Days 13 & 14: Switched at Birth... and also a few days after!

"Human I demand grain"

I guess this post will be to catch us up on both days 13 and 14 (approximately in that order). Days run together here, with the near-constant light and the odd hours we are working.

First of all, our orphans were adopted! We had a very fortunate occurrence: two ewes carrying single lambs went into labor at about the same time. Adoptions are most likely to be successful if the lamb is presented to the mother before her own lamb is born. When we can, we collect amniotic fluid from other births. Then, when a single ewe goes into labor and is dilated and pushing, we take a lamb in need, dunk it in warm water, and then the amniotic fluid, and present it to her as if she birthed it (oddly, the adoptive mothers rarely question why their "newborn" lamb is up and walking and often already has ear tags...). Because our two orphans, themselves adoptive brothers, are so close, both emotionally and in terms of how well they compete for milk (we usually can't adopt out very large or very small lambs for this reason), we gave them both to the first ewe who gave birth and gave her own lamb to the second ewe. When I took the first lamb out of the orphan box to dunk him, the second leaped out of the box after us, so it's good they stayed together! They have a strong bond.

Our next interesting case is that of two lambs who got separated from their moms while they were in the group pens. As you can see from the second picture, all the group pens are connected by the food trough. Occasionally, a particularly curious lamb hops up in there to explore. Usually they go back to mom and their pen on their own, or are found in the hay feeder, or discovered by someone noting a mismatch of the number of lambs. But it was discovered that two lambs had gotten misplaced, and it had gone unnoticed for several days because they were in each other's jugs, so that the counts were correct! Both family reunions were spoiled, however, by the fact that the mothers no longer recognized their own lambs! They go by smell, and neither lamb smelled like their mother anymore.  Most ewes fiercely protect their udders from other lambs as they do not want their own to go hungry. We had to tie both ewes up so that their babies could nurse again. Luckily, both ewes re-accepted their lambs after about a day.

White wagtails are insectivorous, and welcome visitors in the barn!

Most of the mothers graciously let their babies use them as a bed.

Some more sheep snuggle buddies, my favorite photographic subject. 

Lamb puddle. Green marks on the back denote they are triplets.

Since I'd missed out on the "fun" of trimming the ram's horns, Helgi taught me to trim the horns of a ewe whose horns were so long they were starting to rub at the wool on her shoulders.

She doesn't look too resentful...right?

He later showed us how to make lamb coats like the one Carly talked about in her post. We all watched, as it could be useful someday, but Carly was the only one brave enough to try it. Our ewe with the swollen vulva from yesterday was arbitrarily named Loretta, because we'd been calling her "Puffy Butt" which is accurate but kind of a tragic name and I decided she needed a better one. She was no less puffy despite lots of antibiotics and some careful cleaning of her hind end, so Carly gave her an ice and aloe compress. Loretta is very sweet and takes all these treatments in stride.

Loretta, non-puffy end.

In the evening a ewe tried to run Carly down while she was being transferred to a jug, but Carly was able to grab a barrier and block her in time. Another ewe in labor was apparently done with pushing and decided that I was her lamb instead, and tried to clean me off as I worked to get her lambs out. She succeeded in removing the duct tape from my boots.

Day 14 was a bit calmer and quieter. We did lots of transfers from the jugs to the group pens.

I'd write an explanation for this face, but I don't have one.

Carly with several lambs in the basket and mom following behind.

Putting lambs in the pen so mom will follow.

We had a bit of panic when Carly found a ewe with only one hind leg sticking out from her backside, but luckily Snaedis was there and got the lamb untangled and out alive. Pip's brother was adopted out a little while ago, and she's been taking advantage of all the extra milk! She's rounder, but unfortunately no taller.

Grace, Pip, and Snaedis finding out that Pip will nibble anything.

Kruna's babies and their new friends/partners in crime.

Becca Jr. and her lambs.

Sheep in the driveway. They are also everywhere else, as many of the ewes and lambs have been turned out now.

One ewe complained during early labor, but when she was dilated enough for me to check the position of her lamb, I found it was undeliverable, head-only. Once I fixed this, she was quiet! Carly did a great job untangling some large lambs, and although one struggled a bit after birth, he will likely recover.

View from the basement window after night shift.