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.

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.

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.