high maintenance
(approximate times)
3/13/2011:
9:00 pm: we check the three remaining pregnant ewes. no obvious signs, especially from Luna. Only, she goes into labor during the night sometime while we get a full night's sleep.
3/14/2011:
we wake to find her with a lamb halfway out of the birth canal. c pulled it but it was already dead. we spend the whole day kicking ourselves for not being there for her, feeling like ignorant newbies.
after checking in at the barn throughout the day and into the evening, fast forward to:
3/15/2011:
1:30 am: all quiet. petunia is VERY pregnant, but not much more so than she has appeared for the last couple of weeks.
3:00 am: my last check of my 'shift' before going to bed and c goes on duty checking every 2-3 hours. a lamb!!! (lamb #1, a girl)
3:45 am: lamb #1 has not nursed. lamb #2 (another girl) appears to be stuck, only her nose and one front hoof out. we go in, i hold petunia while c pulls her free.
4:30-4:45 am: lamb #3 presents and slides easily out, while c sits by watching. #1 and #2 still have not yet nursed. i am over at the house thawing and filling the feeding tube with bovine colostrum (from our vet's own cow) to give the first 2 a jump start while their mama is busy.
5:00-6:00 am: thawing and feeding #1 and #2. mama isn't showing as much interest in #3, who is still wet and starting to feel cold and shiver, even under the heat lamp, and still can't stand on her own. i thaw more colostrum and tube feed #3.
6:00- 7:30 am: still watching to see if anyone will nurse. #2 gets it! i bring #3 over to the house and spend 30-45 minutes blow drying her off. we stoke up the woodstove and place her on a heating pad in front of the fire. she still can't stand on her own.
7:30 am: i curl up under a quilt on the couch and fall asleep.
9:30 am: c tube feeds #3 in the house, walks away for a few minutes, turns around and she's standing. back to the barn with her.
10:00 am: i wake, have a cup of tea, and try to regroup.
12:00 pm: #3 still nursing well. #1 and #3 not yet. we try, yet again, to get them to nurse on the teat. no luck. no sucking reflex. we try to teach them to suck on a bottle. #3 gets it. #1 appears too weak to suck, so i send her back to the house inside r's coat for another another tube feeding, before putting her back with her mama.
1:00 pm: i climb in the pen with Luna (2nd ewe) to try and milk some sheep's colostrum from her for the #1 and #3. she still has quite a bit, and appears to be contracting again - probably a good thing after the difficult labor she had followed by no lamb to nurse her back into shape.
4:00 pm (the time of this pic): it appears #3 may have figured out the nursing! will check back
4:30 pm: heading out to try and introduce #1 to the teat again if she hasn't yet figured it out, milk petunia to get her milk rolling in hopes that she'll have enough for all three lambs, and milk luna again.
to be continued...
5:00 pm: #3 is nursing vigorously now, too! so glad we were persistent with her. maybe we made some good choices this time? #1 is still not so interested. try to get her to nurse, give her some of her "auntie" luna's colostrum, tried to get her to nurse from luna's larger teats. still no luck. grrr. i really don't want to bottle feed. persistence!
5:45 pm: i'm dropping all the amniotic fluid-bovine colostrum-sheep colostrum-blood-poop- pee-and-hay covered clothes at the door and am taking a shower!
preparing myself for the possibility of a replay of sorts of all of the above with 'brownie' tonight. she's previously had triplets, and even had a set of quads!
high maintenance
(approximate times)
3/13/2011:
9:00 pm: we check the three remaining pregnant ewes. no obvious signs, especially from Luna. Only, she goes into labor during the night sometime while we get a full night's sleep.
3/14/2011:
we wake to find her with a lamb halfway out of the birth canal. c pulled it but it was already dead. we spend the whole day kicking ourselves for not being there for her, feeling like ignorant newbies.
after checking in at the barn throughout the day and into the evening, fast forward to:
3/15/2011:
1:30 am: all quiet. petunia is VERY pregnant, but not much more so than she has appeared for the last couple of weeks.
3:00 am: my last check of my 'shift' before going to bed and c goes on duty checking every 2-3 hours. a lamb!!! (lamb #1, a girl)
3:45 am: lamb #1 has not nursed. lamb #2 (another girl) appears to be stuck, only her nose and one front hoof out. we go in, i hold petunia while c pulls her free.
4:30-4:45 am: lamb #3 presents and slides easily out, while c sits by watching. #1 and #2 still have not yet nursed. i am over at the house thawing and filling the feeding tube with bovine colostrum (from our vet's own cow) to give the first 2 a jump start while their mama is busy.
5:00-6:00 am: thawing and feeding #1 and #2. mama isn't showing as much interest in #3, who is still wet and starting to feel cold and shiver, even under the heat lamp, and still can't stand on her own. i thaw more colostrum and tube feed #3.
6:00- 7:30 am: still watching to see if anyone will nurse. #2 gets it! i bring #3 over to the house and spend 30-45 minutes blow drying her off. we stoke up the woodstove and place her on a heating pad in front of the fire. she still can't stand on her own.
7:30 am: i curl up under a quilt on the couch and fall asleep.
9:30 am: c tube feeds #3 in the house, walks away for a few minutes, turns around and she's standing. back to the barn with her.
10:00 am: i wake, have a cup of tea, and try to regroup.
12:00 pm: #3 still nursing well. #1 and #3 not yet. we try, yet again, to get them to nurse on the teat. no luck. no sucking reflex. we try to teach them to suck on a bottle. #3 gets it. #1 appears too weak to suck, so i send her back to the house inside r's coat for another another tube feeding, before putting her back with her mama.
1:00 pm: i climb in the pen with Luna (2nd ewe) to try and milk some sheep's colostrum from her for the #1 and #3. she still has quite a bit, and appears to be contracting again - probably a good thing after the difficult labor she had followed by no lamb to nurse her back into shape.
4:00 pm (the time of this pic): it appears #3 may have figured out the nursing! will check back
4:30 pm: heading out to try and introduce #1 to the teat again if she hasn't yet figured it out, milk petunia to get her milk rolling in hopes that she'll have enough for all three lambs, and milk luna again.
to be continued...
5:00 pm: #3 is nursing vigorously now, too! so glad we were persistent with her. maybe we made some good choices this time? #1 is still not so interested. try to get her to nurse, give her some of her "auntie" luna's colostrum, tried to get her to nurse from luna's larger teats. still no luck. grrr. i really don't want to bottle feed. persistence!
5:45 pm: i'm dropping all the amniotic fluid-bovine colostrum-sheep colostrum-blood-poop- pee-and-hay covered clothes at the door and am taking a shower!
preparing myself for the possibility of a replay of sorts of all of the above with 'brownie' tonight. she's previously had triplets, and even had a set of quads!