Boulderneigh

Friday, March 20, 2015

Officially Spring

I know, I already posted today, but I forgot to wish you all a Happy Spring, and the photos were from yesterday, and, well, how could I not post more lamb photos? ;-) But first, some flowers as befits the season (never mind that it's been spring here since early February):

And of course, current lamb photos:

Bree

Brosna

Brosna and Blaise

Marta gets a gold star. She continues to be very "still" with the lambs; she's the only one of the ewes (besides mom Vienna) who has not butted them. I think she will be an excellent mom herself some day.

It would be hard to find a better mom than Vienna, though. This afternoon while riding I could see her laying down in the pasture with her lambs. A couple different times a soaring red-tailed hawk appeared high overhead, and Vienna kept her eyes trained on it. She gets a gold star, too.

So does Sarai.

When Lance and I were done with our ride, Sarai was walking the fence line. I opened the gate and asked if she would like to go back in the fold. Yes, indeed. I watched her for a bit, then headed to the house. A half hour later I went down to check on her, and . . .

Heh; like how I snuck those in on you? ;-)

I could tell Sarai was in active labor, and went to the house to grab some towels and give her a little time. She didn't need much! And it took her twin boys even less time to find their feet and then her teats; they are VIGOROUS!

When I brought the rest of the sheep in tonight, I wasn't quite sure where to put everyone. Annabelle needs her protected corner; I had moved Sarai and twins into the freshly stripped and bedded lambing jug. Vienna's girls started getting pushed around a little too much for my comfort in the confines of the remaining fold space, so I ended up putting Vienna, Bree and Brosna in with Annabelle. Through it all, Vienna was calling to Sarai's boys; she seems convinced that somehow those little brown lambs are hers, too! In fact, she and Sarai argued about that fact through the gate and bashed it open, so I had to chain it shut.

Hopefully that will keep them separated and lambs safe.

Thus Spring begins and lambing concludes at . . .

My bonnie brown lassies

Photos taken yesterday; I left the bottom two over-exposed so it is easier to see the sweet bebbies.

I turned all the ewes out together, and everyone behaved better than expected. The teenagers (yearlings Bali and Blaise) were curious about the lambs, and Bali pushed the babies around a bit, but wasn't the "mean girl" I dreaded. Blaise was interesting; when the lambs came up to her she froze, letting them investigate her, much like Jackson does when meeting lambs.*

Today is cloudy, so I will try to get some better close-ups and individual shots of Bree and Brosna during pasture time.

*Jackson would love to be friends with the sheep, but has been afraid of the adults ever since getting rolled by protective ewes when he was young. But when the lambs escape from the pasture and go running up to him with the playful curiosity of youth, Jackson stands very still except for his wagging stump, delighted to meet them and very careful of frightening them.

That's it for today from . . .

Wednesday, March 18, 2015

Fáilte to Bree and Brosna!

On some level I knew Vienna was going to lamb on St. Patrick's Day, hence the Irish place-names search. There were subtle clues; slight changes in her behavior. Still, this was her first lambing at Boulderneigh, and her udder wasn't tight, so there was room for doubt.

I went to work Tuesday morning uneasily, but figured 1) she's an experienced ewe and 2) I wouldn't be gone all day. Of course, the first thing I did when I got home was check on her; she was just standing there looking at me like all the rest of the ewes, so I turned them out on pasture. Instead of grazing, Vienna hung out by the gate, tail slightly elevated. I went to the house and took care of some tasks, keeping an eye on her through windows, then went back to the fold to ready a lambing jug. Even if she lambed out in the pasture, Vienna and her newborn(s) would need a safe haven from bratty teenagers and cranky women when in the fold.

Vienna seemed to be waiting on me. I propped open the fold gate, opened the pasture gate, and asked her if she really wanted to go back in all by herself. She answered quickly and decisively, so I settled her in with water, hay, and a little grain.

I checked on her every hour or so, sometimes finding her standing and sometimes finding her down, but never finding her in obvious labor.

When I checked her shortly after 6:00 pm, something caught my eye. I checked closer, found her tail and the back wall smeared with just a little bright red blood. Hmmm; where did that come from? Nothing was presenting; her vulva looked unchanged. I called Rick; he suggested I see what I could feel. Again, nothing. Her cervix was dilating, but I couldn't feel any lamb parts.

Reluctant to interfere, I continued waiting and watching. If it hadn't been for that little bit of blood, I would have thought she was just taking her time to go into active labor, but that blood worried me. Finally, after chores, Rick decided to check things out – and found the cork in the bottle. A lamb had its head and front legs tucked down against its chest, apparently trying to come "withers first" – a physical impossibility. With effort Rick got its head and front legs up and pulled it out, but it was too late for the perfectly formed moorit ram lamb; there was no reviving him.

Back in Rick went, and came out fairly quickly with a moorit lamb that was alive, albeit with what sounded like a lot of fluid in its lungs and surrounded by meconium. I started working with that one while Rick went back in – to find lamb #3, very much alive and back-peddling just as hard as it could!

Vienna and I both worked on getting lambs 2 and 3 cleaned up and cleaned out, and I checked plumbing. Two ewe lambs! Now if only they survived the stress of their delayed entry.