What a rough lambing time the last 24 hours.  First Miss Lizzie went into labor last evening.  She delivered her first lamb without difficulty but then her second lamb she wasn’t making any progress pushing.  We watched about 15 minutes and then I checked her.  I thought I felt the face with a chin but no legs so we watched for 3 more contractions- still no progress.  So I lubed up and checked again.  I pushed what I thought was the head farther back and then found the turned up legs.  I worked between contractions to pull them down then realized they were the back legs.  Since she was pushing I decided to pull, and the lamb delivered breech.  We got her cleaned up, suctioned and breathing and she did well.  We were finally done at midnight and went to bed.  I did a check at 2:30 and everything seemed fine and went back to bed.

Then Tom checked them at 6:00 and called me to rush into the barn.  Sheila had delivered one lamb without difficulty, but the second one had been half way out of the vagina when Tom saw her.  He pulled the lamb out and it was quite deformed like conjoined twins.  When I got there I was able to separate the two lambs- one was breech but well formed and the other was quite small, thin with a very small head and no eyes.  They had been quite entangled and there’s no way Sheila could have delivered them by herself.  I felt horrible that if I had been there I may have been able to save the one lamb- but it’s not clear.  Sheila was exhausted so we were worried about her.  We gave her Nutri-Drench, alfalfa and grain.  She then stood up and I moved her to a second pen.  Her and her lamb seem to be doing fine.

Then Daphnie went into labor.  I did the barn chores while watching her closely.  She delivered a ram lamb about 9:15.  I helped cleaned and suction the lamb who did well.  I moved them to a separate pen and waited for another lamb, since she looked large still, has a long history of twinning and hadn’t delivered the placenta.  Finally I had to go to work at 11:00 so called Tom to come on his lunch break to check them.  He arrived between 11:30 and 12:00 ,and she had delivered the placenta but no other lambs- so just a single.

We have 2 more ewes to go.  I’ve been sick with a cold and now we are both so tired from lack of sleep.  We can’t wait for lambing season to be over.  I feel horrible about the lamb that was lost but really good about the one we saved.  It’s a roller coaster.

2007-04-20 00:56:49 GMT