The Slowcook at Spydog Farm The Slowcook at Spydog Farm

Stillborn

April 24th, 2014 · 4 Comments · Posted in farming

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What should have been a joyful occasion on the farm yesterday turned to sadness when one of our ewes gave birth to twins, the first stillborn and the second unable to survive more than 45 minutes.

Lambing normally takes place without complications so it’s hard to know, exactly, why two baby lambs born to the same mother would fail to survive. They may have been born prematurely. We are also concerned that our pregnant ewes may not be getting enough protein from the hay we’ve been feeding them and what they are foraging in our pastures.

Sheep gestate five months but most of the fetus growth takes place in the last 50 days of that period. The ewe needs extra nutrition during those critical weeks or the lambs can be born underweight and too weak to survive. The second lamb that was born responded to its mothers licking, lifting its head and struggling for breath. But its breathing soon flagged and it eventually stopped responding altogether, even when I intervened, tickling the inside of its tiny nose with a piece of straw. It weighed 4.4 pounds, compared to six pounds or more for the typical lamb.

How best to ensure the ewe is getting enough protein is a matter of contention. Our local extension service recommends feeding large quantities of grain. But the breeder we’ve contracted with to purchase Dorper lambs says he only feeds hay. “If you want to feed an animal grain, buy a pig,” he says.

The woman who sold us our Friesian ewes said these lamb deaths could be blamed on any number of causes. We were a bit casual about the breeding process after bringing a young ram to the farm last fall. We didn’t know we had pregnant ewes until they were shorn this week. Now we’re trying to get up to speed.

But we also know that our ewes were culled from a larger flock before we bought them precisely because they had breeding issues. Essentially, they were singled out as being unfit mothers and were headed for the slaughterhouse. We’re giving them another chance. We have two more that are pregnant and expected to deliver in the next few weeks. Hopefully, their lambs will fare better. A death on the farm is always depressing. And after suffering a serious predator attack on our laying hens recently, we could really use some good news.

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  • Candace

    Selenium? Check into it. We used to lose a few lambs till we corrected the problems. Also check for deficiencies. If lamb is born live and active for a bit, it isn’t an unfit mother issue at all. Just always remember what our Cornell vets told and taught us: “If you’ve got livestock, you’ve got deadstock.”- Candace

  • Ed Bruske

    Selenium seems to be the first concern that comes up, Candace. It’s always a possibility, I guess. But we haven’t detected any signs of selenium deficiency in our sheep. They have regular access to a mineral supplement containing selenium.

  • marie

    Do, please, give your ewes Bo-Se and Covexin 8 ~ 6 wks before lambing, as well as grain with the hay. Also, as we learned this spring, keep new cats out of the barn to avoid toxoplasmosis and dead lambs. We keep a flock in the Southern Tier of NYS, and this was a tough winter lambing. Best of luck with your ladies.

  • Ed Bruske

    Hi, Marie. Our ewes show no signs of needing Bo-Se, plus, this drug can kill pregnant ewes and cause abortions, no?