3-12-15

Ewe #616 - Triplets!

Face Timing with Nana and Papa (they're in FL)

Ewe #47

Yesterday Jared lifted the bee hive and hurt his back really bad.  This morning I dropped him off at Urgent care before taking Eli to school.  He was done not long after I came back.  They prescribed a muscle relaxer and an anti inflammatory.  They also gave him exercises to do and told him to use ice.  We stopped at Tim Hortons for coffees while waiting for the prescriptions.  At home we went to the barn to check the sheep.  Jared had a hard time walking because he was having muscle spasm’s in his back.  Ewe #616 was pawing in the corner so we decided to come out in 30 min to check on her.  When we came back we could see two hooves.  We soon noticed that it was the hind feet so put her in a stall and I pulled the lamb.  It was a boy weighing 11lbs 7oz.  We clipped/dipped the umbilical and stripped the ewe.   We were watching from outside the stall and out came the next lamb.  I hurried in there to get the sac off and help it start breathing. This lamb was a girl and weighed 7lbs 11oz.  Both lambs are doing well and we were really excited to have healthy twins (or so we thought).   After a few hours this ewe still hadn’t delivered her placenta so I told Jared we should go out and make sure that wasn’t another lamb.  Sure enough there was another one.  I felt the legs but the head was turned back.  This is suppose to be the most difficult malpresentation and often requires c-section.  It was very very difficult.  The lamb was pulling its legs back so I knew it was alive.  I was worried about tearing the ewe's uterus.  It was very tight and took a long time for me to find the head.  The lamb wasn’t moving anymore so I figured we'd lost it.  Now I really just wanted to save the ewe but it felt impossible.  She is my favorite ewe and I wanted her to be able to take care of her other lambs. We put the sheep on her back a few time to see if that helped.  Poor Jared with his sore back.  I finally found the head but it was twisted.  It was so tight and I couldn’t get a snare cord on its head.  It was difficult to get a grip on the head to try to get it in the birth canal.  I finally got it and pulled the lamb out.  We were both shocked to see that the lamb was alive!  This is a girl weighing 10 lbs 1oz.  All three lambs are doing so well and the mom is taking good care of them.  We have started the ewe on antibiotics. We'd worked on her for about an hour and it was time to go down the road to get the boys off the bus.  I was soaked in afterbirth so Jared went to get the boys while I cleaned up.  The boys were really excited to see the lambs.  Their favored is the little one.  I really like this ewe because she so nice to the boys too.  Most the other ewes are very protective and stomp their feet or butt the kids.  Jacob and Eli love to check the lambs mouths to make sure their warm.  Jacob lost a tooth this evening.  It was one of his silver crown's so he left a note for the tooth fairy asking if he could keep this tooth.  At around 10:30 we went to the barn to check on the sheep and ewe #47 was in labor.  We watched as she pushed for a long time with no progress.  This lambs elbow’s were stuck so I assisted to extend the legs.  Its a single healthy girl weighing 12lbs 5 oz.