I lost a lamb tonight that was a week-ten days old. I went in to feed the sheep that lambed first and this lamb was flat out on the ground.
I took it home and got it in front of the fire asap. I warmed up some milk and tried to get it to take some but it was very very weak.
I phoned the on-call vet. She was in Carloway, about 25 minutes away, so I said I’d meet her half way, in Barvas, to save time.
I wrapped up the lamb in my jacket and hit the road.
The vet thought it had an infection of some type but that it was also suffering from hypothermia. She gave it several injections and I took it back home to the fire. Unfortunately it died about an hour later.
I think this is the lamb, the night it was born.
And that leaves a mother without a lamb.
I’m pretty gutted. You always lose some after they’re born, but still left with “what if”. Anyway, 6 left to lamb.
The poor thing.
Such a shame, having come so far after birth. Is the mum OK? She’ll still be fretting, I expect. Do you have any orphans looking for sustenance? It looked so cute wrapped up in your jacket.
I watched a Country Calendar programme last night, several thousand sheep on a station over in Hawkes Bay. They also had a herd of hinds and it was great watching the collies working them. They’re more skittish than sheep, by the look.
The farmer also had a wee 2-seater plane that he used to get around, saving driving time. You could have done with a wee plane the other day. They grew wool for carpets & it showed him flying to the carpet mill to see his wool washed, dyed, carded, spun, made into a carpet.
The mother is ok. At 10 days old, it’s much harder to adopt a lamb onto a sheep. If I was off, I might try it but since I’m back to work, it makes things very difficult.
The losing is all part of it, unfortunately. Really is gutting.