Hi all,
I just wanted to apologise for the lack of postings - I actually have a lot of 'drafts' on the go and normal service will be resumed as soon as lambing is over. I have lots of stories, pictures and video to show you :-)
It's been such a hectic emotional month will lots of highs, lows, learning curves and satisfaction.
I haven't even had a chance to read about what you are all up to!
Pebbles
I can't believe I put Scooter ahead of this - probably because I don't tend to talk about personal things here - but this is definately an inspiring and happy piece of news that I have to share!
I have two sisters. Fiona is pretty poorly (always has been), but things were made even worse for her 18 months ago when her kidneys failed and dialysis started. We are a small, but terribly close family and obviously we all wanted to help.
Today my other sister Pamela did an exceptionally brave and generous thing by undergoing surgery and donating a kidney to Fiona.
It was such a big operation for them both, and as the countdown changed from months, to weeks to days we have all become more and more worried. No one slept last night!
I just want to say how terribly proud I am of them. I love them both so very much, and my parents and I are absolutely delighted that they have both come through their operations so well. Although it is very early days, the result appears to be a huge success.
I was at the farm first thing this morning and last thing tonight - I spent the rest of the day at the hospital.
Hopefully as the girls recover they'll be able to come up to the farm and enjoy a little R&R.
It's been all doom and gloom lately, but one little chap perked us up today!
'Scooter' (as MB has named him) our surviving lamb is quite a character. First of all he is huge - mum ('Panda') has been doing a great job now she only has one lamb to care for. He is stocky and robust and positively bounces along beside her.
We've been trying to catch him for a few days to have a look at his 'bits' - being premature they hadn't 'dropped' and by seven days we knew it would be a job for the vet. Nevertheless we had wanted to check him but he was proving to be elusive. Today though, he was being nosey around the poorly ewe's pen. MB and I were both in with the ewe and suddenly with one quick movement MB had Scooter! Hooray, I get to cuddle him!
He was so strong, and what a pair of lungs - Panda baaaaa'd, he baaaaaa'd louder! He wriggled and squirmed and then suddenly stopped and started to nuzzle in to my neck - after the last couple of weeks I really needed that.
Scooter and Panda are getting quite friendly and coming closer to us than the other sheep....might have something to do with the fact that we were giving Panda secret stashes of feed when the others weren't looking for a while :)
Anyway we are really happy with how he's coming along. He is so cute and appears to be copying the other sheep and 'trying/ pretending' to eat the hay and the feed - he's such a big boy now.
At last a success story!
I feel like we are becoming experts in this field - I wish we were not!
The majority of our sheep are heavily pregnant with muliple lambs - the result of us feeding them unecessarily early on in their pregnancy. A lesson has been learned - and we have essentially killed some ewes with kindness! These lambs are demanding a lot from the ewes and no matter how much hay, veggies and energising licks we give them it just isn't enough to satisy the lambs within! It definately hasn't helped that we can count on one hand the number of dry days we have had since getting the ewes.
We are now on our fourth fallen ewe. The vet has been out several times and given us a lot of valuable advice, but the bottom line is that our ewes won't recover until they lamb, which for some is still three weeks away.
We are finding the occassional ewe on its side and kicking about unable to right itself. Here's what we do...
We try to get it to stand.
We administer 'twin lambs disease' energising drench.
We make up our own glucose solution and try to bottle feed the ewe.
We make up our own drench using the liquid on top of the high-energy lick.
We inject Calject to replace the calcium she has lost 'making' the lambs bones.
We pen the ewe with food, water, hay, energy-lick +++++++
We make sure she is lying on top of her legs and prevent her from going over on her side as the vet instucted.
We hand feed the ewe.
We repeat the above several times a day.
We take the opportunity to give the ewe a pedicure - our sheep are bloody hard to catch!
So far the ewe always dies 3-4 days later!!!
Even when these ewes do lamb with so many multiple births we are going to end up hand rearing quite a few 'extras' - it has not gone to plan, but we have learned a very salutory lesson....feed ewes only in the last 6-8 weeks of 'pregnancy', increasing gradually towards the end.
Next year will be different. I was too soft! The ewes would follow me with 'sad eyes' and watch me feed the pigs - I didn't realise it would cause them any problems.
Ok, I'm trying not to be superstitious/ pessimistic/ just plain weird.....but something isn't right about Thursdays! You need evidence? Here!
Thursday 21st February - one sheep down - eye pecked out by crows and put down by vet
Thursday 28th February - lambs - bloody lambs, in February!!!!
Thursday 6th March - another sheep down - put in pen and nursed, died on Monday
Thursday 13th March - ANOTHER sheep down - put in pen and nursed....we'll see what happens
Enough proof? Every one of the last four Thursdays! I dread arriving at the farm on Thursdays now - I have developed a fear!
The ewe we have been nursing since Thursday was found dead this morning. She really hadn't been responding to anyything we had been trying. She was just so weak and was in a daze most of the time. The vet had likened it to a diabetic in a hypo!
I don't just mourn the ewe but the 2-3 lambs inside her - they were so close to their birth, but I was worried about how a ewe who could barely eat or lift her head was going to deliver lambs.
I desperately want and need some good news. I and MB have been and continue to do everything we can and it just doesn't seem enough. I fear it will get worse befor it gets better.
We have had Brett the Vet out again today and it has been decided that to try and combat the huge number of ewes that appear to have 'Twin Lambs Disease' the young Princes need to move on to a batchelor pad. I'm not saying they're greedy and don't let the ewes get a look in with the food.....well actually I am saying that!
We have moved them through the gate to the other half of the grazing field which until April is still rented out to a local horse breeder - luckily he has no use for it for the next few days.
So, I've made a little next of straw where the boys can recline and look through the fence at the ewes (longingly) - they have water and plenty of food and hay.
They already seem quite settled and were last seen swaggering shoulder to shoulder over the brow of the hill....you had to be there, it was quite funny!
The ladies can now eat til they're full and enjoy the pleasures of the numerous high-energy licks dotted around the field. The boys used to gorge themselves on them emerging with sticky black faces and quickly diving back in again.
Brett reckons this cunning plan will really perk up the ewes in their last couple of weeks before lambing. Fingers crossed!
I arrived at the farm this morning and once more found a ewe in trouble.
She was kicking about on her side and no amount of effort would right her. The vet was called and I got comfortable on the wet grass beside her for a two hour wait. I continued to try to get her up without success, but she was still alert and 'trying'.
The vet arrived and administed more drench, an injection of Calject and another injection to 'perk her up'. He then dragged her to a pen and I made her a next of straw and hay. I stayed in the pen with her for a couple of hours and then went to meet MB to colect hay and straw. I also drove to our local farm supplies shop in Buchlyvie to collect more energy licks and syringes.
When I returned she was much the same. She takes the drench easily, but she just won't eat! There was no significant change in the evening - if anything she was a bit dazed!
