Hi folks,
Friday morning 2/25/05, one of my youngest pregnant Barbados Blackbelly ewes, Millie, had twins. I expected a single since she was so young (born 02/10/04). But she had twins -- a ewe and a ram. The ram weighed 3.0 lb. and the ewe weighed 3.75 lb. From the start, the ewe lamb was a little stronger.
I remembered how last fall I had a set of very small twins -- ram and ewe -- born to a young mother. The boy was 3.75 lb., and the girl was 4.25 lb. I tubed the boy twice, and did not tube the girl at all. The boy thrived, and the girl seemed to be doing fine, but she suddenly died at about 3 days of age. The little ram lamb thrived and within a month he was as big as all the other lambs born that season.
There are not many polled Barbados Blackbelly ram lambs being born at Bellwether Farm, nor anywhere these days. The breed is rare, and we polled breeders are doing the best we can to keep them from disappearing as a breed. We welcome each one into the world, and hope for the best for them. Still, there are always questions concerning the reasons for low birth weight babies. But now didn't seem to be the time to ask those questions, with two helpless babies and a young first-time mother.
So with that in mind, I vowed to tube both twins this time. The lambs were born around 6 a.m., and at 7:00 a.m., I got out my lamb tube and a 2 oz. syringe, and I mixed up some colostrum replacer. I heated it to lukewarm, and out in the barn I grabbed the little boy, sat on a bale of hay, and dangled him by his front legs with one hand (holding his head back with one finger). I gently put the slender tube down his throat with the other hand (helps if you put vegetable oil on the tube), as far as it would go. He was comfortable and didn't struggle. Then I sat down on a hay bale, still holding him on my lap, facing outward. I connected the upward end of the tube to the open 2-oz. syringe, and poured in the colostrum replacer to an inch of the top. I put the plunger in, and gently lowered the plunger, holding lamb and tube upright, as the milk disappeared inside the little boy. When it was all in, I slowly withdrew the tube. He wagged his little tail.
I set him back in the lamb jug, picked up the little girl lamb and repeated the process. Both seemed satisfied. That same evening, I repeated the process, tubing both lambs a second time. You don't want to do this too much, as it can be hard on their throats and stomachs. But two times is probably OK, and can definitely save these little lives.
During all this time, the young ewe stood in the lamb jug being quiet and cooperative. She allowed me to examine her udder, which was soft and warm, and she allowed her lambs to seek out her teats with no problem. She gently pushed them toward her, cleaned and licked them, and tried to help them. The lambs, especially the little boy, just seemed slightly weak and a little confused about everything.
These little lambs were so small, possibly a little premature, and just didn't seem to "get it" as far as figuring out how to nurse. So the tubing was probably essential in their case, to get them off to a good start. The following day (Saturday), I observed the lambs, and noticed that the little girl lamb figured out how to nurse, and was actively going at it. But all day I never observed the little boy nursing. So I gave him a bottle of the leftover colostrum mixture (2 oz.) on Saturday evening. I was really worried about him, but hoped for the best. Also on Saturday evening, I put a heat lamp above the lamb jug, just to make sure that things stayed warm enough so that the lambs didn't develop hypothermia.
On Sunday morning, I finally noticed the little boy lamb going after his mother's teat and pushing on her udder, the same as the little girl lamb was doing. So he had apparently made a "breakthrough", and was finally getting the idea of nursing. Hooray! Through the day, I got to see him nursing several times. So I am hopeful that the brief intervention on my part was just enough to help these babies over the difficult first two days in their lives. I don't know if the delay in the ram lamb's enthusiasm was due to his weakness, his lack of development, or what. But regardless, he seems to have made it out of the woods, we hope!
Should I have tubed these lambs or not? People can say what they want about letting nature take its course in the raising of young lambs. I am aware that survival of the fittest is one of the animal husbandry ideas which have possibly resulted in Blackbelly sheep being so strong and resilient as a breed. So I struggled with myself, trying to decide whether to intervene or not. But now that I have two nursing lambs on the road to weight gain and normal development, I am glad that I tubed these twins. In this case, I am certain that this made the difference between life and death for at least one if not both of these babies. And I am also fairly confident that if this mother ewe had been older, she may have succesfully carried these lambs to a bigger size before birth, and this might not have been an issue. We will never know. But at least these lambs will have a chance to live another day, and possibly make it to maturity.
Just thought I would share these thoughts with everyone in case you find yourself in this situation anytime soon.
Sincerely,
Mary Swindell
=============================================== This message is from the 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]/
