Monday, April 27, 2009

The Season's Final Lamb?

What we believe to be our final pregnant ewe delivered on Saturday - with a lot of extra help. Fortunately, Eric was here when I discovered her in labor & in distress as I walked out to gather the morning's duck eggs. She was oozing yellow which is a sign that the labor is not going well & the lamb will have a problem if not birthed soon. Unfortunately, this lamb was huge. The up side was that his feet and nose were pointed the right direction. The down side was his enormous size.

After an hour and a half, Eric managed to finally pull the little guy as I held the ewe. She was so distressed and exhausted that she took no interest at all in him but he was not phased. He jumped right up & tried to nurse. Mama was not yet standing, probably due to nerve compression, so he laid down to nurse. Mama did not have the energy or interest to clean him up. She also didn't care when he walked away. We stood her up & eventually got him nursing properly. They are safely in a stall together & she is letting him eat but is not particularly attached. The little fellow did, however, take to Eric & also tried to nurse on his pant leg.

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