The ewes were brought inside in the middle of February as we wanted to keep a good eye on a couple prior to their due date (lambing due to start 18th Feb).  We had one ewe which had been absolutely huge for over a month (expecting triplets) and a couple which had threatened prolapses.  We had to induce the huge ewe a few days before the due date – she had stopped eating and was really struggling to breath, sadly all the lambs were dead on arrival, her size was due to absolutely massive fluid retention, she recovered after about a week with a lot of tlc…..

We had several ewes prolapse and both of us became dab hands at washing the prolapsed vaginas and gently replacing them then securing them with a prolapse harness – there are some things I just never imagined doing!  Apparently prolapses can be caused by several things but the likelihood increases if the ewes are brought inside a bit early and put on too much weight as they are moving around less.  The harnesses worked amazingly, the only downside is you have to keep an extra eye on the ewes as the minute they start showing signs of labour you have to removed the harness otherwise the lamb can’t be born.  All the prolapsed ewes delivered their lambs safely.

The rest of the lambing was relatively stress free, a couple of ewes decided they didn’t like their lambs so were put into the foster pens which worked well, after a few days they were released and were allowing the lambs to feed.  We keep fairly good records on each ewe and interestingly enough both these ewes did the same thing last year….

The loveliest thing that happened was the quads were all born alive, the ewe is a briliant mother and although the two smallest ones need a bit of top up feeding (morning and evening) they are all doing so well.