Lamb Tours

Sunday turned out to be an eventful day (to say the least)! As you know, from Emily's last post, we had six lambs born on Saturday. Well, Sunday about twenty minutes after we got home from church, some neighbors came over to see our new lambs. After they left we sat down to lunch, and some other friends stopped by to see the lambs. They had never seen baby lambs before, so it was pretty exciting for them. Just as they left some dear friends called to see if they could stop over and see the new lambs. :) As I was heading out the door to help with the third tour, another family called, and said they were coming over to see the lambs and bringing supper! What a treat-a day of lamb tours, and I didn't have to make supper! It ended up that both families stayed for the evening, and we all had supper together.

While our friends were over, we had an ewe's water break. We put her in her own pen, and anxiously watched. But she didn't deliver the lambs while everyone was here. Can you blame her? :)

After everyone left, and the kids (children :) ) were in bed (about 10:30 pm), Mike and I headed back out to the barn to check on the laboring ewe and Bertha's new lambs. Bertha wasn't doing well. Based on her symptoms we suspected that she was suffering from a lack of calcium, common for older ewes with multiple lambs. She would not eat or drink. Her lambs were pretty small, and not getting much milk from her. We tried holding down some of the other ewes and milking them, but they had all been nursed out. So, out of desperation, we warmed up some goat milk and bottle fed the three babies.

Meanwhile, Jane was still working on delivering her first lamb in the next pen. Finally she delivered a large boy. Based on her size, we knew she had more than one lamb, but she was sure taking her time.

We started to get more concerned about Bertha. She was in a daze, and not getting up. We decided we better do something, since this condition can lead to a comma, and eventually death. So I headed for the house to do some research. I finally found a remedy-seaweed and molasses, and just happened to have them both on hand. PTL! I mixed up a half pound of seaweed with a pound of molasses, diluted with milk, and brought it out to Mike. Together we drenched (a drench is a syringe type tube that squirts it down her throat) Bertha with it. It took us about an hour. By this time it was 3:00am. Jane was still laboring and we decided to go in and take a nap.

While we were napping on the couch, Emily woke us up to ask about Jane. Then she volunteered to go out and check on her, which we gladly allowed her to do. Unfortunately, Emily found two still-born lambs in the pen. One fully developed, the other not. Mike went back out to check on her, and they were finally in around 5am.

After a couple hours of sleep, Mike was up to milk Millie, and after breakfast we were drenching Bertha again, and feeding her lambs. We have been able to get milk for the babies from Jane, since she only had one lamb.

Well, it's been a crazy time. Our schedule is totally messed up, the house is dusty, the floors are dirty, but life is good! :)

Any one for a tour? :)