The Nursery Stall

It's that time of year when babies come in quantities, and the weather is not always kind. Although it has been an unusually warm December, today started to get pretty chilly out there.

When the temps start dipping below freezing, we put the animals up in the barn at night. We did recently have two lambs born on the same night, and I moved them both to the nursery stall.

We keep one stall in the barn kind of clean and dry in preparation for lambing and babies. If all goes well and the weather is OK, we let the mom and babies back out. The first two lambs that were born were strong and healthy and so were the mamas, and the weather was ridiculous (70 degrees in December?) So they got out of the stall quickly.

A few days later, and another mama had twins. I found her in the barn in the morning and moved her and the babies into the stall so they could bond. As hours went by, the lambs were great, but mama was not. This is another reason for the nursery stall. Mama was weak, shaking, and hardly able to get up. This is not a scenario where the lambs are going to be able to nurse. Keeping her in the stall allows her not have to walk to food, we can bring it to her. We were able to get her some grain, and spend time giving her vitamins, electrolytes and more to get her strength back. She made a complete turnaround.

This is mama Jewel with her twin boys. She's up and about and feeling much better.

We had another mama give birth to twins, and I moved her in the stall too. All is well with her and her babies.

Then, we had a very pregnant sheep prolapse, and I had to install a prolapse spoon. I assumed she would give birth within hours, but it took her several days. I had 2 sleepless nights as I kept watching on camera in case I needed to assist her labor.

On the left, you can see the blue prolapse spoon on Vereena. On the right, you can see Jewel napping with her lambs - she is NOT feeling well in this photo!

I went out at midnight one night as I was watching her push in earnest. She glared at me for over an hour, NOT pushing, and I decided to go back to bed. I woke up at 4:30AM, and watched on camera as she pushed out lamb number one. I made it out to the barn for lamb number 2, and to remove the spoon. It did it's job!

This is a prolapse spoon. It can be tied into the sheep's wool, but I used vet wrap to build a harness for her.

This very morning around 4:30AM, I saw another sheep pushing, and I moved her into the nursery stall to ensure the babies were born in the cushiest, dry stall, where they will stay for a day or two with mama to bond and get strong.

My plan was to let Jewel (the weak mama), Angouleme and Vereena (the prolapse mama) outside today. But I love to keep my babies safe, and the temps have now dropped to the teens. I mean, it's not like the weather is going to get BETTER for a while, and really, I usually only keep the babies inside when there are super cold days filled with SNOW. I don't like making lambs clamber around in the snow.

So this morning, I am being totally neurotic. Or maybe just "better safe than sorry". The lambs have plenty of room to play. The mamas get plenty of food and water. And no one is outside in the wind or the cold. Yup, it won't hurt to keep them inside for one more day.

AS it were, I started writing this several days ago... and the day I planned to let the babies out, I saw another mama in stages of labor. So at some ridiculous hour, like 3 or 4AM, I ran out to the barn and manuevered her into the nursery stall. And I went back to bed.

Night Time in the nursing stall. You can see clockwise from the top corner - Vereena with her two lambs, Vea (with her breech baby, unbeknownst to us all) Jewel with her twins and Angouleme with her twins.

When I came back out in the morning, mama was pushing again, with no real progress. So I grabbed a begrudging Larry and asked if he would help me. Turns out my instinct was not wrong again. When I got down to the barn, all I saw was a tail protruding from mama.

So I gloved up and I went in. It felt like an eternity, but according to camera footage, it was only a few minutes. The baby was fully breach and mama was never going to get it out that way. So I had to push baby back in a little bit, and reposition its rear legs back, so that they would come out first. And once I got the baby's legs out, I was able to pull the lamb completely out. And to me surprise, it was just fine!! We cleared it's face so it could breath and we dried it off a bit, then left mom to do the rest. As I was cleaning up, mama laid down and pushed out number two on her own.

Yup, I left everyone in the nursing stall for another day, just to be safe. The following day was going to be sunny and warmer than the previous two, so I finally caved just before the New Year, and let all the mamas and babies out into the sun. All are doing well!!