Neighbors Ewe
I think I mentioned a week or so about Clyde and Amber’s Ewe that was due the first, but went down almost 3 weeks ago and they hadn’t been able to get her up to stand. They moved her from the pasture to the sheep shelter and she continued to eat and drink, just not get up.
A couple days ago she started getting weaker, and not moving a lot and not resisting when Clyde and Amber would rolled her over everyday.
Today we stopped over to see if she lambed yesterday. Amber came out and said, “how did you know I needed and OB team”. Thus started our experience for the day. (if you are expecting a happy ending, don’t finish reading this)
To say this was a dilemma is an understatement. They were going to loose the ewe eventually no matter what. They would loose the babies also. We discussed the situation, and how we could help if needed.
The decision was made to put the ewe out of her misery and try to save the babies. Amber is a nurse so she decided she would take care of the babies if they were still alive. Clyde didn’t think they were. We decided to try anyway.
Shari and I came home and got our coveralls on and boots and our lambing kit and went back over. Everyone was ready to start. Clyde put the ewe down. Basically I did a ” C ” section on her. Everyone knows what that is so I won’t go into details. I might mention here that Amber made 3 phone calls to area vets while Shari and I were home gathering things up, and couldn’t find any of them that could come out, or even talk to her.
I found the first lamb and it was alive, but didn’t feel real strong. I delivered it to Amber who was waiting with a towel. I found a second one and handed that one to Shari who was waiting with a towel also. The second one was in the same physical shape as the first.
We cleared mucus from their mouth and noses and rubbed them vigorously with the towels. The first one was breathing but in gasps. That eventually stopped and he was breathing but not real well. Shari and Clyde were working on the second one with the same results.
We decided they were about a week premature and the lungs weren’t fully developed yet, and the procedure of coming thru the birth canal with the contractions to help with the breathing part was missing so they were having a hard time clearing their lungs. Their little bodies also felt very, ahhh, I guess disconnected is the best word here. They felt like little rag dolls.
We worked on the little things for almost 2 hours before we had no heart beat. Chest massages, mouth to mouth, nose to nose etc. We used syringes to help clear mucus, and to blow air into them.
Looking back on the experience, as we often do, there wasn’t anything that could have been done differently.
Did we feel badly, certainly. Did we feel we did everything we could? Yes. When you think about what would have happened if the mom died during the night, the little ones would have also. We tried to give them a chance. I think the cards were stacked against them from the start.
I really hate to refer to this as a learning experience, but it was. It just would have been so much better if the ending had been different.
Their next ewe should lamb in a few days. Hopefully that will go better than this one did.
Will keep everyone posted.
Cindy
