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- #51
blessedfarmgirl
Loving the herd life
Well, the Lord gives and the Lord takes away.
Today we lost Liesel 's ram lamb. I came out this morning to her lying down with a huge, swollen, dried out lamb head sticking out of her. It took a lot of hard, steady pulling to get him the rest of the way out. He was definitely dead. He must have weighed at least ten pounds. She is normally very skittish, but she just lay there and let us love on her. She was traumatized, poor thing. I drenched her with molasses, some herbal dewormer and a natural anti inflammatory and gave her a B complex shot and she drank some water and ate some grain. I massaged her belly and udder, and she passed the placenta a few minutes later. She did not tear as far as I can tell, but she's very swollen. She can't walk, she can stand for a short while, but if she tries to walk her back legs buckle under. We put her in the shade and I'm going to keep bringing her food and water and more anti inflammatory meds until she's on her feet. I'm thinking her inability to walk is just swelling and pain from having that lamb stuck there for hours.
Unfortunately, I think the dystocia in this line is genetic, even though he was a huge lamb. This ewe's mom needed intervention for both of her lambings, and now this ewe lost her lamb due to dystocia. I'm not sure if I should give her another chance or not. We're taking about what to do with her if she makes it through this.
She does not seem depressed and is interested in food, so I'm hopeful. We'll just have to see.
Moses is keeping her company and watching out for her. Earlier he growled and lunged at a group of lambs who came galloping over and got too near Liesel. My first reaction was to correct him, but maybe I was wrong to. I think he knows what's going on and that she's not doing well. He does have a tendency to guard new lambs from the other sheep, so I'm not sure if he knows her lamb is dead. It is sweet to see him being so protective of her!
Today we lost Liesel 's ram lamb. I came out this morning to her lying down with a huge, swollen, dried out lamb head sticking out of her. It took a lot of hard, steady pulling to get him the rest of the way out. He was definitely dead. He must have weighed at least ten pounds. She is normally very skittish, but she just lay there and let us love on her. She was traumatized, poor thing. I drenched her with molasses, some herbal dewormer and a natural anti inflammatory and gave her a B complex shot and she drank some water and ate some grain. I massaged her belly and udder, and she passed the placenta a few minutes later. She did not tear as far as I can tell, but she's very swollen. She can't walk, she can stand for a short while, but if she tries to walk her back legs buckle under. We put her in the shade and I'm going to keep bringing her food and water and more anti inflammatory meds until she's on her feet. I'm thinking her inability to walk is just swelling and pain from having that lamb stuck there for hours.
Unfortunately, I think the dystocia in this line is genetic, even though he was a huge lamb. This ewe's mom needed intervention for both of her lambings, and now this ewe lost her lamb due to dystocia. I'm not sure if I should give her another chance or not. We're taking about what to do with her if she makes it through this.
She does not seem depressed and is interested in food, so I'm hopeful. We'll just have to see.
Moses is keeping her company and watching out for her. Earlier he growled and lunged at a group of lambs who came galloping over and got too near Liesel. My first reaction was to correct him, but maybe I was wrong to. I think he knows what's going on and that she's not doing well. He does have a tendency to guard new lambs from the other sheep, so I'm not sure if he knows her lamb is dead. It is sweet to see him being so protective of her!
