Chloe Had Triplets Too!

Good ole Chloe. She is such an easy birther. I went out to feed Tuesday morning and saw a sac coming out. By the time I went back to the house to get my daughter and some towels, she had already pushed out the first lamb and was busy cleaning her up. Next came a little ram lamb, followed by another ewe lamb. She is nursing all of the lambs and everyone is doing well.

They are quite vocal, but then so is Chloe's first daughter Clara who delivered on Saturday. Like mother like daughter they both are super moms!

Clara's Twins

After Mama Sadie's delivery I had a stern conversation with the remaining pregnant ewes. I told them they needed to stop this mixed up, malpresentation stuff for their deliveries and start having nice easy and uncomplicated births. Apparently, Clara was listening.

Saturday was an absolutely gorgeous day, sunny with temps in the low 60s. We were cleaning out the stalls, getting ready to move Moose and her lambs into a nursery stall with Mama Sadie and her triplets when Clara began acting like she was in labor, lots of pawing at the ground, sniffing her back side, arching her back, etc. We kept checking on her while mucking out and I nearly missed her delivery. She plopped out a lamb as I was walking out to check on her. Her second lamb was born a few minutes later. The other sheep watched from afar but our wether Hiram seems to love lambs and came over to check out the new arrivals.

Mama Sadie's Triplets

Mama Sadie went into labor late Thursday evening.  She had triplets last year and was looking as large again this year. I missed her delivery last year by about a half an hour and one of her lambs was stillborn, so I was glad we caught her going into labor.
Her first lamb was coming out with just the nose, no feet. So, gloving up again, I had to bring the lambs legs around to come out with the head. Once everything was in position she delivered quickly. A nice ram lamb. She has previously refused to nurse her ram lambs so I was happy to see how attentive she was to this lamb. She readily let him nurse too. The second and third lambs came out easily and my daughter took care of their deliveries. Final tally, two ram lambs and a ewe lamb. And she will only let the firstborn lamb nurse. It wasn't ram lambs she wouldn't let nurse, it's that she will only let her firstborn nurse. Last year we went out to the barn day and night to hold her still so the lamb she wouldn't let nurse could eat. Not this year! Now that they have had their colostrum we are beginning to bottlefeed them.

We will try to sell the bottle lambs so someone else can take over that chore.

Lambing Has Begun!

Moose kicked off lambing in her very Moosey way. She never does this easily! She had a bag of water hanging out on Feb 14th around 2:30 in the afternoon. By 3:30 she had two water bags hanging out and was intermittently bearing down. By 4:00 there was no obvious progress. Since Moose has needed much assistance with her other deliveries I decided to check things out sooner rather than later. She was fully dilated but two heads and three legs were all vying to come first. Moose has a very small pelvis so it took a while to figure out which two legs went with which head. The first lamb was finally born at 4:20 and took a good bit of pulling once everything was lined up. The second lamb wasn't born until nearly 5:30. That lamb had moved into the birth canal but Moose was showing no signs of trying to push out another lamb. So that lamb got pulled as well. That lamb wasn't breathing and had an irregular heart beat. Lots of stimulation and swinging got the lamb going. The first lamb was prancing around and eating with no help by the time the second lamb was born. Two ram lambs. The first lamb weighed 13 pounds and the second lamb weighed 11 pounds. Much smaller than her 15 and 17 pound lambs last year, thank goodness.

I should have given her prophylactic antibiotics since I was in her uterus for quite a while trying to sort things out. By the next afternoon Moose was feeling poorly, had a temp of 105 and was breathing rapidly. I gave her IM and SQ penicillin and then aspirin after talking to the vet. This morning she is feeling much better. She is eating well and breathing normally. And her temp is down. The lambs have done great throughout all of this.

The other ewes are patiently awaiting their turn at lambing. Ruthie should be next, maybe later today or tomorrow.

Followed closely by Mama Sadie and Clara this weekend.

Hopefully the most complicated delivery is now out of the way and the rest of the lambs will come easily.

Getting Ready for Lambing

It won't be long.

Poor Chloe is patiently waiting. Everyone due this month is getting big. We've done the big clean out of the stalls, set up the first lambing jug and have a quick set up for two more. The heat lamps are ready to go, and there are extra bulbs in the cabinet. The lamb coats are ready. And so is the lambing kit. And I have a week's vacation scheduled in the thick of lambing.

Mama Sadie, the sheep with the red stain on her rump from the marking crayon, would not let her ram lambs nurse the other two times she lambed, she loves her ewe lambs though. I missed her delivery by about a half hour last year so I am hoping if I am there when she lambs I can get her started with both her lambs.