Lamb Watch Day 5

It was a quiet day today, with no new lambs, but there was still plenty to do.  We got stuck in to the yard work, feeding the chickens and rabbits, and mucking out the pygmy goats.  We also had to give a couple of alpacas vitamin injections.

Tsunami is feeding well, as are Proton and Neutron, the two Castlemilt Morrit lambs born on day one.  We also want to introduce you to the new members of the O'Shea herd, which we bought at market - Hook, Line & Sinker.  Hook is a Blue-Faced Leicester ewe, and Line is her daughter - a Blue Faced Leicester cross.  Sinker is a beautiful black Blue Faced Leicester ewe lamb.  Hook has such a beautiful fleece - very fine and in tiny spirals.

Find the Day 5 video here.

Lamb Watch Day 4

Day 4 was so exciting.  Last year we bought a Grey-Faced Dartmoor ewe at the sales.  We called her Storm.  She went to the ram last November, and today she gave birth to her first lamb - a pretty little ewe lamb.  We named the lamb Tsunami because she was born so quickly.  I put iodine on Tsunami's umbilical cord and then helped take Tsunami and Storm up to the pairing pen. 

Trying to get a Grey-Faced Dartmoor to follow her lamb up to the pairing pen was quite difficult as her fleece is so long she has difficulty seeing her lamb, and kept running off in the wrong direction.  We ended up having to bring her up in the back of the truck.  Once in the pairing pen we gave her a trim around the face and the udders, so she could see her lamb and so the lamb could get to the udder.

Take a look and see Storm and Tsunami in this Lamb Watch video.

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