Lambing again!

For inturned eyelashes, which I had on a lamb today, you must pinch the lower eyelid, and gently roll the eyelashes out of the lambs eyes with the thumb. However, once this has been done it is important to keep an eye on the lamb to ensure that the eyelashes do not return to their inturned position.

A lamb that I delivered today appeared to be dead, but on instruction from the Shepard I opened the lambs mouth and pulled the tongue forward. When I had done this I gave a sharp blow in the direction of the lambs mouth to stimulate the breathing-which in this case worked.

If a ewe has only a single lamb and plenty of milk, it is important to try to get another lamb onto her, from a ewe who may not have enough milk. This requires the lamb being given to the single ewe to be wet, both to remove the smell of its own mother, but also allow the fluid from the single ewe to stick, making her more likely to accept the lamb. The best way to ensure that the lamb is properly covered, is to place some sheeting underneath the ewes rear end to catch the fluid. The lamb can then be rubbed in this fluid ensuring that it is thoroughly covered. The Shepard told me that the two most important areas to ensure are well covered are the head and the rear end of the lamb, under the shoulders, where the ewe nuzzles the lamb. The head is thoroughly covered by pushing it back into the ewe. This makes her less likely to reject the lamb.

An interesting case today was a ewe who was clearly pushing on, but was having difficulty delivering the lambs. On an internal inspection the first lamb of the pair was in the right position but despite the ewe pushing was not coming. I therefore tried to pull both legs, but the ewe was extremely tight, meaning this was very hard. So I decided to construct a string pulley which I was able to tie around the lambs leg and this allowed enough leverage to deliver the lamb. The second lamb was delivered easily, but unfortunately they were both dead. The ewe had also delivered the lining of the womb, and so this was potentially dangerous for her, meaning that it was important to segregate her from the other ewes in the barn, so that she could be monitored as delivering the womb lining can often mean death for the ewe.

On my rounds around the lambing pens I noticed that a lamb was dead. The Shepard asked me to bring the lamb outside, where he carried out a postmortem. The right hand front shoulder was broken, to allow the ribs to be opened after being cut through. This allowed a clear view of the lambs insides. On inspection, it was clear that there was two potential causes of death. The large intestines were extremely green which led the Shepard to believe that an infection had been administered with an injection that may have penetrated too far into the lamb, piercing the intestines.
However it was also clear that the lamb had only one functioning lung, with only a flap of tissue were the other lung was supposed to be. This allowed me to have a real insight into the anatomy of the sheep, which I found really interesting.

Lambing has been a fantastic experience, and something that I will always remember. The amount that I was able to learn in my time with the shepard was amazing. Having not done any farmwork before, I have become much more confident around farm animals and can't wait to do more in the future.