Post by mollymoo on Jan 16, 2012 11:49:07 GMT -5
Our first set of lambs (twin rams) were born on Saturday night. It was a bit of an adventure - I hadn't put the ewe up in a stall for the night, because she's my least tame girl and has always lambed outside - and after days of butt-gazing, I figured she still had a couple more days to go Anyway, Burny (the pyrenees) woke up the house dogs who woke us up around midnight. I swear she told them that we needed to get outside and that they needed to get us up! Burny barks off and on all night usually but only rouses the house dogs when there's something going on that needs help.
I shone the flashlight out of the window and there's Charlotte (the ewe) with one little white bundle at her feet standing looking across the driveway - where the other little white bundle was standing - on the OTHER side of the electric fence! Ouch Poor little chap must have stumbled through the fence. Of course it was about 20F outside (I know that's nothing to what some of you deal with, but chilly for us in TN!) so I threw on my Carharrts over my PJs and hurried out to turn off the fence and grab the lambs. Funny thing was the cows were standing watching interestedly from the other side of the driveway too. I grabbed a lamb under each arm and Charlotte followed me back to the stall with no problem. The lamb that had been on the other side of the fence was slightly smaller and seemed a bit more wobbly than the other, but the ewe was licking both of them and after dipping cords in iodine and giving each a squirt of Nutridrench I left them to themselves figuring she'd do better without me around. Sure enough by morning both lambs looked fine; I'll post pics later . Anyway, in daylight I noticed the wobbly lamb has one blue eye. Does anyone else have experience with this? I am not sure if he is blind on that side - but suspect that he might be. Any ideas on how to tell and whether it will affect him much? As a boy, he is headed for the freezer anyway...
I shone the flashlight out of the window and there's Charlotte (the ewe) with one little white bundle at her feet standing looking across the driveway - where the other little white bundle was standing - on the OTHER side of the electric fence! Ouch Poor little chap must have stumbled through the fence. Of course it was about 20F outside (I know that's nothing to what some of you deal with, but chilly for us in TN!) so I threw on my Carharrts over my PJs and hurried out to turn off the fence and grab the lambs. Funny thing was the cows were standing watching interestedly from the other side of the driveway too. I grabbed a lamb under each arm and Charlotte followed me back to the stall with no problem. The lamb that had been on the other side of the fence was slightly smaller and seemed a bit more wobbly than the other, but the ewe was licking both of them and after dipping cords in iodine and giving each a squirt of Nutridrench I left them to themselves figuring she'd do better without me around. Sure enough by morning both lambs looked fine; I'll post pics later . Anyway, in daylight I noticed the wobbly lamb has one blue eye. Does anyone else have experience with this? I am not sure if he is blind on that side - but suspect that he might be. Any ideas on how to tell and whether it will affect him much? As a boy, he is headed for the freezer anyway...