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JaeG said:
Hello everybody. Chaotic week we've had here. :th

Sadly Clara ended up with dead twin lambs. I found her prolapsed completely on Thursday morning but she also had the water bags present which indicates lambs should be on the way. I managed to reinsert her prolapse (not an easy task - it was surprisingly heavy) but I could feel that her cervix hadn't dilated and she seemed to stop having contractions.

I rang the vet who gave me three options. Option one was to wait and see if her cervix did dilate over the next 12-24 hours, option two was a c-section at a cost of $500 and could I bring her in please (we only have one car which DH uses for work so not possible), or they could come out, euthanize the ewe and cut the lambs out (they didn't give me a price on that but I don't think it would've been a cheap option, and if the lambs were already dead then how awful to kill Clara when she could have been saved).

I opted for the wait and see approach, knowing that I could end up with dead lambs. That evening her cervix still hadn't dilated, but by the morning she was having contractions. When I did an internal examination I was pretty sure we were dealing with a dead lamb.

We rang a neighbour who would've put her out of her misery if necessary but he put us onto another local who is a sheep farmer and she was brilliant. She talked me through getting out the first dead lamb over the phone (which was the most physically demanding thing I have ever done because they start to bloat up but also start to dry out on the outside - not nice but necessary) then she drove round with her son and some penicillin for Clara. She had a feel and there was another lamb so she and her son got that one out. I was so grateful to them.

The lambs were really big, unlike her twin sisters which were small. I think that prolapse just stuffed everything up. The neighbour has told me that if it happens again that, once you see those water bags and nothing is happening, even if the cervix isn't dilating, you just have to push your way in there and get those lambs out. She said vets won't do it, but at least I have learned some valuable new skills and know what to do if it happens again.

It was weird - I didn't feel sad about the lambs, I was more worried about Clara and thankfully she's made a full recovery. I felt absolutely awful that I put her through hell because she is a really sweet sheep. We won't breed from her again and my parents don't mind having her at their place as a lawnmower (once they've moved up here), so we'll wether Loki so he can go with her as a friend.

Then my great aunt died which wasn't a surprise, but sad all the same.

And today we had the vet out to dehorn Jacky as unfortunately she struck the 25% chance of being horned. Her father was polled, but turns out one of his parents wasn't, and her mother has friesian in her (holstein to you guys) which is also horned. So that wasn't nice, but boy is that calf stubborn. She resisted the sedation to the bitter end. The vet was great though.

And we had a disaster in one small aviary as one of the cockatiel hens died and the pair were on eggs. The only thing I can think is that she got a fright in the night and flew into the wooden side or something as she looked fine otherwise. I took the eggs away from their father (as he couldn't have done it all by himself) and I have marked and shared those 5 eggs around the three other pairs that are sitting in our big aviary. We've also given him a new mate so hopefully they'll have a little family soon. I put the nestbox back in today and the hen seemed very excited and jumped straight in it. I wasn't sure she wanted to be a mother as she hasn't shown interest in the big aviary, but then there is a different male who follows her around everywhere and annoys the heck out of her. She seems to like this boy better.

And around all that DH picked us up a young ram for next year. He was in Auckland and with the restrictions here DH had to apply for an exemption (which is a whole other story) to go and get him because the lady was moving house. Anyway, he's here now. He's almost 4 months old and his name is Ted. He's spotted like Lola and he's got a very cute face.

And one more thing - DS had to go to the doctors (our kids are hardly ever sick) as he had red pee but he was fine in every other aspect! The antibiotics worked (but still waiting for the results of the urine and blood tests). :confused:
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I hope things get better @JaeG .
 

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