One week of lambing over and I'm loving it! Although I've done a bit of lambing before (well, 4 years ago,) I am enjoying it even more this time. One of the farmers is a vet so it's all very hands on. So far I've lambed several ewes with lambs coming in all directions (head first, bum first, back first, two at a time,...) and given epidurals to ewes, carried out several intra-muscular injections and even my first intravenous injection. The ewe in question was looking very depressed and ill so she received multivitamin injections and antibiotics to perk her up. the next day, she was acting as if nothing had happened, so no need for a re-match in the IV department.
We're nearly at half way with the lambing, and most are lambing well. Ideally, each ewe would have 2 lambs. However, there are ewes that have either one single lamb or triplets. Therefore, if any lambs die we have to try and 'twin on' a second orphan or triplet lamb. To do this, the dead lamb must be skinned, and then the skin put on the new lamb. It sounds a bit gruesome and cruel at first thought, but this one of very few ways that a ewe will accept a lamb as her own, and the lamb being skinned is already dead. The lamb to the left is my first twinned-on lamb, and therefore marked as 'CAT'. the pair and mother are all doing well out in the field now.
