"The Cycle"

This is sweet "Kitchi" minutes after birth.  His name is Algonquin for, "brave one."  Brave he was, as was his mother, "Gracie."  He was 11# at birth.  He is a Jacob/Churro lamb.  He has very curly, jet black fleece, with dapplings of white.  He will have horns as it's in his genetics.

At 10 a.m. last Friday, "The Man" came into the house and told me to come check our ewe "Gracie."  We knew she was soon to lamb but weren't quite sure when.  When I approached the lambing jug she had chosen, she was in obvious signs of labor.  I assumed she was in the first stage of labor and would present a bag of water soon.  "The Man" and myself stayed in the jug with "Gracie."  We timed a half hour, cooing and speaking softly to "Gracie" giving her words of encouragement, this was her first lambing.  About fifteen minutes into the labor, I realized something was amiss................a thought that had plagued me for most of her pregnancy.  Another push from the ewe and I saw................one hoof! 

I quickly scrubbed up, went back outside and did a check on her.  The lamb was crossed up, what shepherds call "dystocia," meaning an abnormal or difficult birth...........little did we know, it would be both.  As I reached further into the ewe to locate the position of the other leg, she went down on me.  It's so much easier to correct and manipulate a "crossed" lamb when the ewe remains upright.  I did finally locate the other leg, which was further in her and bent.  Once freed and pulled down to meet the other hoove, I reached back in to locate the head.  It was stuck............BIG time.  Everytime I let go of the hooves to try and free the forehead, the lambs legs contracted back inside her.  This is the point in time that "The Man" gets his first experience with helping "birth a babe."

I had "The Man" hold onto the legs (which were a smidgen of the way out), while I further tried to help the ewe with her delivery.  Try as we might, the lamb was stuck!  We are both getting nervous as "Gracie" now isn't responding to a whole lot.........I'm fearing shock as we have worked on her now for approximately 10 minutes.  Finally, I ask "The Man" to let me have the legs, I push the lamb further inside, rotate a quarter turn and let him have the legs back.  Re-entry tells me we can now start pulling slowly.  We are both, literally sweating now, pulling and finally, out pops the head of a very sweet lamb..............he's moving..............thank you GOD.  Another moment and he is fully delivered.  I quickly place the lamb at the mouth and nose of the ewe......to no avail.  The ewe is "spent" and unresponsive!

The lamb is covered in meconium so I realize he's been in the womb too long.  I turn him over to "The Man" for clean-up and resume with my ewe.  I'm cooing her, checking her respirations, telling her to "get up."  Finally, "The Man" who is emotionally spent now, moves over and gently pushes her telling her to "get up."  She does...........oh thank GOD once again.  She is super weak.  She doesn't want anything to do with her lil' boy lamb.  We are worried.

After interminable hours, we get the ewes energy back up to snuff, give shots of penicillan, vitamins, molasses water.............she then finally takes a "sniff" of the lamb..................then a "lick" of the lamb...............then a "nuzzle" of the lamb..............longer than should have transpired, she finally let's her babe nuzzle her breast................colostrum finally in his belly, tired from his entry into the world..............they lie together and sleep. 

After four days in a lambing jug with her son, "Gracie" has turned out to be a very good mother.  She's attentive, let's him nurse as often as he wants, and will stave off other jealous ewes to protect. Fortunately for "The Man," myself, "Gracie" and "Kitchi," no signs of infection are present, he is now bouncing around although very shy with the other lambs (who are much bigger than him at this point).  He's eating alfalfa, sleeping and thriving.

This will be "Gracies" one and only babe.  She is too tiny (due to her own crippling as a lamb) to ever bare another.  I can't nor won't put her through another ordeal like this one.  Do I get rid of her, do I keep her?  I don't know the answer to that question yet................however, I will follow "my heart" when that decision needs to be made.

Welcome to the world, "Kitchi," you are a "brave one!" But then, your mama beat all odds in her own life!!!! 

Land of Nod

I'm sorry about this shot of my ewe "Freckles," my favorite pie-bald dam, but it validates this posting. 

 Poor "Freckles" is ready to lamb in the next week, she is carrying multiples.  We're not talking about twins or triplets either.  Last Spring she put out four lambs, three ram lambs and a small ewe lamb that was "silly as all get out!"  This year.....is anybodys guess, but I'm thinking at least four again, if not five!

We also have another ewe/dam that is pregnant for the first time in three years.  She took her time "smoozing" up to the ol' ram.  Now she is also carrying multiples, twins I believe.  Because most of you know that she is my sweet baby, this is just a bit nerve racking for this shepherdess.  I'm compelled to be there for both of these ewes, one may need me for support and one may need me for support and manipulation of a lamb in vitro! 

We have two other dams as well that are pregnant but my worry is not over them.  They are seasoned, sure fired sheep who know what they are doing.  Maybe it's because I have enough on my plate as it stands today.  Now "Freckles" is a well seasoned, sure fire sheep also but handling the task of lambing, cleaning and suckling four or five lambs is one, big, job.  Last year she barely had time to clean one off and another was on it's way. 

The nights are long and tiresome for me, up every two hours round the clock until lambing season is over..............I'm sleep deprived!  "The Man" helps out when he can but with a full work load I certainly don't expect him to get up every two hours during the night.....although he is missing some awesome happenings out in the world.

One-thirty a.m. April 5th.........oh my were the stars bright, and light, and the moon was yellow. I even took the time to run into the house for the camera so I could get a shot of the moon...........at one-thirty in the morning!A couple of nights in a row, the owls have been making a racket in the ol' Elm trees.  The coyotes are loud lately, food must be abundant for them.  And always you hear dogs barking off in the distance. 

Speaking of dogs, "Blue" usually heads out with me each and every time like a loyal companion, he protects me..... and he pees!  I like that he wants to go outdoors with me, often as I'm cooing to the sheep in their jugs, he lies down near my feet wondering.........."how long is she going to coo those damn sheep?"  But he waits and he's usually patient, sometimes he'll wait for me at the end of the walk-way especially if it's cold outdoors. 

When lambing season is over, and the weather is warmer, and all lambs are growing ferociously, I'll grab a great book, lie in my outdoor recliner and visit the land of nod!

"MG" the Outlaw Sheep

This is our darling "Grace," she was the second lamb born on our ranch if you count the first set of twins as one! Her mama is a Suffolk, her daddy a beautiful Jacob ram named "Patch." "Grace" has his gorgeous blaze down her nose but the hump on her back???? Neither her mama nor daddy have this congenital "thing."

"Grace" was born on March 13, 07 at 12 a.m. She weighed 8 pounds. When I found her she was under a feeder curled up in her lambing jug almost smilin'. Her mama was standing near-by. As I gathered my lambing kit from inside the ol' homestead (all the while excited we had our first ewe lamb!), I mentioned to "the man," "we have a new lamb get up!" When we both walked back out to the barn together, and entered the lambing jug, we realized something was terribly wrong with this little girl. When I knelt to gather her up in my arms to inspect her she couldn't stand, she was shivering (even though mama had cleaned her real well), her little legs would just collapse under her weight, they also looked somewhat deformed. After taking her temperature we knew she was in the stages of hypothermia, a life threatening disorder. We pulled her from her mother(which is very, very stressful for a ewe) and took her inside the ol' homestead to warm her up.

Dealing with a hypothermic lamb is a long, arduous task. First and foremost you must warm the lamb by putting them in a sink or tub of warm water, then we give our lambs an enema, this is an important step in dealing with hypothermia. The enema removes any meconium not yet evacuated from the gut of the lamb. Failing to remove the meconium causes dehydration and a spiralling downward of the lamb's temperature. The enema also helps to warm the lamb from the inside out. The next step is what we call Dextrose Therapy, preceded by a SQ (subcutaneous) injection of Vitamin B Complex, the Cal-Dextro we use is loaded with calcium, phosphorus, and magnesium. We had to inject the little thing with 2 cc per 1 pound of her body weight. Injecting many shots into a newborn is very difficult, but as a shepherd, you have to overlook the "youngness/cuteness" and go into the "saving" mode. This is not for everyone, shepherds are a special breed of people.

Our next step in this process is Vitamin Therapy, we give the lamb Vitamin A&D, Vitamin E, Procaine Penicillin and of course the B vitamins. Once we can start to see the little lamb responding to our efforts, we see if she can take warm colostrum milked from the ewe, placed in a bottle. Everyone knows how critical colostrum is to a human baby, it's the same in the animal kingdom, it's the best for them.

"MG" our Miraculous Grace, did indeed turn around and start responding, it took "the man" and myself nearly ten hours to pull her around..............but she did it, she had a will like no lamb I've seen since. However, she still could not stand on her own, her legs were "mufflefunked!" It was very frustrating for us, how was she going to go back out to her mother if she couldn't stand and nurse? How was she going to keep up with the others? There was only one thing I could do, I would have to keep her indoors in a crib, by the wood stove, and get up every few hours to let her nurse off her mother. "Grace" would cry (like any baby in the nighttime), I would get up, dress, take her out to the barn, tether the mama, and hold her on tit until she was full. After four days of this intense nurturing, she began to bare weight on two of her four legs. Eventually, she would put weight on one front leg but ever so lightly. It was then that I made the decision to put her out with her mama. I knew she would thrive better with her own than with us.

So..........I put our crippled baby out in the barn for good, it was one of the hardest things I've had to do. She had to hop everywhere mama went because naturally she followed. She hopped to nurse, she hopped when she'd first stand, she'd hop to lie down. It was also very hard for her to lie down with those two front legs crippled up, but she did it. After about a month our little "MG" started walking on all fours, mind you, you could still tell something was wrong with her legs, but she did it.

I can not tell you as a shepherdess how much joy and sadness raising sheep brings to a human. I naturally bonded deeply with this little lamb, she was my everything for a long time. I was her surrogate mother. To leave her in the hands of her own mother, GOD, and nature was hard but I did it.

"Grace" is still not a "normal" little ewe, she "Baas" differently than the others, she's small for her breed, she's shy and non-confrontational with the others, she's had to learn to look out for herself and she's done so very well. BUT, she's also a lil' outlaw which brings me back to my story.

Lately "Grace" has definitely decided that the "grass is greener on the other side." Every evening when I head out to the barn to feed I fill my cart with the BEST alfalfa I can find (which is a real challenge at times). I open the iron gate into the covered portion of the barn, fight off all the young lambs from this years crop, mamas, the Nubian goat,"Blue," and turn around to close the gate just in time to see "her heinous" stroll right out the gate into the big, free, yonder. I commence with the chore and let her go.

"Grace" has always come to her name, although she's not overly fond of lovies and hugs, and rightly so. She's afraid I'm going to give her a shot, an enema, a shearing or something "not so fun," but she comes to me. So when she's done having her little jaunt out in the BIG world I call her, she comes and loads right back into the barn. It's her special little treat and I allow it.

Now I've had a lot of people tell me I should just "put her down." I won't, I can't and I'm ever so thankful that "the man" knows this. It's a special bond the lamb and I share, we love each other, we respect each other, and I can't say you can get that in many relationships anymore.

"MG" will have a pasture, fresh food, fresh water, vitamins, shearings, the wild, for as long as she lives. She adds much to my life, they all do in one way or another, but she is one of my favorites.

The Shepherd's Lament

Now I lay me down to sleep

Exhausted by those doggone sheep;

My only wish is that I might

Cause them not to lamb at night.

I wouldn't mind the occasional ewe,

But lately it's more than just a few:

Back into bed, then up again,

At two o'clock and four a.m.....

They grunt and groan with noses high,

And in between a mournful sigh,

We stand there watching nature work,

Hoping there won't be a quirk:

A leg turned back, or even worse,

A lamb that's coming in reverse.

But once they've lambed we're glad to see

That their efforts didn't end in tragedy.

There's no emotion so sublime

As a ewe and lamb that's doing fine.

I'm often asked why I raise sheep,

With all the work and loss of sleep;

The gratification gained at three a.m.,

From the birth of another baby lamb-

How can you explain, or even show?

'Cause only a shepherd will ever know!