The Ewe and lamb are doing much better, they are turned out on the grass in the mornings and come in of a night.
No more of the Ewes have lambed yet, but I am sure that it just a matter of time and we will have a few more. They will have to come in very soon to allow the grass to grow to make our hay for the year, and give the horse their grazing from the beginning of May until the Autumn.
Lady is showing no further signs of foaling, her udder is getting larger but no signs that the foaling is imminent. We have to check her out many times throughout the night, having a monitor in our bedroom to save having to go to the stables. Mother who also has a cottage on the farm, has a monitor, so that she can keep an eye on the mares. She insists on keeping watch for us, and stays awake all hours of the night. With all of us watching we have still nearly missed the births on a couple of occasions. I am sure that without our help the births would happen naturally without any problems, but it is not worth taking the chance. So many things can go wrong, a breach birth, legs coming out in the wrong position, the mare being to exhausted and starts to give up and lays down, many unwanted situation that might need ours or the Veterinaires help. Once born you need to make sure that the foal gets the colostrum in the first six hours. First you have to make sure that it can get up on its feet, a number of times foals have been to exhausted to get up. One could not find the mares udder. Some first time foaling mares, don’t like the foal suckling them, and we then have to hand milk the mare and bottle feed the colostrum, within a few hours the mare normally gets the idea and allows the foal to feed naturally.
It is essential for the foal to get the colostrum milk, as is all new born animals and humans. This special milk is yellow to orange in color and thick and sticky. It is low in fat, and high in carbohydrates, protein, and antibodies to help keep the new born healthy. Without it newborns struggle, any small germs or diseases without having the colostrum can cause new born animals to die. If a mare has a lot of colostrum we will milk a little off and freeze to use in case of any future problem, with other mares.