At one point in the birthing of our second lamb, I thought we were losing both mother and lamb. Socks was in shock, I thought she was dying, we could not get her up, and her baby was lying in the pole barn dirt, Socks did not seem to know she was there, She had had a very rough time coming out and needed some food and stimulation, we got her to her feet, peeled off the amniotic sac and when we got Socks standing, we put the lamb underneath her right nipple. He drew some milk and nourishment, this emergency feeding worked.
I felt good about the way we handled things, we both stayed calm, had the right tools, did the right things, at least so far. Hope the lamb takes it from here.
The sac hanging out of Socks is the afterbirth.
Maria is going away Monday to Gee’s Bend, Alabama, should be exciting around here.
The way you walk the lamb and mother into their stall is to hold the lamb in front of her, let her smell him, and then walk slowly backwards. We usually use a sling, but the distance was short, and we were not mentally prepared for such a hard birth. Socks is not a strong a mother as Susie, she did follow Maria in, I got behind her, our friend Rod Wilson stood in front of Susie to keep her from getting upset. Everybody is in their own clean stall. I would have preferred the birth to be in the stall, but you rarely get to choose where a ewe will give birth. I’m not sure about the lamb, but I’m hopeful. They definitely have bonded, we just checked to make sure Socks is expressing milk.
We brought Liam and Susie out to the Pole Barn to walk around and meet the ever-curious donkeys who flocked to the gate to smell Liam and check him out. He loved them, rushing to the gate to sniff them. Donkeys are guard animals, it is important to acclimate them to new animals, they tend to think all new things are coyotes.
Liam is hot stuff, he is outgoing and curious, he has lots of personality.
Socks gave birth to our second lamb this morning. If Susie’s went easily, this one was hard. Socks was struggling to give birth, I saw that the lamb’s legs and head were in the wrong position, both were stuck in the canal, Socks was unable to get them out. I was concerned for her. I sounded the alarm, called four our neighbors and friends Kim and Jack Macmillan and Rod Wilson and Stephanie and got the plastic gloves on. But they couldn’t come instantly.
I got the emergency kit, got the plastic gloves on. I knew it was time to play midwife, I reached into the uterine canal and helped ease the head out a- I did this a number of times as the first Bedlam Farm. Socks seemed to go into shock and pulled the lamb out, he struggled to get up and Socks just passed out. We got the baby out, got her on her feet – she revived in five or ten minutes and began cleaning the amnitotic fluid and afterbirth off of the lamb, also a male. Reinforcements arrived and we got her into a stall where she cleaned up her lamb, who is struggling a bit, I think. We gave him a vitamin booster and supplement, got him to drink some milk, the udders are expressing milk.
Socks is not as vigilant and pro-active a mother as Susie, we put the lamb under her teat several times. He is drinking it but he looks weak and sluggish to me. Liam, born yesterday, is hot stuff. He came out to greet the donkeys and jumped up onto a spare tire. He has a lot of personality.
We got Socks and her lamb into a stall with clean bedding, molasses-laced water and fresh hay, both under a heat lamp. We’ll keep an eye on them. It was a hard birth all around, a real struggle for Socks, for the lamb, for Maria and I, it took about three hours in all. I got the heated tail docker out and docked Liam’s tail, went through a blood vessel and there was a lot of blood. He is okay, I think Maria may pass on that chore.
It was a powerful experience for us, the first time we have lambed together, I think Maria was a bit in shock, we had a good deal of trouble today. This is real life, we both appreciate that. I think the lamb is 50-50 right now, I’ll be pulling for him. When you help bring a baby into the world, you are rooting for it in a particular way.
