Lambing
Over the Easter holiday I spend a number of days on a farm
helping a farmer out during the lambing season on his flock of Lleyns. During
my time there I saw a number of different ewes and ewe lambs give birth, both
with and without complications. (For those of you that are not up to speed with
the farming terms, a ewe lamb is a ewe that herself was a lamb born the year
before)
Over the next couple of posts, I am going to talk about the
problems that the ewes can face before they are ready to give birth. The most
common problem that occurs, and one that I saw regularly, is a prolapsed
uterus. There are a number of different ways that this condition can be treated
that will prevent it from getting any worse, however, if a ewe has a prolapsed
uterus it is likely to happen again so it is likely that the ewe will need to
be culled. Another problem that recurred many times was the awkward
presentation of the lambs. The different presentations of the lambs meant that
the birth was not as smooth and often the ewe required assistance from the
farmer in order to give birth.
