Thursday, March 24, 2022

The lambing season from purgatory continues

I would call this the lambing season from hell but for the three beautiful ewe lambs on the ground. Still, the losses and trauma to get them and keep them surely qualifies as purgatory, if I believed in such a place. (I don't believe in a place called hell, either, but that's a Bible study for another time.)

As I mentioned in my last post, Bernadette was giving me subtle signs (the ones Rick missed on Bette) that she was close to lambing. I installed her in a lambing 'jug' (pen) set up within the Sheep Sheraton, and checked on her periodically throughout Tuesday and Tuesday night. When I went down to do chores and check on her Wednesday morning, her tail was messy, but still no sign of labor. Uh-oh. I grabbed a rubber glove and some lube and discovered . . . ring womb. I couldn't get in more than two or three fingers, nor could I feel any lamb parts. Rick had already left, but he came right home at my call to do an emergency c-section, the first in my flock.



With the way things have been going, I kept my hopes on saving the ewe. When Rick pulled out a stressed but living lamb, my heart jumped. It was hard seeing it wet and cold on the concrete floor of the barn, but Rick had to get the ewe closed up and I had to hold her steady for him, so I could only pray. When I was finally free to pick it up and towel it off some, I could hardly believe my eyes; we had been blessed with yet another ewe lamb, the splashiest one yet!


Rick told me to run up the house and grab a by-now very hungry Bling so we could try to graft her onto a ewe with milk. In the meantime, he milked some colostrum out of Bernadette and tube-fed her lamb to give it a boost. We tried to get Bling onto a teat, but having never nursed, she couldn't figure out what we were doing to her, so she got a bottle. Then into the lambing jug they all went, with me as nurse to watch over all the 'patients.'
Half-sisters Broadway and Bling (yes, newborn Broadway is actually a bit bigger)




Rick had given Bernie a small dose of oxytocin to encourage mothering and milk let-down, with instructions on giving her more if needed. But she started pawing, and then lay down and started PUSHING. Rick called about then and said not to give her more oxytocin (I hadn't); hopefully the ring womb would keep her from pushing out her uterus. After watching her strain awhile, I saw something protruding and called Rick in a panic: "She's pushing her uterus out!" He told me to put my hand against it to keep her from expelling it, but when I did, the mass was HARD. What the ? ? ? "I think it's a LAMB! I thought you said there was only ONE!!!" He told me to pull it out, and I helped Bernadette deliver a very strange, dead fetus, encapsulated in a tight sack, all folded up into the size of a very large sweet potato. Apparently that was in the birth canal, the size and shape of which would not be conducive to dilating her cervix.

The good news is that Bernie doesn't seem to be antagonistic to either lamb; the bad news is that she seems to have no mothering instinct towards either lamb and is definitely against to the idea of either of them nursing off of her. So every three hours Bling gets a bottle and I restrain Bernie so her daughter Broadway (I needed another "flashy" name and her dam is named after stage star Bernadette Peters) can nurse. It's hard because Bling is so clearly bonded to me and wants to follow me out of the pen, but having a sister and learning to be a sheep is essential to her future. And when she's not missing me, she's starting to play lamb games!

I was hoping to leave a less complicated job to my angelic friends who are holding down the fort for us while we are gone, but it is not to be. The other good news is that Bridget looks nowhere close to lambing; please don't let those be 'famous last words' 😳

Sleep-deprived and exhausted at . . .

13 comments:

MiniKat said...

Good heavens what a roller coaster you've been on, my friend. Many hugs to you.

Leigh said...

Heartaches and blessing all rolled up into one. What a season you're having. Praying Bridget's goes without a hitch. Do take care of yourself, Michelle!

wyomingheart said...

Please take care of yourself, and rest when you can!

Mama Pea said...

You can see we're all sending all the strength we can your way. Yes, do take care of yourself, Michelle. This, too, will pass.

thecrazysheeplady said...

Good heavens!

marlane said...

The lambs are so precious, and I am presuming that you will be keeping them.
Wow what another amazing experience !!

Retired Knitter said...

OK - the craziness needs to stop now ... before it kills you guys!! Yikes. But golly, those lambs are just beautiful.

Fat Dormouse said...


Oh gosh, it has been a rollercoaster. I pray that all will go well in the future for the sheep, lambs, but most of all, for you and your family.

The lambies look so sweet! But it must be difficult losing some too.

Mokihana said...

Those lambs are so stinkin' cute I only wish that their arrivals had been easier on you after all that you've been through. Please take gentle care of yourself!

Susan said...

Good grief, Michelle! What a roller coaster! Those are the cutest lambs ever, but what an ordeal. I hope the rest of the lambing season is boring as all get-out! xoxo

Jeanne said...

Michelle, I'm so sorry for all the upheaval, etc. Sorry too, for not being able to write sooner. I was gone for a few days to be with family, and just got home this afternoon.

I hope Bernie is doing better now and that all is going well. It's so sad that you have lost those lambs. Your heart must be breaking. Broadway and Bling are both so cute!

I hope Blaise is doing well.

Michelle said...

Hi everyone. Please forgive me for writing one response to all your lovely, empathic, encouraging comments; I so appreciate them! I will write a catch-up post as soon as I can manage, but we returned from TX and had to get back to jobs and feeding lambs every 3-4 hours so I'm still stretched thin. The roller-coaster continues....

Diane said...

A roller-coaster it is! We just finished lambing and this is the first year that we haven't had any problems, thank goodness! The past three years we have had one c-section each year. I think the more sheep you have or the more you breed you encounter this. Prior to you speaking of it, I hadn't heard of anyone else talking about c-sections, I thought it was only me!
Hope everything gets better for you soon.
Take care,