Today my day began around at 8 am after a 8-12 shift the night before. Melissa had taken the night shift and filled me in on a difficult birth which had left a ewe lamb unable to use her hind end. She was placed in a box as her mother pawed her vigorously to get up which only made things worse. I spent about an hour doing PT with her that morning. Moving the legs and starting to add resistance. On my evening shift I repeated the PT and she made slow steady progress throughout the day and is now doing great. As a precaution her mother has been marked as a stay at home fields with the purple. Just incase.
An extremely small ewe lamb arrived over the night. She is so small the scale cannot register her. Despite her small size she refuses to give up. Her two normal sized siblings are big eaters, so we collect from other ewes who have more to give and feed her hourly. She is cozy under a heat lamb. Her front legs have a bit to much mobility in the lowest joint. She tends to walk on her heals instead of her hooves. I suspect with time she will straighten out. 
I helped sneidis tag some lambs by recording weight color and mother's number. This can get tricky when we have had to swap around many lambs to make everything work. Record keeping is so important. I did my best to pronounce the rams names and failed miserably but it made for a good laugh. Upon entering a pen to tag some lambs the mother did not get up. At first I thought wow what a calm mother, upon feeling her ears she was ice cold her udder is just massive and producing so much took it's toll on the older ewe. This is our second case of milk fever, and for a flock this big that is really good. I added some extra grain in front of her which she did not touch and further confirmed out concerns. Animals with milk fever need to be boosted with calcium as fast as possible. Grace and I did several injections adding to 80 ml of a calcium based serum in the morning.The other milk fever ewe received her calcium as well, lower dose of 40 ml day two. Both are doing great. Stalls with milk fever are marked with orange duck tape. Melissa and grace followed in the evening with more injections.
The second ewe lamb with mobility issues had not made any progress. The best I could do was keep her fed and on dry bedding. She is to weak to stand and now suckles lying down. Her mum is so kind to allow us all in her space to help the little lamb. She has since been euthanized and is in a better place. Rest in peace little angel<3
Our swollen ewe who we named Loretta is finally starting to return to normal. Around her tail head is still quite tight and swollen but we are seeing progress! She continues to eat and produce for her two lambs. She is amazing.
Helgi Grace and I tackled two mum's who needed to have cysts expressed/ lanced. No pictures of this. Because. It was. Nasty. One was a knee joint abscess of sorts, I noticed the lambs we're nursing off of her while she was laying down( meaning she was not getting up very often) upon inspection her right knee was very swollen medially. She was happy to have the pressure relieved. The other was a cyst near the tail head of a ewe who has yet to give birth. Best we relieve that pressure now so it didn't burst in our faces while we pulled a lamb from her. Yes. Yum.
Many beautiful healthy lambs arrived today with the help of Grace Melissa and myself. Through the ups and downs seeing new mom's lick a baby clean is just heartwarming. A difficult birth called for helgies assistance in my night shift later that evening. A ewe had pushed a head through a very tight cervix. Once pulled out Helgi have her CPR to bring her back. I grabbed the bourbon and dabbled her nose and mouth to stimulate a big breath, as well as moved her legs in a running motion and kept her head up. It is truly amazing these lambs can endure so much. Less than an hour later she was up and nursing. A blessing truly.
Here is a great lamb pile of cuteness, and below some happy lambs and moms out on pasture by the house. 
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