Isla's afternoon exercise

We have  cade (orphan) lamb.
And she is bottle-fed 5 times a day.
And on the middle feeds  she gets some exercise

Harald is out

Having become increasingyl noisy and demanding whilst in the house, the Caddie lamb has been moved outside in a pen , with the  goose house having been unused by the goose  as a shelter , hes all set up
 And now is on 3 feeds a day

Hail

So it was a cold night, with hail and freezing rain .

And the 4.30 trip round  identified oneof the lambs born yesterday who lying in one place, nbot following its mother and not feeding.  The  normal temperature for a lamb is about 39 deg C   and this one was at 37 degrees . The traditional treatment for this is to put the (live) lamb  in the AGA .We dont have an AGA , but the stove, lit at 530am , is the next best thing,

So once rewarmed , it went back out into the field with its mother and the other twin . 

but it's still not right - away from the mother, hunched and shivering. 

Clearly it would need to come in again , but taking it away from its mother for too long runs the risk of the mother rejecting it when the lamb is (eventually) put back in the field. 

So we decided to bring the mother and the two lambs into a pen in the shed. By this time it was 630 am so still cold, with wet grass and moisture in the air . 

Once inside and out of the weather it will warm up and start to feed . 

In the meantime , it needs a topup , as it has probably had nothing from the night before 

You can searhc for 'warming box' , but we decided to make our own.

And we constructed our own warming box . The 250W lamp had previously been in action with the turkey poults 

So a night in the shed, with a warming lamp and a mother shoudl hopefully see the lamb sorted , and as the weather is due to improve, back out in the fields tomorrow .

Lamb update

• If she falls over , she can now get up
• Much more agile , and keeping up with mother and sibling. 
• As far as I can tell , grazing  as much as the other one . 

But,

• head still held to the side 
• Stumbles  - left front leg seems to give way 
• Sometimes a bit unstady when walking 

a lamb with a problem

One of the lambs got itself stuck in the wire   having t poked her head through one hole, couldnt  reverse out  and was found after ? several hours with her head  out htorugh one holenad back through the next one - ie head at 180 degrees to body.  This is normal degree of movemnt in sheeps' necks.

But this poor lamb is holding its head in this position, and there is a lot of soft tissue swelling - we assume it was struggling a lot to try  and get out .

heres the affected lamb ( at the back ) , with her sibling

 And she doesn't walk normally and falls from time to time.

there is nothing to feel and   its possible to move the head back into the normal position without ( seemingly ) causing any distress

A bit wobbly walking

 and  veers off from time to time

Nothing to do other than wait and see if it gets better. Damaged nerves (at least in people )  can take many weeks to recover.

One down ,15 to go

the result

At about 6pm , Charlotte  ( one of the ewes ) sat down a lot . 

Then  in the uncomfortable getting ups, the membranes appeared . 

then this appeared 

 then she did this 

and then a few more pictures

15 to go

Our own Cade

It started quite well - the Boraray ewe gave birth to twins.

The first one was born with the  legs straight back rather than bent forwards. Lambs in this position often cant be born without assistance but nevertheless, all three doing well in the first 24 hours . But then one of them was rejected by the ewe ( it happens from time to time - the ewe is happy with just one) . Had we left the lamb with her it could have been seriously injured by the ewe.

So we now have our own caddy (orphan) lamb .

After exploring the kitchen

He has been brought inside and need to be bottle fed 4 hourly for the first few days and have somewhere to sleep.
And someone to hold it and help keep it warm.

Springtime in Orkney

The new lamb , which hasn't got a name yet, has been venturing out with its mother. We are at the start of a a 'cold snap' . So some sun , but with the temperature in single figures. Pleasant enough.
But then we had a brief hail shower. Junior was out exploring with her mum , and got caught in it.

First steps

The mother and the  lamb happened to venture out for the first time.

She always has twins

No she doesn't.  Even a week before her due date.

Spotted at 2pm grazing in the field. At 315pm  I found the ewe and a lamb standing in the sheep shed. There were still visible contractions a so we waited for the 2nd lamb.

After waiting  90 mins, and no lamb we checked and couldn't feel any parts.  A bit nonplussed , but the vet confirmed an empty uterus. So  she doesn't 'always' have twins

So we are leaving mother and lamb to sort out the feeding and will check back on them in a bit.

A few more gratuitous pictures of the lamb.