TexelTup22
Member
- Location
- Llanidloes in mid wales
I dont know weather others are having a bad start to lambing but I can tell you I am. I have just started lambing and I have alot of dead lambs to start of with. Why?
Dead lambs
- Thread starter TexelTup22
- Start date
Sheep
Member
- Location
- Northern Ireland
More info needed! What kind of issues are you having with them?
Blod
Member
+1
Full term? Detached placenta? Ages of ewes? Vaccination status? Condition score? The list is endless. It's always a bit sh1te to start though. Numbers mean nothing, it's % that counts.
TexelTup22
Member
- Location
- Llanidloes in mid wales
Well im just having a strange time for examble a ewe had twins the other day 1 of them was a huge lamb and he died in 1-2 minutes of living and then the second one came and he was tiny and he survived. And other little problems that I knwo about. And 1-2 of my neighbours have had the same problem
- Location
- Montgomeryshire
I've had a few too many that have been dead a couple of days or so. Can't think of any reason for it, and ewes are fit & well.
Downton_shep
Member
- Location
- Leintwardine
This is when being a smoker comes in handy!My fun was getting to pull rotten lambs out bit by bit yesterday, out of two ewes and one of them went and bloody died 3 hrs later, got another looking like it's going to be the same.
retching and pulling bit's out at the same time isn't easy
My fun was getting to pull rotten lambs out bit by bit yesterday, out of two ewes and one of them went and bloody died 3 hrs later, got another looking like it's going to be the same.
retching and pulling bit's out at the same time isn't easy
I had a triplet ewe like that last year. Think it put the wannabe vet student off - and he was at the head end! I was double gloved, scrubbed a layer of skin off in the shower and could still smell it.....
- Location
- Montgomeryshire
Derma Shield is the stuff you want. It's a barrier cream in an aerosol. Rub it on your hands beforehand and it stops the gunk getting into your pores.
- Location
- Aberdeenshire
In 20 lambs born so far from 11 ewes I've had two (largest) of triplets die with full bellies after 3 days, a deformed jelly legged lamb and dead lamb behind a live lamb that cost me a vet visit to get out since the ewe prolapsed immediately before giving birth. I can only put it down to the shi**y start to lambing. I just hope it lambing comes in like a lion it will go out like a lamb, literally.
exmoor dave
Member
- Location
- exmoor, uk
Filling up the death records today, up to a A4 page and a half so far on just the early flock...........looked back to 2013, where I filled in a page and a half for the both flocks for the WHOLE year
Had loads of tiny rat lambs out of the grimmers scanned to twins. Spoken to the vet and it's looking like campylobactor..........only just got on top of the toxo problem last year and something else shows up!
Had loads of tiny rat lambs out of the grimmers scanned to twins. Spoken to the vet and it's looking like campylobactor..........only just got on top of the toxo problem last year and something else shows up!
llamedos
New Member
Derma Shield is the stuff you want. It's a barrier cream in an aerosol. Rub it on your hands beforehand and it stops the gunk getting into your pores.
+1 and breathe through your mouth not nose, the stench stays in the nasal receptors, if you cant do that, dab of vick in each nostril
edn
Member
- Location
- Oxfordshire/Gloucestershire
Not going well here either- had a bad start with a first timer lambing early out in the field- lambs done by crows and the ewe died within three hours of lambing. NZ Romney x ewe as well, really disappointed as it's the first Romney we've lambed on the place!
Since then pedigree ewes have been lacking a bit of milk, lambs are ok but ewes are not getting going and I've tubed lambs to find them dead within a matter of hours. Mortality is too high at the minute. Mind you Southdowns are usually pretty hopeless as mothers so it's what to expect really.
Still got the mid April lambing flock to come so hopefully it'll pick up. Good luck to everyone else, sounds like not a great start for many people.
Since then pedigree ewes have been lacking a bit of milk, lambs are ok but ewes are not getting going and I've tubed lambs to find them dead within a matter of hours. Mortality is too high at the minute. Mind you Southdowns are usually pretty hopeless as mothers so it's what to expect really.
Still got the mid April lambing flock to come so hopefully it'll pick up. Good luck to everyone else, sounds like not a great start for many people.
Dad always reckons that you get the crap at the vey beginning and at the very end. Had 2 lambs drown in water buckets in adjacent mothering pens one morning. Still not sure how they got in the damn things!
If its any consolation though, was talking to a bloke who lambs a tidy number of ewes and he reckoned he hadn't lost one lamb. And all the ewes had gone out with twins or triplets. He is known for being slightly creative with the truth though.
Maybe lambing is getting to me because I could of sworn I saw the knacker lorry coming out of his drive yesterday morning!!
If its any consolation though, was talking to a bloke who lambs a tidy number of ewes and he reckoned he hadn't lost one lamb. And all the ewes had gone out with twins or triplets. He is known for being slightly creative with the truth though.
Maybe lambing is getting to me because I could of sworn I saw the knacker lorry coming out of his drive yesterday morning!!
Gatehouse Farm
Member
- Location
- Kent
Have a shite feast here as well! Not due to start lambing until a week today and so far I have lost 2 ewes, 4 singles, 4 twins, 2 triplets and have another twin up there now straining. Not a happy bunny I can tell ya. I would say condition score is about 3, they are getting a 18% nut with ad lib hay and bedded on spring barley straw. Had one lot of rotten lambs, 1 watery belly and 1 little brown almost mummified lamb and the rest have been ok but premature and dead! Quite a few of the ewes have started lambing then almost given up and when investigated they haven't opened up properly. It would be really nice to get some live ones on the ground.I dont know weather others are having a bad start to lambing but I can tell you I am. I have just started lambing and I have alot of dead lambs to start of with. Why?
- Location
- Aberdeenshire
Main feature of my lambing so far has been a lack of water bags indicating when the ewes were beginning. I'm around the shed a lot but have to really watch out for ewes that are a bit out of sorts but not pushing franticly. Heads seem to hit the birth canal first and then hold the bag back. Lambs aren't massive but just seems the way things are going this year. Plenty of brown lambs born so far.
On a positive side tho', having acclimatised my ewes to my farm for a year the fertility rate appears to have risen from mostly singles last year to mostly pairs this year.
On a positive side tho', having acclimatised my ewes to my farm for a year the fertility rate appears to have risen from mostly singles last year to mostly pairs this year.
- Location
- Herefordshire
I assume by your name that you are lambing Texels, If so then the large lamb could be down to a difficult lambing where there is a pulse but you just can't get the lamb to breath.Ive had a few like that over the years, and yet can can have another difficult lambing where the lamb is ok.Think it is down to how long the ewe has been trying and how much the lamb is stressed inside, also a lttle like longlowdog's experience where the ewe hasn't really started yet the lamb can be twisted inside and the head in the birth canal.