We had a very peaceful and happy lambing scene late this afternoon, when Bingo, one of our B-factor “Romnesians” gave birth to twins in the pasture. I had just come back from a ride and was giving my horse Cassino a bath, and Melinda was finishing the afternoon feeding when we both looked up on the hill and saw a ewe in labor. We rushed up and found Bingo licking off her first lamb with the second one on the way. The first was all cleaned off and had already nursed on her own when we gave a small pull to help number two out. Both lambs nursed, entirely on their own, within 20 minutes of being born. Bingo was the first of our “Romnesian” ewe lambs to lamb, and we were so excited to see that she did so well, on her own, and that she had two girls, and both recessive-colored! She also has a very good milk-supply, and all this gives us high hopes for our Romnesian crosses. Bingo’s lambs are 75% Romney; O’Hara from Tawanda Farms is their father and Mitt the Romney is their maternal grandfather. Bingo’s mother is the very personable Betty White, and Bingo herself is quite the character, so we have high hopes they will have some of that big East Friesian personality. Mother and daughters are doing well tonight.
Meanwhile, Celeste gave us a bit of a scare yesterday, a day after her lambs were born. She went off her feed, after eating like a horse the first day, and when we checked her temp, she had a fever of 105. We checked for mastitis, and that was negative, thank goodness. Since we hadn’t intervened in the birth, a uterine infection was unlikely, but because of the fever we treated her as if an infection were a possibility. In addition we treated her for post-partum shock, which can also manifest with a fever, and gave her some probiotic to keep her rumen on track. She didn’t eat at all yesterday, but this morning her fever was down and when we put her outside with her lambs, she grazed busily all day. Whew! So happy she is feeling better, and now she won’t be alone in the maternity ward, with Bingo to keep her company, and Bingo’s lambs to give her two a cohort to grow with.
