Mo was on the early shift this morning, and got to the barn just after 6:00 to find Aulait with a newborn Moorit girl, born at 5:55 and already nursing! Aulait is a good mother–she gave us Mocha last year and we hope this girl is another out of that mold. Aulait tends to have singles and this girl is a single too, but Aulait raises them well.
It rained hard in the night last night, but thankfully it was what I call a “Camelot” storm (in Camelot, “the rain may never fall ’til after sundown”), and was done by this morning. Mo went out to feed the pregnant ewes who are still staying out at night, and found Heiko, a Romney first-time mother, in early labor. She and Oakley stayed with her for a while to see how she progressed.
When I got there we decided that it would be best to get her into the barn where we could keep an eye on her, but she was skittish and the only way we could do that was to bring the whole group into the barn.
That was the right decision, because poor Heiko had a VERY long labor. She was in hard labor from 8:30 until 11:30, while we watched her for progress and went about our other chores, putting the horses out, cleaning their stalls, doing our daily rounds on the lambs in the jugs and cleaning the jugs and drop pen.
Heiko was working hard, and just as I would think we needed to intervene, she would make some progress, first showing a foot, then a bit later I did a minor investigation and found a second foot and a nose following, so everything was in position. But she was working and working and that nose never showed itself.
Finally after 3 1/2 hours, I became worried the lamb may die from the stress of the long labor, and I got a grip on the feet with a towel and pulled the lamb, while Mo held Heiko’s head and Heiko nervously licked Mo’s face. It was a very big boy! Heiko was shocky after the ordeal and didn’t want anything to do with that lamb at first, but we brought him over to where she was sulking, and she took a tentative lick, then decided that he was her boy and she loved him. Mo and I breathed a collective sign of relief and took a much-needed lunch break.
Mother and boy are both doing great tonight! We are 1/4 finished with lambing (8 out of 31 ewes in 4 days)and have 4 sets of twins and 4 singles, so a total of 12 lambs from 8 ewes. It was a great weekend working with Mo and I’m looking forward to Linda’s arrival tomorrow and Mo’s return next weekend!
