These were born just about 2 hours ago. 2 males and a female from one of my Russian Altai Don type Cashmere females. She has had triplets for the second time and clearly has a tendency this way. Her first set were all female so I shall be very interested to see if the trait is passed on to her daughters.
The second photo shows my brave little Cashmere male, still battling Listeriosis and winning slowly. He is not in pain, is eating, wandering around quite happily and is spending most of the day pottering about the barn. He is weak and his head still has the classic pronounced tilt to one side but he is so much better than he was. Careful nursing and my usual antibiotic regime seem to be working.
All in all its been a very busy 12 hours. I had another lamb born in the night at 4.15am to be precise! Yes another male but at least it is alive and healthy. I had to give mum a hand as the lamb had one leg forward and one leg back so she was really struggling. Galloping round the pen after a reluctant ewe at 4 in the morning is not my idea of fun. They never seem to understand that I am trying to help! A rugby tackle that my 1st Team player son would be proud of brought the ewe down in the end and I had to kneel gently on her shoulder while pulling the lamb out as quickly as I could. She wasn’t in the least bit grateful and stamped her foot at me several times by way of thanks!
They are not all like that. This morning I went into the sheep field where all the ewes and lambs are now grazing happily to find one ewe miles away by the fence baahing loudly. She was looking at me and clearly calling me for all she was worth. She ran towards me, called some more and then turned and ran back to the fence line, obviously wanting me to follow. I duly did to find her little lamb had found the only gap in the wire in a 200m fence and managed to get underneath and into the next field! She and he were distraught but I had to walk the full length of the fence to get through the gate and round the other side to catch him. The ewe was besides herself as I walked away, thinking I was leaving her. I kept talking and when she saw that I was returning on the other side she calmed down. Finally I caught Lamb Chop and reunited mother and son. That ewe did say thank you. There was just something behind the eyes as she looked me full in the face- a look of mutual understanding. It ended with me saying “You’re welcome my beauty! ” and she walked away with lamb in tow. A good job well done.
