Blessed Event

The phone rang and I heard Julia's voice say, Maggie can you do me a really big favor?  Kelsey, her son's girlfriend, is in Pa. and her sheep has been in labor all day.  There is something sticking out of the back of her and I don't know what to do.  Can you help me?   Of course I said yes and I would be there in fifteen minutes.  I threw together a newborn lamb kit and  took off for Button Falls Farm, about three miles away.  The barn was full of cows, calves and the gutter was going around, pulling out the poop.  It is still real cold here, and those big cows were not making it warmer.  She pointed to a corner and there she was, a little sheep, Shetland type I think, covered with wiry hair and burdock.  She turned around and I was instantly relieved of my fear.  I saw a nose and two toes on either side.  Sheep are supposed to come out like Superman.  Sometimes they don't and we have to intervene.  This little ewe has had two previous stillborn births.  I hoped I could change that.  I climbed over the stanchions and took a look.  They told me this sheep is wild and has never been touched by humans.  Oh, joy, I thought.  I caught her and asked Destiny, the son's girlfriend, to hold her.  Get on your knees and give her a big hug I said.  The girl seemed to relate to that and did as I asked.  Julia was busy trying to thaw out her frozen milk line.  Her son brought me a hand wash, as I did not have any iodine.  I got my hands as clean as I could - I don't like gloves - and went in to investigate.  Mom was not happy about this but Destiny did a good job of holding on to her.  I circled around the cervix which was stretched tight with a very, very large lamb. I found the shoulders wedged behind the pelvic bone.  There was the problem.  No matter how long and hard this brave ewe pushed this giant lamb would never be born without help. I cursed my big Swedish hands.  I never mind them until I have to go inside a sheep vagina.  It's tight as a drum in there.I managed to elongate and slip one hunched shoulder past the pelvic bone.  That gave enough room for the other to slip past.  I cupped my big hand over the lamb's head and with my other hand holding the legs I started to pull downward.  The lamb was still stuck but without a hard obstruction.  I pulled and kept a steady tension on the lamb.  Mom was screaming and I was telling her how sorry I was.  Finally I felt some movement.  The lamb was coming out, slowly. It seemed like forever, but it was coming.  The long black submarine started to slide.  The lamb's tongue was out of the mouth and I feared it was dead.  It dropped out on the hay, flat and still.  I rubbed hay on the nose and mouth to clear it and I saw a little jerk.  Alive!   It gasped and I did too.  We were all cheering and gloriously celebrating.  I showed mom her baby and she started licking.  This "wild" sheep is the ultimate mother, chortling and licking the lamb's face, then all over every inch of the body.  I did my "clip-dip-strip" routine, clipping the umbilical cord and dipping it.  I got my little jar and reached under the mom for a teat.  She was so into her baby that she didn't even flinch when the waxy plug popped and that life giving fluid squirted out.  I got enough from both teats to give the baby a stomach full with the barrel of a syringe.  I call it cheap insurance.  Julia says it was the most important meal of it's life and I agree.  I stayed a while, hoping to see the placenta pass but it didn't.  I had to leave to get ready to go to a gallery meeting.  I got a look at the daddy and instantly saw why we had a problem with this birth.  The sire is a huge Leicester type ram, more like my sheep.  No wonder the lamb was so big, combined with the fact that is was a single.  Twins are usually smaller and come out a little easier.  I can attest to that.  I called later to find out how they are and Julia was so appreciative.  I was such a thrill for me and got me in  the groove for my own lambs who will be coming this spring.  This wonderful little mom, who previously gave birth to two sets of dead twins, has a lovely ewe lamb she will never have to be parted from.  It's a beautiful thing...