It is not a good start to lambing season. A ewe (#309) had triplet lambs, but only one is alive. A small lamb appeared to be cleaned off, but perhaps was trampled by the other sheep. A larger lamb was born dead. True to form, one of the older ewes (#81) tried to steal the lamb. In fact, I orginally penned her with the lamb, until I noticed another ewe was interested in the lamb and had a discharge from her vagina.
It is always discouraging to start this way, though invariably problems occur early in the lambing season. I know that there will be many healthy sets of twins and triplets, but it is hard to get past this first delivery that only resulted in 1 live birth out of 3. It is especially frustrating because you seldom know the cause of still births. I had taken added precautions by including antibiotics in the grain. So much for that.
It would be nice, if tomorrow morning, there were a healthy set of twin or triplet lambs (or kids) waiting for me. I've got my fingers crossed. Max is hoping, too.
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