When I went to feed the Ewe lamb this morning, I found it dead, I fed it late last night, Normally when I go to the barn the lamb knows I will be feeding it, and comes over to me, last night I had to pick it up, it was snuggled into the Ewe, and very quiet. It took the feed, but it was not well. It was born on the 3rd of March, our first lamb born on the farm. For over a week I thought that it may not survive. Although I was feeding it, it was not growing and was not a lot bigger than when it was born. I don’t think that it could have got all the colostrum that it needed at birth. As I said when the lambs were born, it is unusual for Portland to have twins and may not have produced the colostrum for two lambs. Without colostrum very few animals of any species will survive.
The Ewe has been lying next to the dead lamb for most of the day, other than when it sees me, it then comes to me and turns back towards the barn, as if it wanting me to go with it. I will leave the lamb with it until the Ewe realises that it will not follow her, if I take the lamb away and put the Ewe in the field with the other sheep, she will only return to the barn looking for her lamb. It always saddens us when one of the animals looses their off spring, for the way they act, you know that what ever feelings animals do have, they must have in some way, a feeling of lose.
At about 6.pm I went to see if the Ewe was still with the lamb, we had left the barn door open so that she was able to leave when ready, she had gone. I went to see if she was with the other sheep, she was. It was sad, she was running from lamb to lamb to see if any of them were hers. Whilst looking I found a last years Ewe lamb caught in the bramble, she was well and truly stuck, and she would never had freed herself.
Walking round the lake today, I saw the first ducklings of the year. A Mallard with twelve swimming in a flotilla. Unfortunately the bull rushes and reeds have very little growth, so there is not a lot of cover for the duckings to hide from their predators. Chances are that none will survive for more than a few days. I cant remember having ducklings on the lake this early, in the year before.
What a day of woe today is. Woody is unwell again. When we fed her this morning she was fine, she ate her feed as normal, all of the nights hay had been eaten, she had been drinking her water, and her droppings were normal. We turned her out as normal, but noticed an hour later that she had been lying down for a long while. On checking her, She was very uncomfortable and bleeding slightly, as if she maybe was starting to foal, far to early, as the foal is not due for another month, and her udder has not sprung. We have given her a pain killer to see if it settles it down, as it did the last time. This is the third time this has happened in the past couple of months, I comes on so fast that it could well be a problem caused by the foal moving into a position that is hurting her. The Veterinary needs to check her a look over to make sure that it is not a more serious problem.