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Wendy Beer

LambMetrics – 20th August 2020

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#LAMBMETRICS for the day

Drysdale & English Leicester Flocks

Born today: 4
Total Lambs Born: 69
Drysdale lambs (live total): 33
English Leicester lambs (live total): 23
English Leicester X lambs (live total): 8
Total Sets of Twins born: 22
Total Sets of Triplets born: 1
Total ewe lambs: 37
Total ram lambs: 32
Ewes lambed /76: 45  (59.2 %)
Lamb % : 142 % [live]
Assisted/Dystocias: 7
Losses: 5 [lamb]; 0 [ewe]

Notable Midwifery tales:

Hermione and the triplets feeling “entitled” and inviting themselves into the shed..!!

Choices. Every day is full of them. Sometimes we make the right ones and sometimes we don’t. The aim is to try and make more of the former….!

This morning it was Pebbles’ turn to go broody. She’s the daughter of a silver English Leicester ewe and her twin is silver also. Pebbles, however, is only heterozygote for the black genes (ie. she carries the gene but only has the one so doesn’t express the colour). This year she was mated to the silver ram so…. fingers crossed…. 50/50 chance!

So, she made her “nest” area and I was keeping an eye on her for when she’d pop out some nice black ELs for me. 😀 Did the chores and …. still no lambs. Then comes the pondering. I wonder how long she’s been “on the go”? Should I intervene? Should I just leave her? Do I just want to intervene to get it all over and done with. Maybe she isn’t ready. Maybe the lambs aren’t presented right.

I weigh things up and decide to investigate. She’s a very quiet ewe but she wasn’t overly impressed with being tipped on her side so I could glove up and do an examination! With glove on I quickly ascertain that there is a head in basically the right position but… legs…?!?! Black nose…. But I am at the wrong angle for manipulation and extraction and I’m using my left hand to keep the ewe prone so it’s time to Call the (Assistant) Midwife.

Turns out that the first lamb had the head in the right place, one front leg neatly folded and the other front leg right back. Silly boy! Thankfully, Pebbles is pretty “roomy” so I can coax the shoulders out and get that lad out before he is too distressed.

She scanned as carrying twins so no mucking about – often the one stuck behind gets stressed when there is a traffic jam. In goes the gloved hand again and finds feet, no head, pull and…. this one is fully breech (back feet first). Good thing it didn’t get stuck around the ribs and then she has twins in front of her to distract her from the indignity of being assisted.

Both lambs doing well. In the shed and Pebbles is smirking at me for missing the 5-second perfect photo opportunity she offered me. Oh well, will just have to make do!!

Can you pick which lamb received antibiotics today? Someone has a touch of pneumonia.
Minty’s lamb is growing…. (so are the horns!)
Oh hai, Minty! *mwah*

LambMetrics – 19th August 2020

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#LAMBMETRICS for the day

Drysdale & English Leicester Flocks

Born today: 5
Total Lambs Born: 65
Drysdale lambs (live total): 33
English Leicester lambs (live total): 20
English Leicester X lambs (live total): 8
Total Sets of Twins born: 20
Total Sets of Triplets born: 1
Total ewe lambs: 34
Total ram lambs: 31
Ewes lambed /76: 43  (56.7 %)
Lamb % : 142 % [live]
Assisted/Dystocias: 6
Losses: 4 [lamb]; 0 [ewe]

Notable Midwifery tales:

Well, we’ve had the ups and downs today.

Day started well with Panda, our superfine, coloured merino ewe, presenting us with her twins. 🙂 The greyer one is a boy. Both have frosty ears and were sired by the silver English Leicester ram, Sterling. Hopefully they will both have wonderful fleeces to spin!

Then on the morning walk around one of the Twins paddocks (Merino and Castledale ewes) there was this little lad…. Loud voice to no effect. Everyone seemed to have twins or not interested. There was a ewe that looked like she had twins very similar to him so I decided not to muck about and just presume he was a triplet or an unwanted twin and brought him home to join the tribe. Out there with the ewes I reckoned he had a greater than 50% chance of being dead tomorrow.

And yes, he’s wearing the XS size coat. LOL

The other Twins paddock revealed a Merino ewe who had delivered a dead lamb and was possibly in trouble. So, spent a fair bit of time extracting her next lamb which was tough going as her cervix wasn’t dilated properly. No idea how she managed to get the other one out!
As is often the case in a traumatic birth situation the ewe didn’t want to hang about after the lamb was presented to her. She jumped up, over the top of the lamb and I had to wrestle her down again. Usually when they have “calm” time they start to register the lamb in front of them and then the hormones settle and they are okay. I left them as she was starting to lick the lamb a bit.

When I went to check on them about 3/4 hour later I was dismayed to find the ewe disinterested and the lamb very very flat – it had been up and talking to its mother when I left.
As a result, I gave up on the ewe and scooped up the cold lamb. The weather wasn’t super bad but the lamb was in a bad way. It then went into a warm water bath and then towels and a box in front of the heater. It was very dull. 🙁 It was warming up but I was really concerned it wasn’t acting “normal”. It only lasted an hour or so and then it passed quietly away. 🙁 The only explanation I can think of is that the mother had stood on its belly when she jumped around and there had been internal bleeding which had brought on shock, which precipitated the rapid hypothermia and then the lack of response.
Sometimes we win but unfortunately, sometimes we lose.

The death of the merino lamb cast a bit of a pall over the afternoon but there were two new Drysdale lambs this evening to cheer us up. Very sturdy with attentive young mothers.

And let’s finish up with a more cheerful picture of the English Leicester ewe lamb born yesterday. 🙂 She certainly likes posing!

LambMetrics – 18th August 2020

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#LAMBMETRICS for the day

Drysdale & English Leicester Flocks

Born today: 3
Total Lambs Born: 60
Drysdale lambs (live total): 31
English Leicester lambs (live total): 20
English Leicester X lambs (live total): 5
Total Sets of Twins born: 19
Total Sets of Triplets born: 1
Total ewe lambs: 31
Total ram lambs: 29
Ewes lambed /76: 39  (51.3 %)
Lamb % : 143 % [live]
Assisted/Dystocias: 6
Losses: 4 [lamb]; 0 [ewe]

Notable Midwifery tales:

Just the three lambs born today.

A set of twins out of a young Drysdale ewe (sired by Gilbert). Very quiet ewe for first time around – except with the dogs! She was going to try and pound the dogs into pulp. LOL But she was willing to follow us and the lambs up to the shed. 🙂 Lambs were a ram and a ewe.

And then there was a nice ewe lamb sired by the new English Leicester stud ram.

Finally over 50% of ewes lambed now! Quite a few very large ladies so hopefully they will get it over and done with quickly!

Bibbi & Clay

LambMetrics – 17th August 2020

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#LAMBMETRICS for the day

Drysdale & English Leicester Flocks

Born today: 3
Total Lambs Born: 57
Drysdale lambs (live total): 29
English Leicester lambs (live total): 19
English Leicester X lambs (live total): 5
Total Sets of Twins born: 18
Total Sets of Triplets born: 1
Total ewe lambs: 29
Total ram lambs: 28
Ewes lambed /76: 37  (48.6 %)
Lamb % : 143 % [live]
Assisted/Dystocias: 6
Losses: 4 [lamb]; 0 [ewe]

Notable Midwifery tales:

Beautiful day today, and thankfully a couple of the ewes took advantage – instead of waiting for the rain tomorrow. Haha.

The day started with a set of little Drysdale twins. They seemed perhaps a little bit early so they ended up in the shed to make sure they mothered up properly.

Mid-morning brought on some groaning and histrionics that could only be attributed to an English Leicester.

The exchange* went something like this:

“GROOOAAAAAANNNNNNN”  paw at ground vigorously

“Hi, are you after some help today?”

“Oh, no thanks. All good.”

“Okaaaayyyyy.” 

“GROOOAAAAANNNNNN  BLEEEEUURRRGGGHHHH”

“I’m sure you can do it. You’re doing great. I can see the nose when you do that.”

“GROOOOAAAAANNNNNNN  AARRRGGGGGHHHH“

“Are you sure you don’t want a hand? I can help get that lamby out in a jiffy”  *takes one step*

“NOOOOOOOOOOO!”

“Okay.” eyebrow lift

“AAARRGRGGHHHHHH  GROOOOOAAAAANNNNNN BLLEEERURUUUUGGGGH”

“Um, you’re doing really well but the lamby looks like it may have been waiting to leave for a bit long. Could be stressed. Why don’t I help you?”

“NOOOOOO!   ARRRGGGGHHH”

*shepherds crook employed*

“NOOOOOOO. URRRRRRGGGHHHHH. GO. AWAY. “

“I think you’d better lie down for this one.”

“LET ME UPPPPPP! AAAARRGGGHHHH”

“Oof. This one’s a biggie.”

“OOOWWWWWW. GROOOOAAAAANNNN”

“Head’s out. Now let’s get the rest.”

slop

“There we go. What a big chunk. Good girl. Time for some kisses!”

Ewe jumps up and walks off

“Oi! Bubby is here!”

“BAAAAABBBBYYY!   WHERE IS MY BAAAAAABY????”

“Why don’t we put him on this nice bit of grass instead of in the dirt.”

“I CAN’T SEE MY BAAAAAABY!!!!”

facepalm

follow the ewe doing a circuit of the paddock corner

“Look here he is – learning how to breathe.”

“MY BABY!”

“Well done.”

* some “artistic license” here…!

LambMetrics – 16th August 2020

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#LAMBMETRICS for the day

Drysdale & English Leicester Flocks

Born today: 0
Total Lambs Born: 54
Drysdale lambs (live total): 27
English Leicester lambs (live total): 18
English Leicester X lambs (live total): 5
Total Sets of Twins born: 17
Total Sets of Triplets born: 1
Total ewe lambs: 28
Total ram lambs: 26
Ewes lambed /76: 35  (46.0 %)
Lamb % : 143 % [live]
Assisted/Dystocias: 5
Losses: 4 [lamb]; 0 [ewe]

Notable Midwifery tales:

No lambs born today! Slackers….. 😉

Aunty P seems to be “back on track” again, the merino ewe seems a bit brighter and I made the decision to hand-raise the ram lamb unwanted by his mother. (The day in a nutshell. LOL)

And I forgot to take more photos this evening when I was putting out some hay. I remembered when it was half dark but thankfully I took one this morning of the young lad who is newly on the bottle. A day old and he is bigger than Bibbi and Bobbi who are a week old. Haha

He’s taking to the bottle nicely.

Supposed to rain again tomorrow so no doubt there will be lambs born then. 😉

LambMetrics – 15th August 2020

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#LAMBMETRICS for the day

Drysdale & English Leicester Flocks

Born today: 4
Total Lambs Born: 54
Drysdale lambs (live total): 27
English Leicester lambs (live total): 18
English Leicester X lambs (live total): 5
Total Sets of Twins born: 17
Total Sets of Triplets born: 1
Total ewe lambs: 28
Total ram lambs: 27
Ewes lambed /76: 35  (46.0 %)
Lamb % : 143 % [live]
Assisted/Dystocias: 5
Losses: 4 [lamb]; 0 [ewe]

Notable Midwifery tales:

Today started off with drama as we discovered Aunty P (the ewe who had prolapsed last week) was lying flat and not in a good way. All other chores were dropped while we spent time getting her back on her feet.

This was followed by finding a merino ewe in a poorly condition after lambing twins. She couldn’t get up, the foxes killed her twins and she’s very sick and miserable. A trip on the little grey Fergie tractor and she safe in the shed but I’m not entirely sure what her malady is and as a result have just thrown “everything” at it and am hoping something works. She may not survive the night. 🙁

Of course there was a trifecta…..

After dealing with those two dramas I got back to checking a set of twin English Leicesters born last night. And discovered two big, healthy looking lambs but the mother only wants the ewe lamb. So, into a pen with her with the lambs and employed a few tricks which seem to have helped a bit but she’s Jekyl/Hyde with the ram lamb.
I put Hermione in next to her as a demonstration of how to count past ONE. Not sure if it is working though! She’s not killing him (yet) but at least he’s had some colostrum. Will reassess in the morning.

Meanwhile: wildlife! (Our resident echidna that hangs about the hay and feed sheds)

Echidna

Finally received the ear tags for the lambs so I spent a while this afternoon catching a few random lambs and tagging them. So at least I got to cuddle lambs in the sunshine which was a nice change from the morning!
Unfortunately, I forgot to take pictures … so here’s a pic of Bibbi & Bobbi to tide you over until tomorrow. 🙂

Bobbi & Bibbi