So my mama ewes that did not get pregnant by Tank before he left last fall, got pregnant by Viserys - have all (but one) given birth. We are now up to 32 lambs on the farm.
Of course, it's pretty common in winter for the lambs to be born on the coldest, snowiest nights. No snow, but they did manage to pick some rainy, muddy days to give birth so far this spring. We have a few issues this spring. Peppermint Patty, one of Shirley's offspring, has a raging case of mastitis. I don't think we can clear this one up at all. She is very attentive to her girls, but they do require milk supplements. Thankfully I had stocked up on colostrum replacer and powdered milk, just in case. They are doing well, and the bottle feedings have not broken the bond with mama.
Judy managed to give birth to twins in a muddy spot. I am speculating here, because that is likely not the case, but one of her two had a really swollen eye. It can be common for lambs' eyelids to invert, causing irritation and swelling. This is not the case. So at quick glance, I figured something got in her eye during lambing. I flushed it with penicillin and thought I would keep an eye on it.
That didn't seem to work, and later that night, her eye was still swollen, and so was her nose. Now we are thinking sinus infection. The meds I had on hand would not do the trick.
Sometimes it takes a village. I called my neighbor who brought over a dose of what I needed, and then reached out to facebook to find more. I had to order meds and since it was a Friday night, I couldn't get anything delivered until today. So, thankfully for another neighbor, I found two more doses.
Her eye had been swollen so badly that she could not see out of it. Not being able to see, she couldn't keep up with mom on the pasture, so she wasn't eating enough. Not eating, she was getting tired, and just sleeping a lot.
So, the right antibiotic, paired with some bottle feedings, some medicated cream for her eye, and extra electrolytes to fight the diarrhea from the antibiotics... she's on the mend. Her nose is no longer swollen. Her eye has cleared up some and she can see out of it. She's back to feeding from mom and playing in the pasture, I think we turned the corner on this one.
All my ewes have given birth either in the winter, or this spring, except for Princess Celestia, who is definitely pregnant. There is a possibility that the winter ewes will birth again at the end of summer or early fall. So we may get two full rounds of lambs this year!