Saturday, March 14, 2015

Three's A Crowd


This four year old ewe, first time mom, is valiantly trying to feed her three newborns.  I'm not as worried about her as I was earlier in the week.  She looked dazed and not fully with it.  I thought she had twins, then came home from work to find another baby in the pen.  I think the oxytocin I gave her the night before helped birth the last baby.  I gave her a vitamin B complex injection and wormed her.   I've been trying to supplement the little ones with milk replacer to give mom a break but they seem to be getting enough from her.  She refused the coveted  warm bucket of pig slop the other ewes would kill for.  She hardly nibbled at the rabbit pellets mixed with cracked corn that sheep love.  I am giving her some of the second bales that I sort out from the mold.  She smells me coming down the ladder with it and perks up.  I wish I could find her a bale of alfafa.  This late in the season it won't be easy.  I love this girl.  She had a funny set of triplets.  Two look just like her, a ewe and a ram lamb.   The third is a big gangly white ram lamb with pink ears and nose with lots of black freckles.  I almost think this guy was another ewe's lamb she claimed from a more timid ewe.  We'll never know now.  She has claimed him as her own and makes noise whenever I pick him up.  We'll see how it goes.  Green grass will solve everything but it's two months away at least.  Maybe three.

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