I'm so sorry for the loss - that is such a sad thing for you and the ewe. That definately seems too long to be in labor - it's hard to say if that caused the stillborn or not, though.
For the future you may want to check on getting a bottle of oxytocin to keep on hand from your vet. This will make a ewe that is not lambing well to go into contractions and pass the lamb and/or afterbirth. You must get this from a vet. If you don't have a vet that you use regularly with whom you have a good repore, you probably won't be able to get oxytocin. You need to watch the ewe for infection - dripping or discharge from the vagina, loss of weight, not eating, lathargic. It is very likely, if that baby was dead in her for a long time, that she will have an infection. This needs to be treated quickly by flushing her vagina/uterus with antibiotics daily for a few days as well as treating systematically with antibiotics. To flush the vagina/uterus you use plastic straws that go on the end of a large syringe. Use LA-200 / oxytetracycline to clean her vagina and, if possible, her uterus (this is difficult and you may just want to squirt it in the vagina as far as possible and wash over the opening to the uterus). You'll need to do this every day for a about 3 days and then watch for any dripping from the vagina that would signal an infection - if dripping/discharge occurs, you need to continue the treatment or call a vet. You should also give antibiotics systematically (IM or SQ). Of course, if she loses her cud due to the stress or illness, give her some probios. Good luck, Onalee In a message dated 7/5/2004 10:47:13 PM Eastern Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: We had a lamb born dead this morning. This is our first round of lambing, so we are new to this. The first two ewes delivered their single lambs just fine. We think this lamb was in labor on Sunday by watching its behavior throughout the day, though it would go and graze now and then. This morning she had part of the sack/afterbirth, whatever you call it, hanging out of her, this was at 7 a.m. Finally the feet starting coming out and I could tell that it was the front feet. It took a while but the head started coming out. Once the neck was out we knew it was dead from the way it hung there. After she completely delivered it she did lick it and nudge it to get it to get up. We took the lamb and buried it. When she delivered the afterbirth she would not leave the afterbirth, just stood there looking at it. Since we are pretty sure she was in labor the day before is that too long a time to be in labor and could that be the reason it died? It looked full term, fully developed. I! could not have gotten close enough to her to pull it once we knew it was dead. I did approach her but she walked away from me quickly, and I could tell from her eyes me being there was stressing her. She fully delivered the lamb around 9 a.m. =============================================== This message is from the Barbados Blackbelly Sheep mailing list (http://www.awrittenword.com/listserv/index.html). To respond to this message, send e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe or change your membership options, go to http://lists.coyotenet.net/mailman/listinfo/blackbelly To search the archives, go to http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
