Farm Diary (14)
22nd April 1999
It's been a difficult week. We've had a couple of sick lambs, and the one
with the upset digestive system is no better, inspite of medicine from the
vet, live yoghurt, electrolyte solution, and lots of care.
On Monday James found a young ewe expecting triplets had given birth and had
only licked one of her lambs. There was a minature ewe lamb alive, and two
good sized ram lambs lying dead together. I don't know why, but it always
seems to be James who finds the dead lambs. He finds it a really sad sight.
The little ewe lamb was very small and weak. We milked its mother and tube
fed it. Later we turned the mother up and put it on a teat to suck as it was
very weak on its legs.
The lamb never thrived, and died the next day.
So we had a ewe who'd been expecting triplets, and now had no lambs. We'd been about to take one of Annie's triplets off her as it was being left behind by the other two and was looking rather hollow. We put the ewe (T38, they don't all have names) in an adopter crate, where she wouldn't be able to push her foster lamb away.
James trying to get the little lamb to drink.
We often do this with ewes that won't stand still for their lambs, just to make sure they have that crucial first drink of colostrum.
Little lamb dying.
T38 in the adopter crate with Annie's triplet
We've had some more mixed weather. It was lovely on Friday, Saterday and Sunday. We put most of the ewes and lambs out, and moved the calves down to the woods on Sunday. They trottted down very happily, and it was good to see the covered yard getting emptier.
Later, just as it was getting dark, James found the calves contentedly eating grass just outside the house, having come 1/2 mile up the track after breaking through the barbed wire round the woods. There was a noisy reunion with the cows when we put them back inside. They must have known that the weather was about to turn cold and wet again, as it did.
Sheep in Lower Meadow.
