Lamb Watch Day 3

Day 3 at Spring Grove.  We had to treat all of the lambs and ewes in the nursery pen so that they could go back out to the field.  The lambs had their tails banded, which makes the ends of the tails fall off.  The ram lambs also had their testicles banded to make them into castrates.  The ewes had their feet trimmed and treated, and were given injections to prevent against worms.

As well as treating the sheep in the nursery pen, we also had to help a Herdwick lamb whose eyelids were still sealed together - a gentle pushing apart of the eyelids sorted out that problem.

Take a look at our Day 3 video here.

Lamb Watch Day 2 - Easter 2014

Day 2, and lambs were being born all over the place.  One of the ewes needed help giving birth, as the lamb was not presenting properly.  After she had the first lamb, I had to examine her internally to check if she had another lamb inside her.

 

The Lamb Watch Day 2 video can be seen here.

Lambing, Easter 2014

We are just back from a week at Spring Grove Alpacas and Rare Breeds.  We were helping with the lambing again, and I was able to get involved in all sorts of interesting situations. During the week, I assisted in lambing, castrated and docked the tails of ram lambs, I gave injections to a ewe with mastitis, and I even felt inside a ewe to see if there were any lambs still to come out. 

During the week, I also made as series of videos to show what I had been up to. Here is the Day 1 video. Enjoy.

 

Pink Eye

Pink Eye is a contagious disease, spread by touch.  It can be caught by any animal. In the week we visited Spring Grove there were 4 rams with Pink Eye. It is caused by the Chlamydia bacteria, and/or Mycoplasma with secondary bacterial infection. Symptoms were the eyes weeping and inflamed, with and a cloudy look in the sheep’s eye. I helped administer the medicated cream to two of the rams. There were 2 methods which I used. The first method was to syringe the cream through the applicator into the eye and rub it in. the second method was to put some cream on my thumb and then rub it directly into the eye, gently. The cream stops the pink eye being contagious for 20 minutes, but there is an injection you can administer directly into the eye that is a lot longer lasting.

 

Applying cream straight into the eye of Ice, a Shetland Ram.

 

Outbreaks of Pink Eye are common through summer and autumn. If any of your animals have Pink Eye you should set them aside from the herd to contain the outbreak and prevent contamination of the other animals.  Then you should contact your local vet.

 

Breeding Rare Breed Sheep

There are many rare breed sheep in the UK, such as Boreray, Soay, Jacobs and Grey Face Dartmoor. To keep these breeds from going extinct we need to keep the bloodline pure whilst preventing in-breeding (where 2 sheep that are closely related, e.g. a father and daughter, breed). In-breeding commonly causes birth defects.

In order to ensure the bloodline is pure without being in-bred, farmers must record the breeding of their sheep so that they can track which ram breeds with which ewe, and which lambs they have.  Every sheep has an ear tag with its identification number, and the identification number of the breeder.  The farmers can use these records to keep track of their breeding stock.  Once a ram has been used several times, a farmer may sell it on and buy a new, unrelated ram to replace it.

The Boreray are the rarest native sheep in the UK, with only about 300 sheep.  It must be very hard to find an unrelated ram in such a small gene pool.

A Grey Face Dartmoor Ewe at Spring Grove

Tupping Time at Spring Grove

It is tupping time at Spring Grove.  As they breed rare breed sheep at Spring Grove it is important to mate the correct ram with the ewes in order to maintain the purity of the breed.  Click on the link to see a video where I talk to Scott Harding about the key attributes he looks for in a good stud ram.

How to Warm your Dragon

I have a Bearded Dragon, called Spike. Recently he hasn’t been eating and his faeces have been mostly urates rather than faecal matter.  Last week, we decided to take him to the vet.

Bearded dragons, like all reptiles, are ectotherms (cold blooded) and cannot regulate their own body temperature.  They need to be kept at the right temperature when they are out of their vivarium.  If you do not keep them warm it will affect their bodily functions, such as digestion – which only happens between 100-115 deg F.  This is why you will see them basking on a hot rock after they have eaten.

 

The Trip There

On the trip to the vet, we used a plastic bucket, lined with newspaper and with a towel which we had warmed in the tumble dryer. 

The Trip Back

After the long stay at the vet, the towel had gone cold, so this would not work for keeping Spike warm on the way back.  Instead we got a hand warmer, activated it, and put it under the towel (so that his claws would not puncture it).  This generated enough heat to keep Spike warm on the way back home.