Wednesday 18 April 2007

More Lambs

On Sunday, Bunny gave us two ram lambs. One is solid black and the other moorit (brown).
And this morning, Frost had two ewe lambs. One is white and the other is black spotted badgerface.
Out of eight lambs born so far this spring, only four have been normal birth presentations. Two were backwards (hind legs first).This isn't a difficult birth as long as someone is there to pull the lamb. Lambs presented this way unattended, however, usually die of asphyxiation.

The other two abnormal births were twins born to Ingrid. The first had one leg back. Jennifer called me at work and I went home right away. The birth was too far along to push the lamb back in and bring up the other leg up so I gently pulled it with the leg back. After that I did some other work and gave the ewe privacy to bond with her baby and birth its twin. I came back later to find that the twin's head was out and both legs were back. This one was a little trickier. I pulled the head and neck gently with the contractions until the shoulders were ready to come Then, with my outstretched fingers, I grasped the lambs shoulders and stretched the ewe's vulva with the backs of my fingers. The lamb came through the birth canal with both legs back. All are healthy.

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