Rough Day

Some days don't go the way you want. Yesterday was one of those days. Peter had orchard work to do in the morning, so off he went to prune the apple trees. I stayed home keeping watch over the flock while getting ready for a meeting that I had early in the afternoon. We still had six sheep to lamb and knew that it could be anytime. Therefore, before I left for my meeting I went out to check on the pregnant ewes. None of the ewes were in labor; they were out eating hay...so with a quick call to Peter giving him an update I left for my meeting.
Peter came home, checked on the ewes, had lunch, and then went to get water for the flock. In the 1/2 hour, that he was gone and the hour since he had last checked two of the ewes gave birth. Usually this is not a problem the ewe just has the lamb without difficulty and starts to take care of it. However, this was not the case...Ella a first time mom, had triplets the first one she bonded with immediately, cleaning it off being a good mom. The second one was born and she didn't even notice, that one didn't make it because the sac was still around its head suffocating it (had we been here we could have saved it). The third one was born and Ella ignored the lamb. We found it in a pile of hay, wet, shivering, and cold. We took it into the lambing jug where Ella was trying to get her to accept the lamb. We even put the lamb up to her teat to drink, but were unsuccessful. This little lamb would die if we couldn't get it cleaned off, warmed up, and fed. Therefore, we made the decision to bring the lamb into the house to bottle feed. Peter had to milk Ella for her colostrums so that lamb could get her mom's immunity. We had never needed to do this before and it was frustrating. Thank goodness for our friend Janelle. I called her, explained the situation and she came over to help us out. Well, she really helped Peter, because he learned how to milk Ella and feed her lamb. Janelle also brought us over some frozen colostrum to supplement during the feedings.
I am happy to say that this adorable lamb so far has made it through her first night in our basement in a pen with fresh hay as bedding. My wonderful husband was up every two hours last night to feed the lamb. Gabrielle fed her once last night before she went to bed and once this morning before she left for school. Gabrielle hasn't named this one yet...but she will!

As for the other ewe that lambed.....Alice had a healthy lamb that is doing great. We will post pictures of the three new lambs with names soon!