The past two days have been quite an emotional roller-coaster.

Wednesday night, I got up every 2 hours and went out to the barn to tube 1 oz of milk into each of the surviving baby lambs.  I milked Emmi and used her own colostrum thinned with a little splash of warmed milk replacer.  The colostrum is thick and yellow like Squeeze Parkay (liquid margarine), so it doesn't like to run through the tube.

Yesterday (Thursday) morning, I reweighed each of Emmi's surviving lambs and discovered that the weaker lamb (#3 in birth order who was the smallest of the two survivors) was actually a ewe-lamb and not a ram-lamb.  When she was born she was a little prune-y looking and I had mistaken a roll of wrinkled skin on her abdomen for a scrotum.  After being unsuccessful at reviving the stillborn lamb, I was in a hurry trying to keep the 2 lambs alive.  So I really just made a quick glance.  I was pleased to see that the lambs had each gained 3-4 oz of weight in their first 15 hours of life.  Both had pooped out their black fetal poop, so I could tell they were digesting and moving milk through their systems.  The smaller, weaker lamb also seemed to be gaining more control of her head movement.  And when I took her in an adjacent pen to tube feed her (so Emmi couldn't "help"), she responded to her mother by baa-ing back.

But by 2:00 in the afternoon, it was clear that the smaller lamb was becoming weaker and more lethargic.  The larger lamb had started pooping the yellow poop of baby lambs (from drinking milk) but had a slight case of diarrhea.  Diarrhea isn't all that rare when a lamb is being fed "artificially" because while we may try duplicate nature's schedule (frequent feedings of small amounts of milk), we are not as good as nature.  I started her on Specto-guard Scour-check which has given me very good results before.  It is actually a baby pig medicine that is used off-label for baby lambs.  (Because sheep are considered a "minor species" in the U.S. almost no medicines or de-wormers are actually labeled for them.  You can use them but should have a working relationship with a vet, so you are using them with his/her approval.) 

I have been milking Emmi and using her milk for the lambs.  (I just milk her out by hand which always makes me feel a bit Amish.)  I have also been milking out extra and just keeping it in the refrigerator for now in case her production declines.  Sometimes ewes get a drop in milk production when they are switching from colostrum to milk.  But so far that hasn't happened.  Emmi has a ton of milk this year -- Plenty for the 3 lambs that she was carrying.  I don't want to risk her getting mastitis and I want Emmi to continue to produce milk.

By evening, the larger lamb's stools were firming up, but the smaller lamb had lapsed into a coma.  At least she was in no distress or pain.  Overnight, she was just permanently asleep under the warmth of the heat lamp.  My vet is out of town until Monday night, so I didn't have any way to get her euthanized in the evening.   While I could have driven her out to my friend Cindy's house (her husband is a vet), that is 2 hours each way.  I didn't dare leave the more viable lamb for 4 hours (when I am still tube feeding her every 3 hours) to end the life of the other lamb who was not suffering.   I also noticed that the smaller lamb was no longer peeing or pooping even when Emmi would try to clean her.  It seemed her digestion was shutting down.  The milk that I had put in her belly was still there (you could feel it from the outside).

I continued to tube feed the larger lamb switching to an every-3-hour schedule since she was now on her second day of life.  I follow the schedule that Laura Lawson gives in her book "Managing Your Ewe and her Newborn Lambs".  It tells you to figure out the lamb's weight in ounces, multiply by 20% (or .2) then divide that amount by the number of feedings per day on a schedule according to the lamb's age.

By this morning, the smaller lamb had died.  I had decided that if it was still alive today, I would try find another vet to put it to sleep.  I was grateful that God had made that decision for me.  Rest in peace little lamb.  You were beautiful and I'm sorry we didn't get to spend more time with you.

I weighted the remaining lamb and she was up to 5 lbs 2 oz.  Emmi is very protective of her one remaining lamb and is being a very good mama.  After the other lamb was dead, she seemed to know and no longer seemed concerned about it.

The national average for lamb mortality is 14%.  Even with the 2 deaths this year the lamb mortality on our farm has been 5% over 5 years of lambing.  (We didn't have lambs in 2005.)  Assuming that the next three ewes have no problems with their lambs, that percentage will fall further.  (I am expecting about 9 more lambs this year.)  My vet has always told me that I am lucky because nobody is that good -- He is a vet with spoiled show sheep and he isn't that good.  I knew that one year my luck had to run out.  I just hope that this isn't the year. 

I will take a photo of Emmi's adorable lamb this evening and post here later...

The four older lambs from Eeva and Mara seem so big and strong now.  It is like they are already professionals at being a lamb.