Birthing a lamb
On our 2nd day at the farm, we were heading up to the field
to check on the ewes. We found a ewe in labour and it needed some help
birthing. She was a first time mother and was very scared. Naomi caught her
with the crook and my mother held the sheep still. Naomi had to reach in and
put the lambing rope around the lamb’s head and gently pull it out. I had to
pick up the newly born lamb by the front legs and use umbilical spray to stop
the umbilical cord getting infected. The lamb was covered in birth fluids and
was very slippery. The mum would not come back to the lamb so we had to catch
her. She would not let her lamb feed at first so we had to put her head in
stocks. Eventually she let it feed and became a good mother.
I was also involved in birthing the triplets – when the
second second lamb was born, I had to wipe the fluid off the lamb’s nose so it
could breathe, and then picked it up and sprayed the umbilical cord. When the third lamb came out, it was breach
and came out backwards, but as it was tiny, that was not a problem. At first we thought it was dead because it
was blue, so Naomi wrapped it in a blanket and rubbed its sides to get it
breathing. We took it home to look after
it, but brought it back to its mum for colostrum.
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