Lambing season - mostly the good, sometimes "the bad, and occasionally, the ugly

THE GOOD: This is "QT", one of my registered ewes. She gave us healthy twin girls last week. 

This is "Snow White", one of my unregistered girls, but a beauty never-the-less. She also gave us another set of healthy twins last week - a girl and a boy. THE BAD: both Mommas had to deliver in the freezing cold and snow. But the St Croix hair sheep are tough. 

Here is "Sparky", the triplet who almost died three weeks ago from hypothermia and starvation. Look at him now! After being bottle fed and pampered indoors, he is bigger than his two siblings. He moves to the barn this week, and gets castrated. Then he gets trained for the show ring and blue ribbon prizes.

In all, we have 8 healthy lambs so far. I keep checking the flock several times each day. The snow melted Thursday, and I noticed another ewe, K8's "Dime", going into labor. She is the one laying down in front of the group. Two things were very unusual about her: 1st, she did not go off alone to lamb, and 2nd, she started the labor process several hours ago. Her Momma, "Booboo" (due with twins any day), looked like she wanted to help her, but couldn't. Usually they go off alone, and an hour later I see the new Momma licking and nursing babies. Not this time. Since K7 and K8 were not home, I asked K6 to load her into the truck, and we took her to the Vet's at 4:45 P.M., almost closing time.

Our Vet had a 4th year vet student with her. They went to work and soon discovered that there were two heads blocking the exit - not good. Lambs are supposed to come front feet first, then head, one lamb at a time. Thank goodness for female vets with small hands. K6 was drafted to assist with his muscles.

THE UGLY: This poor ewe had two dead lambs inside, one tiny and one large. Both looked almost mummified.  It was a chore to pull them out, in fact, Vet had to cut head off first one in order to pull it. Both had been dead for quite a while. This Momma would have been dead herself by morning if we had waited. Doc said it was first time she had ever seen this type of problem, and not sure what caused her to abort.

K6 did a great job comforting her. He gently loaded her back into the truck, and Vet student gave her a shot of antibiotics. We got her home at sunset, and again, K6 gently lifted her into the corral, and she limped off into the pasture. She was doing fine Friday morning. I asked our Vet if I should allow her to be bred again next year, and she said yes, so we'll see how that goes. Taking "Dime" to the animal emergency room was not as low priced as her name. The bill was $105. It was worth it to save the Momma, but K8 is learning about the unforeseen costs of ownership.