I can't remember when I last wrote on my blog.  So much has happened, which is not unusual at this time of year.  Our beautiful Crystal passed one day, lambs were born the next.  Our first set of triplets arrived on April 1st, with two more sets of triplets and two sets of twins arriving on April 3.  April 3rd was a stressful day.  One ewe's water broke but an hour later there were still no lambs.  I called the veterinarian who said I needed to go "in" and see what was wrong.  I re-read my "what can go wrong during lambing" pages that I had printed off the internet.  Dennis got a rope on her and held her as I gloved up and attempted to see what was going on.  Sure enough, there was one foot, upside down, just at the opening.  I had to search for the second foot, which I found turned back.  I gently pulled the foot around to the front giving me two feet, but they were upside down so I knew they were back feet.  The lamb was backwards, with back feet now forward.  The ewe did not seem to want to push, even with my prodding around.  I finally pulled on the lambs legs, trying to be gentle as I did not know how hard one could pull before the joints dislocated.  The ewe tried but just didn't seem to have the urge to push.  I knew that once the lamb's umbilical cord was severed the lamb would take a breath.  With the lamb being backwards it was urgent that I get it out into the air quickly.  So with a steady, firm pull, and encouraging the ewe to push (I don't think she understood, but it made me feel better to tell her to push), out came a beautiful, big lamb.  Dennis was trying not to pass out, turning his head away while he held on to the ewe.  I held the lamb upside down and cleaned the nose and mouth so the lamb could breathe.  The ewe quickly turned around, talking to her lamb.  The lamb lay in the hay, then shook its head and let out a bleat.  All was well.  Within minutes the lamb was up looking for the udder.  The ewe kept busy cleaning the lamb, licking it dry.  About 45 minutes later she delivered another lamb, again presented backwards.   I had gone into the house to get clean gloves when it happened.  Our veterinarian had stopped by to see how things were going.  She noticed quickly that the second lamb was in distress, so she cleaned the face and airways and got the lamb breathing.  We have a great, terrific and wonderful vet!!  Here is the result of our efforts:

Unfortunately, a ewe who was a first time mother had triplets.  She seemed to accept them all the first day, thank goodness, so they all got life-saving colostrum.  By the second day she had rejected her two brown lambs and accepted the white one.  They are all ewe lambs, so I do not know what made her decide to choose the white one over the brown ones.  I am naming this ewe Sophie!  We are now bottle feeding her rejected lambs.  The first four days it was every 2 hours, 6 times a day.  The first night we left them in with the flock, hoping they would bond with their lamb siblings and even, perhaps, their mother.  That night we had a fierce wind storm and very cold temperatures.  The next morning I found the two little rejected lambs, shivering alone, with ice on their backs.  We took them indoors, fed them warm calf colostrum and after drying them off, made a bed in a dog crate for them.  They warmed up quickly and soon were fast asleep.  After a day of lambs in the house, we put up a heat lamp in the chicken barn (no chickens left), made a fresh bed of hay, and nestled them in.  The weather improved after a few days so now they spend their days in with the flock and nights under the heat lamp in the chicken barn.  They are down to 4 feedings a day, every 4 hours.

Bottle lambs come with their own set of issues.  Too much formula and they get scours.  Too little and they don't grow.  The smallest one came down with scours so she had a feeding of gatorade diluted with water.  We set up a multiple nipple bucket with water and gatorade so they could free feed from that to bring up their electrolytes.  The small lamb got a dose of sucralate also.  It seems to have done the trick as both lambs are thriving.  Here they are:

Here is a picture of their "chosen" sister, who we have named Princess:

It has been a tiring but very successful lambing year.  Out of 7 ewes we have 17 lambs.  All but one ewe have accepted their lambs.  The other two sets of triplets are doing well with their mothers and their mothers have lots of milk for all three.  Here are our other two triplet mums:

Here are a few more pictures of our lambs:

The above photo shows one of the lambs that was born back feet first.  A beautiful, very large lamb!

Of course, the still photos just do not do justice to seeing them in person.  Lamb dynamics is just too much fun!  I am spending more and more time in the sheep pen just watching the lambs play and the mothers trying to keep track of their lambs.  Sometimes the mothers call and the lamb completely ignores her.  These lambs are a week old and already causing their mothers grief!

Bye for now.