New Lambs: Meet Minty, Meadow and The Murphy

I posted your page yesterday morning then pulled a sweatshirt over my nightie with yoga pants underneath, dragged on my gumboots and popped out to check Mama again before beginning the mornings work.   I walked into bedlam. There were four lambs born. Two flat out on the straw and not moving and two struggling to their feet. I had checked her at 4 am, John had checked her when he went to work at 5.30. This was 7am. She had slipped through the cracks and had her lambs without me, the last one had been born just before I stepped around the corner of the barn. And he was still in his bag, quite still.

I tried to revive the big last born lamb to no avail.  He never breathed. Then miserably  I turned to the other one who looked dead as well. I smacked her and swung her and smacked her again, and rubbed and rubbed and then with a great shudder the wee thing coughed and lifted her head. 

This is Meadow. She and I  and Mama struggled to keep her alive.  As I dried the other two and tried to get them to drink,  I hung Meadow over my knee with her head downwards in an attempt to drain her lungs. She rasped and coughed and wheezed. I rubbed her dry and kept rubbing to keep her breathing.  She could not stand or drink.  Her head was down.  I ran back to the house and grabbed the colstrum milk from the freezer and started it thawing.  By then the other two had wobbled to their feet and The wee Murphy immediately found the nipple but he kept falling off as Mama paced.   Mama was still in a panic about her dead lamb, returning to him again and again to wake him.  I was quietly drying the lambs and rubbing Meadow and moving lambs again and again under Mama to drink but it was not working. There was too much going on, it was bedlam.  The place was a mess. She would not be still.

The sun was shining, and it was a beautiful still morning so I decamped the three lambs and Mama outside into the small pen in the Salad Bar Paddock.  This had been Mama’s field for a while now. It must have been about 8.30 by then. And warm, much warmer out there.  Here is Minty, Meadows sister, moments later. 

I laid Meadow down and raced back to the house for more towels and a warmie for her. This is what I found when I returned. 

I am still not entirely sure what Mary’s Cat thought she was doing.  But seconds after this Mama bore down on her, scattering Lambs and the cat was evicted.  I wrapped Meadow and fed her a sip of the warm colostrum.  Mama still would not let Minty feed so I gave her some as well. The Murphy  (who I have discovered I have no single shot of, I will fix that today) was the strongest and seemed to be able to feed OK as Mama relaxed . 

See Meadow’s cold downy ears but at least by now she was lifting her wobbly head by herself, which was a good sign I thought. So we continued with the drying and feeding and watching. Mama was observed chasing a chicken out of the pen! 

She was in quite the mood for a while. Minty was wobbling about well. They were warming up and much to my delight Meadow was able to finally stand and shudder about. Three hours after her birth. 

They all got a wee feed from Mama. 

Meadows was so excited about being on her feet,

…that she proceeded to fall asleep on her feet.  By the way that is a red rag in the background, nothing icky.

Now everyone was up and warm and dry and had a drink.  Then the  wind  begun to blow. Of course it did. I went back to the barn and cleared out the dirty straw and cleaned their pen.  Put down fresh straw and by 11 am they were all tucked up in the Sunroom in the Barn.

All the bad smells were gone and Mama settled down beautifully. Below  is the only shot of all three. 

I will get a better one today. Well the next one is all three as well but The Murphy had laid his wee headie down already.  Lambs only hours old need their sleep. 

The Murphy seems to be working hard at not getting in the shot, I will get a better one today. But look at those smiles.

Good morning.  Everyone had a good night. The Murphy is feeding well and has not really  needed supplementing. Meadows continued with her colostrum for a while and I am hoping she will start drinking properly from her mother today. It appears that Minty will  be the one I will adopt. She and her Mother have not taken to each other. So Minty will be the old folks home lambie.

Minty actually weighed in as the biggest at a little under 14 pound, with The Murphy at 13 and a half and Meadows at 13. The one we lost was bigger than them all.  So Mama was carrying around 50 pounds of weight in the end. No wonder she was big.

Now I am off out to work.  Please excuse any errors as I am working fast today. You all have a great day. Oh and I must tell you, last night I forgot to lock the peacock back in.  So he took himself up into the rafters of the barn with the other birds. Good Kupa. He is now totally free, this is a good safe place for them all at night.  No dogs can get them up there.

Good morning. My camera and my dog and I are off out into a misty morning! Have fun.

celi