Meanwhile, back at the barn….

 

These little guys are bottle lambs.   They are filthy buggers because they steal milk from whomever they can however they can!   

It’s been an interesting lambing season so far.   We have lost two lambs that just were not getting enough to eat.  We tried bottle feeding but they just didn’t seem to care for it and despite our best efforts they didn’t make it.  They were fine one minute, dead the next.   One more lamb down the next morning.   This one has been fine all along…until it wasn’t.   It is so discouraging when these things happen and it seems to come in spurts.  Either everybody is doing great or it’s one thing after another.   It easier when you can find cause….but so often you just can’t.

This morning we lost a ewe.   A new mom, another case of fine…then not.   She lambed two weeks ago and since she was pretty friendly she was easy to check.  No signs of trouble, it seemed.  So disappointing….

But, all in all there is a lot that is going well.   This little guy is a week old!   He is a pure IDF ram and will make a beautiful sire one day.

And Twila finally got her ewe lamb out of Pebbles to replace the bottle lamb, Mercy she lost a couple of years ago.

I have lost count of all the lambs on the ground….I am guessing 40 or so, a look through the records will tell us for sure.   For all the disappointments we did learn a lot (like how to inject a hypothermic lamb with low blood sugar, and I am a pretty good hand at stomach tubing now….we have even learned how to suture a ewe that is prolapsing) and we will be ready next time with our new information.   But you always lose a few I guess….and you will always second guess yourself.