Lackluster Lamb

We have been anticipating Eweness' lamb for a while now. We moved Frank out of the large pen and adjusted her feed to include some alfalfa/bermuda pellets and a rye alfalfa hay blend. I made notes of her behavior changes at the first possible due date. We were able to see the lamb rolling around in her belly, so we knew it was active. She began some tail shaking, stamping, and panting. All of which could be attributed to the heat and flies. Her panting was done with her head level and it was hot enough to make her pant. The Thursday morning after her first possible due date, she started pawing at the hay bedding. I always have my phone ready to do quick searches on the internet for information, and found that this was a sign of impending labor...nesting. She also had "bagged" up finally.

As always when I have had to leave the ranch, I would drive down and do a quick peek on her. I left Thursday at 5:30 pm and she was standing and panting as normal, so I went on my way. About half way to pick up Emma, I realized that Eweness was panting, but with her head lowered. She had not done that and she definately looking less comfortable in this stance. I had watched numerous videos of ewe's in labor, and this stance was familiar. I began to worry that labor had begun and wanted to hurry back to the ranch.

By the time we got back, it was 8:00 pm and we drove down to the pen to find her licking a little spotted lamb. Emma and I jumped back into the car and drove to the house to get our lambing supplies. We wiped the lamb down some, she was very wet still and shaking as if she were chilled. We snipped and dipped the navel. Her momma was licking at her still, and we made sure her breathing was clear. We backed off to let momma do her job and sat and watched.

After some time, it became evident that the lamb was not getting up and seemed to be struggling to coordinate it's movements. She seemed to flop mostly and we decided we better get some colostrum in her to warm her up. This required milking Eweness; remember she is a miniature breed of sheep.

Emma got the job done. We strained the colostrum of the bedding that had fallen into the milking jar, and put it into the bottle with a lamb nipple. Emma was the one doing most of the "ground" work, she was much better at crawling around than I. The lamb appeared to have lost her sucking strength. We immediately grabbed a syringe and dribbled it into her her mouth for her to swallow. We were able to get several colostrum ounces in her and continued to do so every 2 hours. We attempted to stand her near mom to get her to latch on, but she just didn't have the coordination. She was definately "not right."

It was a very tiring night of milking, straining, bottling, syringing, cleaning and starting over. By dawn, the lamb seemed to be dry and warming, but still shaky and lacking coordination. Eweness was very hesitant about our assistance, but seemed to understand we were helping.

At this point, I was thinking that if the lamb didn't come around quickly, I would have to have her put down. If she was not able to suck, this was going to be a problem. We syringed an ounce or two into her and scooped her up and took her to the local vet that had experience with sheep. On the way Emma was doing a bit of research on the internet, and suggested that there was a copper deficiency in the ewe during gestation. I balked at that because I had been told several times to limit copper for sheep.

Upon arrival, the vet told us to drive home and get some more milk and he would do a blood draw and it would be done by the time we got back. So we zipped home, milked Eweness and zipped back to town.

The blood showed a problem with the liver function. He pulled out his sheep text and repeated what Emma had said in the car. I suppose Eweness could have been lacking, but it still seemed contradictory. I still find it hard to believe we have copperless hay! All the other blood readings were spot on!

He didn't give any real insight as to her future. I knew that if she didn't start sucking a bottle, the process of caring for this lamb was going to become very laborious. Emma was in the meantime preparing the bottle there at the vet's and squeaked, "she's sucking!" It was as if the lamb heard my thoughts...and she figured she had better try.

At home, Emma assisted the lamb as the vet had demonstrated, holding the tail up and giving some support to the front end to get her standing. I thought if the lamb doesn't have the strength to stand and walk, she would not survive. We both fell asleep between feedings and when Emma went out to give the next bottle, she returned to tell me that the lamb had gotten up and walked around several times.

I thought of the bottle feeding more of a therapy session to strengthen her sucking strength. She would start out well enough, but soon tire and we would switch to the syringe. But she was getting more with the nipple each time. We had been given a product called Lamb Lac Milk Replacer by a local sheep person. We began to supplement this and then would milk Eweness to keep the pressure off her and to avoid Mastitis.

As the lamb was getting a bit more from the nipple with a rather significant hole in the end, I decided to up the requirements for her and had a second nipple with a slightly smaller hole. I thought this would further strengthen her sucking. I would start with this one and switch to the less challenging and eventually eliminated the syringe.

I had forgotten how exhausting a newborn could be. I remembered the late feedings with my own girls and how similar it felt the next day when trying to function with a clear head. I had a couple down moments when I tried to be objective about what this lamb's future would be. She would not be used for breeding. I won't really ever know what the cause of this shaky, weak start is, and won't spend the money to analyse milk, blood, or whatever to determine it. On the other hand, she may have been breach and lying in fluid for a couple hours. Oxygen deprevation, hypothermia.....So to be safe, she will not be bred. I don't want to think about it, but she still may have to be put down. She wasn't latching on to the momma and this results in two maintenance programs; lamb feeding and ewe milking. That wasn't the plan. I decided I would put my best effort to get this lamb the best possible start and see where she took it.

And with that I went out and the lamb was nursing on her momma's teat. These markers were making me smile each time. I still don't know how much she is really getting from her momma, so I have developed a feeding schedule that remains conservative on my part, in order to encourage her to nurse from her mom. I have gradually increased the duration between feedings as literature suggests for "bummer lambs." However, I have not been increasing beyond an ounce at each feeding now. It seems to be working, as the lamb goes to her mom more and more. Of course, most literature regarding the quantity of milk is for a regular sized lamb, so I have been adjusting for her 4 lb birth weight.

I remembered reading about infants and something called "nipple confusion." I noticed that the tongue action of the lamb on the rubber nipple was more like what would be used on the teat. Because of the large hole in the rubber nipple, she was still getting plenty of flow, regardless of her tongue movements. I preferred her latching onto her momma, to being bottle-fed, so anything that supports that transition was fine with me.

I am now giving her an ounce every 6 hours and letting her nurse on momma in between. She is really effected by the heat of the day, leaving her panting and rather limp. I try to make sure she is getting the fluids, so that she does not dehydrate because of the heat. She is definately more perky in the cooler parts of the morning and evening.

I still haven't named her. I suppose I believe it would make it harder if she were to have to be put down. Of course the more time that passes, the more difficult that will be anyway. But I am trying to be objective. I have progressed from hour to hour status' to day to day status'. I will be neutral.

Spring 2012

This spring is a wonderful example of why we live in Arizona. The weather has been beautiful. I will have to come back to this post in the heat of the summer to remind myself of this. The leaves are spring green on the Mulberry. The grapes leaves are miracuously emerging from the dead twisted branches. The mice are prolific and the snakes have not yet come out to eat them.
As a result of this time delay, I adopted a cat for the barn. He has different names depending on which family member you ask, but I figured it didn't matter really because he comes to any thing, and everybody is happy that way. He has become a quick convert from his pampered condo living, to an adept barn cat, catching mice and sparrows. I am very happy to have him. The dogs have been resistant to the temptation to impede on his territory. He has a horse stall that is currently storing everything from feed to washing machines. The door is now left slightly open so he can swiftly escape into and out of his lair. I am hoping the dogs continue to be polite, keeping their distance. I would really like to have another mouse catcher to live in the poultry yard. I am seeing little mice at night and their deposits in the feed bowls the next morning. I know they're eating a lot of chicken feed.

Emma has decided to become more active in 4-H and her animal interests this next year. She purchased a darling Nubian goat doe, born January 25, 2012. She is named Lily. Emma has been bottle feeding her, and Lily has quickly bonded with Emma. We met a wonderful woman that sold Lily to Emma. I think she is someone I would be a great friend with if she didn't live so far away. She had a terrific garden, and raises goats for milk, pigs for meat and chickens for eggs. The goat milk sample she gave us was delicious and I can hardly wait for next spring when Lily will have milk. I even day-dreamed about getting a doe in milk now, but reality hit when I realized the labor of pen construction would stop that endeavor for now.

Eweness, our Jacob ewe had been together with Frank the ram since October. We had the two sheared (that was a lot of wool), and was surprised to see how small they really are. Anticipating that Eweness would look pregnant, we were all scratching our heads wondering if she really was. She had some signs, and her belly was a bit round, but not overly so. Her teats still resembled a fairly young sheep. One morning recently, Emma and I were watching her as she was resting, when suddenly her side was quivering with sharp punches. She walked a bit and stood staring back at us. That's when it happened, a nose or foot drew a long line from front to back along her side. It stuck out at least 3 inches, and we both gasped. She is definitely pregnant, but as to when she is due, we are still not sure. The very earliest due date calculated is April 4th.

I have been reading and watching youtube videos about Jacob sheep lambing. They all look much larger than Eweness, but they are not shorn or sheared (still have to look up the proper tense of that one). Their udders are much larger, but they had lambed before. So I really don't have a good reference to figure out how far a long she is.

Emma and I did move Frank next door to Eweness. I think it is good to have them close, but separate so that I can supplement her a bit and he can't push her out of the way to eat it all. She seems less stressed with him close by, now that they are accustomed to each other.

I am rather excited about a little lamb. And this will be a "little" lamb. I really want to make sure the lamb is tame, but I don't want to have to bottle feed it. And by the size of Eweness' teats, I'm not sure I could even milk her, even if she was more trusting of me. I will play it by ear. Maybe just a wee bit calmer than Eweness would be nice. If it is a female we will keep her around.

Emma incubated a few Freedom Ranger chicks. Mostly to have hatch when a friend was visiting, but I will raise them for 10 weeks and process them if I can handle the heat at the end of May. I will not raise chicks to butcher in summer ever again. That was a mistake. Incubate in August, hatch in September and butcher in November. That schedule works for me.

Spring has been wonderful so far. I will enjoy it while it lasts.

Winter 2012

I have been busy with ongoing tasks and disasters that have prevented me from getting to my documentation. I am going to try to do a summary of events that I can recall since summer 2011.

The hatching of extra meat birds and turkeys for an individual to purchase, ended up falling through so that I had many more birds than I intended. The summer was hot enough that I could not inspire myself to set up the butcher station to process the birds until fall. By then many had gotten too large to be very good for meat, or had died from the heat. I gave some of the grown turkeys away to a neighbor that gives them to families from his church. It was an expensive "donation" as they were fed quality feed. I will never raise chicks with the intention of butchering in the summer again. The flies would have been horrible this past summer if I had actually done the deed.

The mosquito problem diminished considerably this past season with the exception of when the neighbor watered for 5 days after taking a couple months off due to a ditch squabble he was having with the other neighbor that shares with him. This summer season, the flies were obnoxious, but I would rather have them than the mosquitoes!

Eweness and Frank, our Jacob sheep pair moved in together the latter part of October. He had his mind set as to what he wanted to accomplish, so we should have a lamb the first part of April. I intend on supplementing her Bermuda grass hay diet with some reserved Timothy hay that I packaged up in the past.

Donald left the company that he was working for after 17 years in June 2011. He is much happier with his new company still today, but is home less than before. I tried to hire some help, but they either didn't show up or would not return calls. The sad part is I know who I would like to hire but he is currently in the country illegally. He is a good worker with many abilities, but I just can't take the chance. I tried to figure out how to get him a work visa, but it is a huge research project that I just haven't had time to pursue.

Our daughter started college locally. After the first semester, she applied to transfer to University of Arizona. She is interested in the Veterinary Science program and will start this fall. Our other daughter just got her driver's permit. When she gets her license, I will have many more hours to work on projects around the ranch.

We were able to get 10 more acres of Bermuda planted. It came in nicely, however, after the neighbor planted to the west of us (the wind comes from the SW and W primarily), weeds began growing in the field. The mower conked out on us during the last cutting of the third fields. We were unable to cut the new fourth fields before they went dormant and the weeds spread. We reluctantly will have to spray a broad leaf weed killer to eliminate them, as there are some that are toxic to horses. Morning Glory and some "horseweed" will be treated, but the Johnson grass (also from the neighbor's fields) would not be killed with a broadleaf weed killer. We are hopeful that the Bermuda will choke out the Johnson grass this spring. The first cutting will probably be sacrificed, meaning not sold to our hay clients.

We have made some progress on the barn electrical. We had to hire an electrician to do some conduit and wiring, because Donald just doesn't have any time now. The work was mediocre at best and a lot of the metal studs in the feed room were bent as a result of his work. This all has to be fixed in order to hang the drywall. Many fixtures were not braced properly and Donald has spent any spare time redoing those problems.

We have plenty of repairs to attend to this winter on the equipment as well as the normal maintenance. I'm not sure when I will post again.