Death Stinks

had to put a little distance, a little time, between Saturday and this post. When Ella seemed to have abandoned her son leaving us to bottle feed a lamb, it was the toughest part of what had been a smooth lambing season with 20 lambs born.  But it would prove in the end not to be the worst.  The worst happened Saturday.  It was a gorgeous day and double wide Hannah appeared to have some discharge, a potential sign of labor.  She had some discharge the day before that I ignored.  That I somehow wrote off as nothing.  I was very wrong.

Saturday, with Todd holding Hannah steady by the neck, I pushed my disinfected hand then arm deep into Hannah to discover a breech lamb with a rear leg stuck.  The faint odor of decay I smelled at the start now surrounded me as liquid discharged.  It took several minutes to get a grip on the two legs and to slowly pull the lamb out. As the lifeless legs dangled I kept hoping a second one would live.  When the first finally slid to the floor, lifeless, we could see this was a very large gorgeous lamb, fully formed, totally perfect.  And dead.

The second one presented correctly, was easy to pull out, and was just as big and perfect.  And dead.  Both boys, the first one black and the second one white. Shiny, limp, and gone. But the smell of decay soaked my jacket, my pants, and stained my hands.  I stripped off my clothes and four times I scrubbed my arms and hands, but could not get rid of the smell. Todd bagged the two lambs and we silently went about some morning chores before driving to the town dump. 

When did they die? I didn’t see any signs from Hannah. If I hadn’t ignored the discharge from the day before, could we have saved those lambs? I don’t know. But when Christy – our last pregnant ewe –  went into labor the next day, I did not wait. And Todd, knowing my ache, didn’t push back. After thirty minutes, I went in and pulled out her son. And in fact it was quite difficult as the head was very large. This lamb was alive but really struggled to get on his feet and too limp to take the teat. When Todd took his temperature we both thought hypothermia might be the issue. In fact, the lamb was running a fever. We fed him four ounces of milk and colostrum by tubing, gave him 0.5 cc of a very powerful antibiotic and kept a close eye on him. Today, he is up and feeding and first time mom Christy is doing a fine job.

So, our last lambing gave us a chance to remind ourselves that we have learned a lot. We do know when to step in and what kind of help we can offer. But Hannah’s big boys lying on a floor of wet hay will stay with me long after we turn the flock out onto the fields.  So will the stink of death.

Peggy

3 Comments

  1. Mary Ellen on May 5, 2016 at 4:36 pm

    So sorry for your loss! I know that will be heavy on your ❤️. Thanks for the update. You can only do but so much and you all are doing a great job!

  2. diane on May 5, 2016 at 5:20 pm

    I’m so sorry for the loss of the two precious lambs. Having bred dogs for 30 years sometimes you just can not save them and God has bigger plans for the babies.

  3. Adelaide Ward on May 7, 2016 at 12:28 pm

    Perseverance and dedication . . . You certainly possess both qualities.

Leave a Comment