamb is tagged #100. Mom is a veteran and trusts us with her lamb unlike the first timers. There was another first time mom who also lambed yesterday but the baby was normal size. The new mom is still skiddish about this lamb especially when the lamb goes to nurse and the mom jumps but they’ll get it together, nature has a way of calming a new mom down.

It was a physically and emotionally draining day yesterday but today when we went to the barn, the ewe was up on her own and eating well. She’s still stay there until she shows signs of wanting to get out with the rest of the flock.

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