Off the Rails

Yesterday, lambing really went off the rails.

A few days ago, we noticed that ewe 1417 had developed a hernia-like lump on her side. Heartbroken, we had to acknowledge that she ruptured her prepubertal tendon. Uncomfortable and vulnerable to pushing and shoving from other sheep, we placed her in her own space so she could eat and drink freely. We are very concerned with her comfort.

Based on our concern, we decided that inducing lambing would be a good choice for 1417. The lambs would certainly be viable, and she could get relief as soon as the lambs were out. We administered meds, and then the waiting began. For a while, it seemed like nothing was happening. Then, after delivering twins from Clementine, we noticed that she was discharging some goo. It was hard to see labor in 1417 – I assume that losing a key tendon might make her muscles function differently. So I reached in and found she was ready to deliver two smallish lambs. The first was a normal, healthy lamb, the second a smallish weak lamb. We rushed the weak one into the farmhouse while allowing the ewe to begin licking the stronger lamb.

While we were debating what to do with the weaker lamb, we checked on the ewe to find her slowly birthing a third lamb. We thought there might be more in there, but I hadn’t been able to identify them with my hands while examining. Triplets made a lot of sense given the size of the belly of the ewe. We borrowed lamb #1 for a bit and let Momma lick lamb #3. Normally, we would let Momma lick all of the lambs and only assist in drying the lambs a little, but we knew that the weakened ewe would struggle to keep up with too many lambs. After lamb #3 straightened out, Matt went to town for some colostrum replacer. The ewe had none, owing to being induced before her udder was prepared. We took some colostrum from Clementine, who fortunately had a huge supply. Colostrum is vitally important for normal immune function in lambs.

I went out to check on how lamb #3 was doing, only to find 1417 delivering lamb #4, a huge ram. It’s strange to admit this, but I felt better about the ewe’s injury knowing that with such an excess of lambs, she was in great danger of issues or injuries of some kind. Four lambs is simply too many.

Decision time: Momma ewe was not going to be able to raise four lambs in her compromised condition. We delivered the ram lamb to a friend who will raise him. We have the weakest lamb plus a second ewe lamb in the house, and Momma has one lamb to raise, which is about all she’s going to be able to manage. No sooner were the quads delivered but Chloe the BFL had twins, and at the 3am check I was up for an hour and a half caring for 1601’s new Border triplets. So everyone is exhausted and strugging and chugging coffee, but we’ve successfully started our first -ever set of quadruplet lambs here at Cloverworks Farm.