Daydreaming while waiting impatiently!

frustratedearthmother

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YAY for baby girl lambs! Hope Isabella is being a better mommy this time around. You feeling better today?
 

tortoise

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My cold is passing, I do feel better. I'm fasting today. At 27.5 hours now and will probably eat soon. I'm cooking.

Ava had **four** lambs today! She is mothering all of them! My plan is to leave them all with her but bottle feed in addition.
 

tortoise

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Nope!
We've never seen a lambing around here! Never had to assist.

Ironically, DH is on a call to assist with a lambing. The lamb is dead. Owner has been procrastinating due to the cost. They had 2 ewes needing assistance today and were trying to DIY. Oops!
 

frustratedearthmother

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Oh goodness.... ya gotta know when to stop the DIY stuff and call in reinforcements! But, glad things went great at your house!! Congrts on dem babies - and glad you're feeling better!
 

tortoise

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That person's ewe died from a torn uterus. DH wasn't confident he could have saved her if the owner had him come out right away in the morning. DH had a long day on-call, was driving home and got another call, had to turn around at our mailbox and go back in for a small animal something and didn't get home until 10 p.m.

My children were awful tonight. :he:th Thankfully DS2 went to bed easy - he may have been overtired? And DS10 is temporarily reformed and doing his chore for the day. He hasn't done his homework. :confused: I'm just over it. Headache and earache from listening to those to whine and yell for 5 hours.
 

sumi

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Congrats on the lambs! Goodness, it's not every day you hear about quads. Sorry to hear about your DH's rough day and yours with the kids :hugs I remember reading in James Herriot's wonderful books how he often wished farmers would call him sooner, instead of going the DIY route first. Understandable about the cost, but often it's better to get the vet in.
 

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I bought lamb milk replacer this morning. Quads look good. Only the smallest one drank from the bottle, but they all got a taste. That Momma though!!! Ava was a bottle baby and she remembers! SHE wanted the bottle!!! I had to take lambs out of the pen to bottle feed because she was trying to get the bottle for herself! Ava is doing great, she is as cool as a cucumber and doesn't mind me and/or DS2 in her pen and handling her babies.

Isabella - also one of my first bottle babies - is much more skittish. She's still stressing when I go in. She has ewe lambs though, so I will be in there a lot anyway to work on taming the lambs.

My sheep are getting less tame with each successive generation and that makes me a little sad. And it's getting really hard to move them around. I have 4 that will run to me and eat out of my hand. 3 of those know their names and I can halter easily and 2 are/were lead trained. So I have 4 sheep to move by leading or guiding them. Then I have 3 that need to be herded from behind and moved with pressure. That means, no matter how we try to move them, it's always chaotic. Usually funny chaotic with them being pushy for grain, but when the wilder ones spook and run, it's difficult.

This year we have better lambing pens that I hope will help me have more contact with lambs and the spooky yearling ewes. I have noticed they tame down after lambing a lot because of all the TLC and spoiling they get in the lambing pens.
 

sumi

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I couldn't help but laugh about Ava wanting the bottle!

Out of the handful of sheep I had, one was really tame. I used to be able to love on her and walk her anywhere without a problem. She was like that when I got her though, so I can't take credit for it. It's lovely when they are so easy to handle and work with.
 
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