Today was the first day in about a week or so that the weather was going to play nice.
This means that things we've had to put off recently can now be done, namely drenching the sheep and trimming their feet up as well.
So, by about lunchtime we are all set. Just as I was about to get properly organised, we had a visitor. Not too bad, the visitor is a nice guy and always up for a chat. He's also a wealth of information when it comes to sheep, so I pick his brains on a regular basis.
Whilst we were chatting, my daughter came and told me that the twins (lambs) were on the wrong side of the fence from their mum. Off I go to rescue them, AFTER turning the electric fence off first. These little guys were constantly trying to go through the fence and were being zapped every couple of seconds.
After a quick rescue, it was back to my cuppa whilst we continue chatting.
My daughter then comes to me and says the two lambs I rescued are down the bottom of the paddock and can't get up.
Off I go at a job, only to get about 30 feet away from them to discover that it is two little newborns. They can't get up because they have only just been born. I back away slowly and make my way back to my, now almost cold, cuppa.
Well, that changes the plans a little. No rounding up the ewes today which means no drenching and no feet trimming. It can wait.
After about two hours I notice that the ewe that has just lambed has abandoned her babies. They are calling and she seems oblivious to them. The little girl struggles to her feet and makes her way over to her mum, only to be shunted away.
This is not good.
It was decided that I would catch the lambs, dry them off (they still had sac all over them) and put them in the sunshine. As I was drying them off, they started complaining, so their mum started coming over. A good sign, or so I thought. Instead of licking them, or even talking to them, she proceeded to headbutt them. I stepped in and picked them both up.
We decided to separate her from the mob and put her in a pen with her lambs. Usually this is enough for the ewes to decide that they are going to look after their lambs. Instead of this happening, the ewe set about stepping on, and headbutting her lambs. I scooped them up, brought them inside and gave them some brown sugar in water.
I wanted to give them a boost, but I knew they hadn't had colostrum so I didn't hold out much hope. I relented and gave them a 1/8 mix of lamb milk replacer.
About an hour after that, my son (17yo) came out and we caught the ewe and put the lambs on to drink. They weren't strong enough, so my daughter brought out a jug and I proceeded to milk a very irate ewe. She kicked constantly and almost got her lambs a couple of times.
It's now 8:35PM and the lambs are in a box in my lounge room. They have had about 30 mls of colostrum each, and three feeds of lamb milk replacer (about 100mls) each. Snuggled up to a heat pack, these little guys (guy and girl) seem content and quite happy.
I'm keeping my fingers crossed that they survive.
They'll get another feed or two tonight, and I'll milk the ewe again in the morning before turning her back out with the mob. If they make two weeks old, I might just give them each a name.
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