first time lambing assistant

first time lambing assistant

Monday 18 April 2016

No more lambs

So we have reached the end of lambing! Although all of our ewes have now given birth, I am still having to check on them every day and bottle feed those who do not have mothers (the twins and Fleecy).

Fleecy is doing very well with the newly fitted splints and I am hoping that Fleecy will be able to go into the field with the remaining ewes and lambs once bottle feeding is no longer necessary.

The little black faced lamb in the photo on top of the hay ring has started eating hay and grass. He is technically an orphan but we went around the barn stealing milk from other ewes until he found one which adopted him.

He is currently in a field outside of the house (I can actually see him as I type). He is in there with two ewes and his adopted lamb sibling. The three bottle fed lambs were in there too, but I moved them back into the barn as I was worried that Fleecy might be a "sitting duck" for a fox.

They have a little igloo which they can go in to shelter from the rain as you can see from the photos. This was put in the field for the bottlefed lambs as they are not able to shelter next to a ewe.

I am currently bottle feeding them 4 times a day and they are gaining weight quickly! I won't transfer them into a field however until I am happy with Fleecy's mobility. I do not wish to split them up as they have been together since they were only a few days old and stick together wherever they go.








Tuesday 5 April 2016

Eye infection

We took Fleecy and another sick lamb to the vets today. Fleecy still cannot walk properly on her fore legs but we have been advised to make some splints out of foam pipe insulation to straighten the legs -  there is still hope. I will take some photos of the splints once we have found some pipe insulation.

The other lamb (un-named as it is not bottle fed) has a condition called New Forest Eye. It cried in the truck all the way to the vets for its mum. Its eyelids have a bacterial infection and became full of pus. She had to have an injection into her eyelid and we are to apply cream to its eyes every other day. The condition can be very contagious so we need to act quickly. If left untreated, lambs with this condition can go blind.

We spent today moving ewes and lambs out of the barn, ear tagging them and transporting them into a solar park to graze. We had lovely weather for this - 15 degrees and very sunny.

In the trailer we had one white ewe lamb with a black leg - pretty unusual but still very cute.

When we got to the solar park, we unloaded the stock and drove around the park to check that everything was ok. We had a sighting of a fox, but Archie thinks that the lambs are too large at this stage for a fox to risk snatching as the ewes can be very aggressive. Our collie, Fen, has run into trouble with mothering ewes on quite a few occasions.

I am pleased to report that we did not find any dead lambs in the park.




Monday 4 April 2016

Going solo

Last week I was left to look after the whole flock whilst Archie was working away. This meant that I really had to step up to the mark.

The best bit of last week was when I spotted a breech birth and managed to run and catch the ewe, straddle her and pull the lamb out by myself. I didn't actually have time to find any gloves or the lubricant, but I knew I had to get on with it. There is a photo of the breeched lamb before I pulled it out below.

The biggest low was finding a ewe dead under a tree. I wish I knew how she died but it is an unknown. Her two twin lambs were using her body as a wind shelter and were crying for milk. I felt so awful taking them both back to the farm away but they are very strong lambs and are bottle feeding really well. They are the ones standing up under the heat lamp in the photo.

I am currently bottle feeding four lambs; the orphaned twins, Fleecy and one new one as of today. The latest addition is incredibly weak and is being stomach tubed.





Tuesday 29 March 2016

Fleecy and the rotten lambs

I noticed half a lamb hanging from its mother this afternoon, tail first. I was not able to catch the ewe by myself, so my friend Olivia and our collie Fen rounded her up and caught her.

The lamb was completely black. Archie later informed me that this meant that the lamb would have died a while ago. Certainly its back legs were pretty gelatinous.

Olivia was brilliant and pulled the lamb out straight away. It was stillborn and its stomach was distended. There was a twin inside the ewe but neither of us could feel its second leg.

Archie pulled it out later but it was also black and stillborn. The second lamb did not have a rib cage and was not fully formed sadly.

Pain relief and penicillin were administered to the ewe.

In other lambing news, one of the Romney ewes had triplets today. One of the triplets has deformed joints unfortunately and is unlikely to ever walk properly. We took her back with us to bottle feed her as we were concerned that she would be left behind by her mother. I called her Fleecy (she is the fluffy white lamb in the dog basket in the photo). We are hoping to try and work with the deformity to encourage her to use her legs properly.




Saturday 26 March 2016

Romney ewes have started lambing

Arch and I walked through our Romney ewes (indigenous to Kent) yesterday to find that one of them had started to give birth. These ewes are on a separate site and were not due to give birth until mid April so we were quite surprised. They are lovely ewes and very docile.

I also got stuck in with an assisted birth back on the farm yesterday. One of the legs had not come through, so the lamb had to be pushed back inside, so its leg could be found before pulling it out. The massive orange disposable gloves are really for calving, but I am not yet comfortable lambing without gloves - give me time!

We have been very lucky with the mild weather recently, but the wet weather that we are due to have over the next few days will mean that we will need to be extra vigilant, as we do not want to leave any newborns out in the field as they could suffer from hypothermia.

You can purchase biodegradable plastic jackets for newborns, but Archie is yet to be convinced....


  

Wednesday 23 March 2016

Assisted bull calf birth

I returned to Stodmarsh today to witness a breech birth of a bull calf. James and his brother, Laurie, used a calving jack to assist with the birth, as the calf was facing the wrong way around. I have uploaded a video so you can see the calf being born.

I am disappointed with myself that I did not feel the unborn calf when James offered. Admittedly, I was a bit nervous because it was not a straight forward birth.

I am hoping to be more "hands on" next time.

The bull calf was a great size and he stood up very soon.

A little green plastic ring was tied around his leg for identification purposes. This will be replaced with ear tags once the calf is a bit older.








Monday 21 March 2016

Calving


I spent this afternoon at my friend's farm in Stodmarsh helping tag their calves. I have not previously worked with cattle, so this will be good practice for when I go to visit my soon to be father-in-law on the Isle of Skye with his beef herd.

Some of the calves had ducked under the electric fencing and were sheltering in some nearby turnips. This meant that we did not instantly know who their mothers were, which we needed to record. The solution was to walk each calf back into the field and wait for their mother to find them so that we could update our records.

The heffer calf in the photo needed some extra milk so I was more than happy to bottle feed her.

Unfortunately, I was 10 minutes too late to watch an assisted birth with a calving jack, so I do not have any photos of this, but the equipment itself is pretty hefty.

On the lambing front, we are just about half way through now. 50 more in the field by the farmhouse and then a further 58 near Ramsgate.

Thursday 17 March 2016

Tagging

It is an absolutely gorgeous morning. Archie has been taking ewes and lambs to a new site for grazing. As each lamb is loaded into the trailer (with its mum!) we tag their ears with a yellow tag and then record the number on the tag allocated to that lamb.

We are moving 30 from the barn this morning. Our trailer will take up to 30 ewes but we will only take 10 at one time as we will be taking the lambs with us.

I will take some photos of the tagging process.

Here is a still of a lamb being born and a couple of cuties in the shed. The liquid coming from the head of the newborn is mucus and has to wiped away from its airways as soon as it is born so that it can take its first breath.

Lamb number 1 is still paralysed and is not walking. We also lost one of the triplets from ewe 21
in the night sadly. It did not get enough milk from its mother so we stomach tubed it and put it under a heat lamp but she just didn't make it frustratingly.

I went to check on our 58 Romney in lamb ewes last night and one of them was cast (rolled over and couldn't get up). Managed to right her and she walked off - phew!








Tuesday 15 March 2016

Clarice

I told myself I was not going to name any of the lambs so that I didn't get attached. Typically the one I did end up naming (Clarice) died this afternoon. Her mother rejected her so I had been fostering her and feeding her. We had tried to get another ewe to mother her, but none of them would accept her and they kept nudging her away from their udders. Archie thinks that her lungs had not properly developed sadly. This is the only death in the lambing shed that has really upset me and put me in a foul mood for the rest of the day.

We have been grazing some of the mothers in front of the house, but we are running out of grass so we have started to move them onto a bigger site.

Archie and our collie Fen have been rounding the lambs and ewes up, tagging the lambs and moving them on. Fen is a bit of a wuss as she cries in fright whenever a ewe goes to headbutt her, even when she is nowhere near. We are really lucky with Fen though, as she is brilliant and a very skilled member of our team.





Monday 14 March 2016

Video of ewe giving birth

I whipped my phone out just as a lamb was born yesterday. I wish I had managed to start filming from when the hooves appeared, but you can see the ewe give birth anyway.

The ewe who regained her sight was nursing its surviving lamb but it died last night, Due to the problems which the ewe had, the lamb was born with longterm complications. I tried warming it up in the Aga, stomach tubing it with Lamlac and finally putting it under a heat lamp but it did not survive.

A lamb also climbed into a water bucket and drowned last night which was a sorry sight this morning.




Sunday 13 March 2016

Blind ewe has regained sight

The ewe suffering from Toxaemia has regained her sight! She gave birth to two lambs and after she had given birth her condition started to improve. Sadly one of the lambs had not fully formed and so it was euthanised swiftly. The other lamb is on the small side but seems to be ok otherwise.

We have two sets of triplets at the moment. Triplets demand a lot of milk which can be hard going for the ewe so I am bottle feeding the triplet lambs to help them to grow.

I absolutely love the formula that we feed to them. It is a powder (Lamlac) which we mix with warm water and it smells like vanilla milkshake.

I am unable to report any improvement with lamb number one who cannot move his hind legs due to paralysis. I will keep up the physio but so far it is not looking good.


Friday 11 March 2016

Toxaemia

This poor ewe is blind due to Toxaemia. We found her stumbling around the field and she was did not move away from us when we moved towards her. I am bottle feeding water to her and making sure she has glucose every day together with hay and sheep nuts.

Toxaemia occurs when the ewe does not get enough energy towards the end of the pregnancy where the foetuses use up the carbohydrate stores.

All we can do is make sure she has lots of TLC and hope she gives birth soon.

If she does not get better after she has given birth, we have been advised that it would be more humane to euthanise her. We would obviously not like to resort to this, but it is better than letting her suffer.

On a good note, the lamb which had to be nursed back to health in the Aga was returned to his mum on the same day and is doing really well.

Thursday 10 March 2016

Off to the vets

 17 of our ewes have given birth now. I have to apply iodine to each lamb's naval as soon as it is born to help prevent any infections occurring. This is what I am doing in the photo to the left. It might look a bit cruel holding the lamb up by its legs, but this is the safest way of picking them up. Once the lamb has dried off (they are very slippery when they have just been born) their number is sprayed onto their fleece with blue marker spray and their tails (and testicles if it is a ram lamb) are then ringed. This does not hurt the lamb!


I am sad to say that lamb number 1 had to be taken to the vets yesterday. We think his mum stood on him as his back legs are not working and he cannot stand up. It is such a shame as he is a good sized lamb and has been feeding well. He was given a steroid shot and I have been advised to do some physio with him every day to help him to stand. I will keep my fingers crossed that he will pull through.

Tuesday 8 March 2016

First Lamb in the Aga

I came home from mucking my horse out to a very sick lamb this morning. I transferred the ewe and lamb into the barn with the ATV and trailer (see photo below) but the lamb was so weak he had to be stomach tubed and wrapped up in a towel and placed in the Aga.

I have been nursing him since 10:00am and he is raising his head and breathing regularly but he cannot yet walk.

We have also had triplets born to a Kent cross ewe. The last one to be born was very weak and had to be stomach tubed too. She won't be nursed in the Aga though as Archie has since set up a heat lamp. More photos to follow.








Monday 7 March 2016

Ewe number 5

Seven of our ewes have now given birth. We have 6 penned up in the barn as you can see from the photo and I found a newly born lamb in the field this morning . Momma and baby will be going in the barn with the other 6 this morning.

I have to admit ewe number 5 and her twins are my favourites. She is a lovely example of the Kent breed and her lambs are looking very good.














Sunday 6 March 2016

Two more lambs born this morning

Things are really starting to get going now. I went out to the field at 5am this morning (it was freezing and snowing a bit!) and I could see a ewe with a lamb's head poking out. The feet of the lamb should come out first so this did not look right. Archie pushed the head back in and then pulled the lamb out feet first. Then I carried it into the lambing shed whilst making a lamb noise to encourage the ewe to follow. We then penned her up with her baby. Archie checked for a second lamb and said it was really big. Unfortunately its head was right back so it took some time before we got it out, but it survived.















Mother's Day Twin Lambs


A brother and sister lamb were born today, making our total number of lambs 3. Mum and babies are doing well. You can see Mum number 1 in the pen next door.They will be going onto grass very soon.

Happy Mother's Day everyone!

Sunday 28 February 2016

First lamb of the season


It's a boy!

This little lamb arrived this morning. Our grain barn has been transformed into a lambing shed and the ewes are ready to give birth.

Lamb number 1 will stay with his mum in a pen for a couple of days until he is steady on his feet and then they will both go back in a field together.

We have 140 ewes in the lambing shed at the moment and a further 58 in a field which aren't due to give birth until mid April.

I will take our SLR camera into the barn over the next few days and take some better photos of the babies and our set up.

Tuesday 9 February 2016

Let's get lambing 2016!


I am Laura. I live on farm in Kent with my fiancé Archie.

We are due to start lambing some 200 ewes in a few weeks time.

This will be my first time as a lambing assistant, so I decided to start a blog to map my progress and demonstrate what actually happens from start to finish.

Good luck to all my fellow lambing assistants this year!