from bad to worse
1 April 2008 by colouritgreen
Lost another lamb today - the little one Josh. We checked on Sharona and her boys all through the night - every couple of hours in fact, and they were just fine.. sometimes feeding, other times snuggled. She had brought them into the field shelter.. it was a mild night. everything was great until 730 again. He was lethargic and wouldn’t stand. We did the tube feeding.. he wasn’t particularly cold, but we gave him warmth anyway. He died fairly quickly.
She definitely misses this one, and still looks and calls for him.
What a rollercoaster. I read somewhere that only too often the elation of getting through the actual lambing is soon replaced by gloom as they fail to survive. I really did think we were over the worst once she had given birth to live lambs.. naive me.
The fact it keeps coming is exhausting. and always its at the end or beginning of a day. Friday night the birth, Saturday morning, two more, Sunday morning Conan is found ill, Sunday evening he is looking great, Monday morning Rogan vanishes, to be found later, but Conan becomes ill, Monday evening Conan dies. Tuesday morning Josh dies. What next.
Everyone says : don’t blame yourself, sometimes they just die, you did everything right, you did your best. Even the vet said it. He blamed the time difference between the first born and the last two, and who got most of the colostrum. I dunno. would like to believe that as it gives Rogan a chance.. but I can’t help thinking that whatever effected them, will get him in turn. Just he is bigger and stronger and will last just a bit longer. I know of course that sometimes animals just die. Lambs are particularly good at it. I’ve seen the stats, been witness to other flocks for some time.. Still you can’t help wondering, with all the power of hindsight, if you should have done things differently.
Keeping our fingers crossed Rogan makes it - he has the best chance.. the biggest, and now getting all the milk. He is definitely getting milk, and even sneaks a drink when she is lying down. Sharona is looking out for him, and keeps him close. Can’t think of anything else to do, but yet another sleepless night of watching and waiting.
Really sorry to hear you’ve lost another one, it’s so very disheartening, I know.
We’ve had a horrible 24 hours as well. We lost a newborn lamb last night, who appeared fine when born; however it appears his anus wasn’t fully formed so of course he didn’t stand a chance. His twin brother is the tiniest lamb I’ve ever seen; but thankfully doesn’t appear to have any problems.
Then this morning I found a ewe, cast in the field; I managed to get her up & check her over & whilst she’s still a bit subdued is at least OK. However, one of her lambs has gone missing - as has a lamb belonging to one of the other ewes. I can only assume a fox took them; but I didn’t see or hear anything & the lambs all seemed sufficiently robust to be outside; or I wouldn’t have let them out. And they’re only in the paddock behind the house - for safety’s sake. If it is a fox I dare say s/he’ll be back so I’ve brought the whole flock indoors overnight.
And those wretched hoggets have managed to get themselves wrapped up in yet more hedgerow brambles, several times this afternoon…..extra, time-consuming & skin-tearing trouble I really don’t need.
I know just what you mean about elation followed by gloom….things never seem quite so bad after a decent cuppa, mind you!
Hope things go smoother for you from here on in; & that little Rogan keeps on keeping on. Good luck.
thanks Jo
and really sorry to hear what a rough 24 hours you have had.. - although it sounds that the deformed one was not meant to be, as you said. the 2 that went missng.. that must be particularly gutting.
That’s rough - to lose two of your first lambs. Hang in there - we lost two ewes (prolapse and infection) and had four stillborns back in February out of our small flock. At the time, we felt bad, but theres not much you can do - it’s not like the other ewes are going to stop lambing. Fingers-crossed that your bad luck is over. Did the vet (or your local sheep expert) have any theories - or was it ‘one of those things’?
thanks Richard. it does help to realise that this happens to everyone, and that its part of the deal.
The vet opinioned that the two smaller ones that arrived some hours later did not get enough or any collostrum. Two separate sheep keeping neighbours said basically ‘bad luck, lambs just sometimes die’. actually the vet pretty much said that..
ah well.
I am really sorry to hear that, can’t say much more, I know you have heard it all before. Sometime they just aren’t meant to be