I checked the lambs from the previous nights long delivery around midnight and helped them nurse again. One of them was still having trouble standing and getting aound. The mother didn’t seem to have a lot of milk so I gave the weaker one a half bottle of Constellation’s milk.
This morning, though, both of the twin lambs had their heads up and neither was crying. I did chores and examined them closer and decided they must have had something to drink during the night. Even the weaker of the two was moving around better and followed the mother around. The ewe seemed to be taking good care of them. The weather got warmer after a day and a half of cold rain and as the day went on so I put them out in the grassy backyard with another ewe and her lambs and back in their stall at afternoon chores. I was pleased as they were both up and about and had a little milk in the bellies although the one who had seemed especially awkward still seemed a little off and was lighter than the other. A tough start will do that to you.
When I did my evening check around 11:00 this evening I heard a small “baa” when I turned the light on. I peered into their pen just in time to see the mother ewe use her head to knock the little lamb two feet away from her. The lamb stood up, shook herself off, and went back to the mother who promptly did it again. She was rejecting her… Rejections are rare, especially after the lamb was more than a day old; but perhaps deep in her instincts, this ewe knew that a weak lamb would be a liability, or that she didn’t have enough milk for two lambs, or perhaps the lamb didn’t smell like hers. One of the ways a mother ewe knows a lamb is hers is through the odor of the lambs feces and since these lambs had been fed Constellation’s milk along with her own perhaps she couldn’t identify it. I tried to force the ewe to stand so the lamb could nurse but she wouldn’t let it and upon examination I couldn’t get any milk out of the mother.
The lamb still needed to eat so I warmed up 8 ounces of the milk from Constellation that I still had in the fridge and fed it before putting it in a dog crate in the middle of the pen where it would be close to the mother and sibling. I didn’t want the poor baby to get beaten up all night; but if there was a chance the ewe’s milk supply increased over the next few days that she might take it back, especially if it still had the emotional bonding.
Out of the ten ewes, 7 have now lambed. It would be nice to keep them separate to watch easily, but that isn’t easily practical with my space and need to have them on pasture.
I don’t keep eartags on my sheep to tell them apart as I can usually identify each one by size, wool, color, or specific markings. Shearing does change their appearance and makes it a little more challenging, even to each other. It’s not unususal to see two ewes who have hung out together all year get into a headbump battle sorting things out after they’ve been shorn.
Of the three who haven’t lambed one of them is my largest ewe, with mottled dark hairs on her face. She doesn’t really look pregnant to me as her udder is small and she looks to be in too good of condition (she is fat). A pregnant ewe should look round, not beefy. We won’t rule her out, as she may have been bred on a second or third heat cycle and wouldn’t be showing much in terms of udder development and overall appeance.
Then we have “the old ewe”. “The old ewe” is a little like the Dread Pirate Roberts character in The Princess Bride in that every year there seems to be a ewe who trails behind the others when going in and out of pasture every day, looks a little skinny, and just plain looks old. And even though we seem to have a ewe we identify as “The Old Ewe” every year, the “Old Ewe” of this year is not the same old ewe of two years ago; and that “Old Ewe” was not the same “Old Ewe” as the one three years prior to that. You get the idea…
This particular sheep is a ewe I’ve had since she was born and I’m guessing she is more than 10 years old because she still has an ear-tag from the one year I did tag the sheep. She’s also the only ewe that isn’t halter trained. I could look it up and figure out her age but it doesn’t really matter, she’ll still be the “Old Ewe”. This particular ewe was skinny all last year and I had planned on culling her before winter but I never got my act together or quite had the heart to sell her or put her down.
She looks even skinnier now. Bony ribs showing over a weather-balloon belly, probably brought on by stretched ligaments from years of being pregnant with lambs. She also has a little baggy udder that also could go either way; permanently shaped like that or just filling up with milk as part of being pregnant. I’m a little worried about her because she’s been skinny all winter and especially weak recently. She didn’t lamb last year; but if she is pregnant you can imagine what kind of stress gestating a baby lamb (or two) would put on a sheep of that age and condition. I’ll need to keep an eye on her and try to keep improving her nutrition.
The last ewe out there is one of my favorites since she’s one of the best “actors” in the living nativity events as she marches willingly alongside even the most inexperienced shepherd assigned to lead her… head high and attentive.. She has a white nose indicating some Dorset heritage with an open face and legs. “Open face” means she has has very little wool, just hair, on those body parts. Her coat has long white wool that always looks clean.
She also has an unually large belly that hangs toward the ground. Her udder ligaments are also weak, and her bag swings as she walks. She’ll be a good candidate to take on the identity of “the Old Ewe” next year.
Since none of the three remaining ewes are showing obvious signs of an impending delivery, I may even get a litte reprieve of sheep activites and get a chance to catch up on my sleep the next couple days, although this orphan is going to take some sort of plan.
Meanwhile, Happy May Day!
First photo: Twin lambs from the tough delivery yesterday looking up and about. Far one is now the orphan.
Second photo: Front sheep is the “beefy” ewe, second is the “actress”.
Third photo: “The Old Ewe”.
