Lambing going wrong !!

Farmer Dan · 25-02-2017 10:06PM #1

I've 40 ewes to lamb & things are going very bad for the first year ever. First three ewes due Lambed perfectly last weekend. Triplets & two twins. The last two days 4 ewes Lambed that weren't due until the 7th March. One triplet, two of tge lambs OK the other was dead a while, two sets of twins , the lambs were OK & one set of twins one lamb dead a while the other small, weak & died. Feed the same as every year, never vaccinate for abortion. The only thing I can think of is a guy up the road has a field that he wanted me to graze, I housed the ewes from here. There use to be greyhounds kept in this field upto a few years ago. I'm going to get pm done next week. Any other advice / suggestions? Thanks in advance.

J.O. Farmer · 25-02-2017 10:34PM

If I read that right 7 ewes have lambed 4 you say were early yet 6 of these have at least 2 lambs alive and only 1 has no lamb as both her lambs died.
Firstly I think you need to relax if you think that is very bad and be thankful that you've had such a good run before this. I'll be happy with that kind of return if I get it. Very bad would be all those ewes having lambs dying and maybe finishing up with 4 or 5 lambs from 7 ewes with a ewe or 2 dead too not the 13 lambs and 7 ewes alive I make it.
By all means get a PM done but are you sure about the dates on the 4 and do the lambs look premature.

tomwaterford · 25-02-2017 10:36PM

Has anything happened to stress them out??

Any sudden changes in diet/dog scare them?

Farmer Dan · 25-02-2017 10:53PM

J.O. Farmer wrote: »

If I read that right 7 ewes have lambed 4 you say were early yet 6 of these have at least 2 lambs alive and only 1 has no lamb as both her lambs died.
Firstly I think you need to relax if you think that is very bad and be thankful that you've had such a good run before this. I'll be happy with that kind of return if I get it. Very bad would be all those ewes having lambs dying and maybe finishing up with 4 or 5 lambs from 7 ewes with a ewe or 2 dead too not the 13 lambs and 7 ewes alive I make it.
By all means get a PM done but are you sure about the dates on the 4 and do the lambs look premature.

Thanks for reply. I appreciate what you say, I know it could be a lot worse. I'm just nervous things are going to get worse.
I'm sure of the dates. I number the ewes & take note of numbers & tipping date. Green raddle not due until 7th March, orange are due now. Normally I'm only out a day or two give or take. Never this much early. Lambs look ok.

Farmer Dan · 25-02-2017 10:54PM

tomwaterford wrote: »

Has anything happened to stress them out??

Any sudden changes in diet/dog scare them?

Thanks for reply. No on same diet all along. There housed since after Christmas .

rangler1 · 25-02-2017 10:55PM

Farmer Dan wrote: »

I've 40 ewes to lamb & things are going very bad for the first year ever. First three ewes due Lambed perfectly last weekend. Triplets & two twins. The last two days 4 ewes Lambed that weren't due until the 7th March. One triplet, two of tge lambs OK the other was dead a while, two sets of twins , the lambs were OK & one set of twins one lamb dead a while the other small, weak & died. Feed the same as every year, never vaccinate for abortion. The only thing I can think of is a guy up the road has a field that he wanted me to graze, I housed the ewes from here. There use to be greyhounds kept in this field upto a few years ago. I'm going to get pm done next week. Any other advice / suggestions? Thanks in advance.

PMs won't be great if the foetuses are more than 48hrs old, the fresher you get them to the lab the better, also try to get some of the cleanings as well.
The week before they're due is often the worst time....if there's anything wrong with the lambs they'll throw them out then

tomwaterford · 25-02-2017 11:02PM

Farmer Dan wrote: »

Thanks for reply. No on same diet all along. There housed since after Christmas .

Are the lambs fully formed,hair on ears etc....as 2 weeks out seems along off the date?

Farmer Dan · 25-02-2017 11:35PM

tomwaterford wrote: »

Are the lambs fully formed,hair on ears etc....as 2 weeks out seems along off the date?

There rouge lambs so hair do be scarce on there heads / ears. I can't figure it out. Never happened before & I'm nearly afraid to see a ewe starting to lamb incase it's a disaster.

tomwaterford · 26-02-2017 12:16AM

Farmer Dan wrote: »

There rouge lambs so hair do be scarce on there heads / ears. I can't figure it out. Never happened before & I'm nearly afraid to see a ewe starting to lamb incase it's a disaster.

How are the sheep for colostrum???

Usually lambing starts bad like that for first week and then when you get into it,it geos well

Have you/can you source pets to put under the sheep

roosky · 26-02-2017 02:03AM

i had ewes lamb early two years ago,

about ten had twins and trips with one fine lamb and one wean or dead lamb and the dead lad was dead a while as in half mummified,

Sounds similar enough to your story, my issue was toxo !

Sheep breeder · 26-02-2017 01:11PM

It could that they have a touch SVB virus a lot about this year, and several forms.

Farmer Dan · 26-02-2017 01:31PM

roosky wrote: »

i had ewes lamb early two years ago,

about ten had twins and trips with one fine lamb and one wean or dead lamb and the dead lad was dead a while as in half mummified,

Sounds similar enough to your story, my issue was toxo !

How did you fair out that year?

How would they have gotten this if it is toxo?

rangler1 · 26-02-2017 01:40PM

Farmer Dan wrote: »

How did you fair out that year?

How would they have gotten this if it is toxo?

Toxo comes from cats peeing in your straw, hay,.....Toxo is dangerous to pregnant women. Sheep farmers should be sterilised before touching the wife if she's pregnant when there's a risk of toxo on the farm.

adam14 · 26-02-2017 03:26PM

SBV here too, definitely 5 out of about 180 lambed so far

razor8 · 26-02-2017 03:47PM

Did you get it confirmed by pm

grassroot1 · 26-02-2017 04:12PM

I had sbv in the ewes that lambed at new year but OP it sounds like TOXO

J.O. Farmer · 26-02-2017 08:27PM

rangler1 wrote: »

Sheep farmers should be sterilised before touching the wife

I thought that sounded a bit harsh when there's other ways of avoiding pregnancy but then I read on and you said if she's pregnant and I realise you meant it in the sense of not carrying infection in to her from the sheep.

rangler1 · 26-02-2017 08:40PM

J.O. Farmer wrote: »

I thought that sounded a bit harsh when there's other ways of avoiding pregnancy but then I read on and you said if she's pregnant and I realise you meant it in the sense of not carrying infection in to her from the sheep.

yea, toxo can cause deformities in human foetuses

adam14 · 26-02-2017 09:09PM

razor8 wrote:

Did you get it confirmed by pm

Too busy lambing to get to pm but vet is confident it is and had seen more signs of it in area

rangler1 · 26-02-2017 09:12PM

I see farmers on another forum have these days christened suicide fortnight, some of them are losing a few ewes as well.
We nearly always get one or two intestinal prolapses in the weeks leading up to lambing......none this year

rangler1 · 26-02-2017 09:16PM

adam14 wrote: »

Too busy lambing to get to pm but vet is confident it is and had seen more signs of it in area

No schmallenberg confirmed yet in Athlone lab up to a week ago, hope it stays away from here
We had lambs with all the symptoms of scmallenberg 5 or 6 years ago in the Dec/Jan lambers, lab even said it was but all the tests were negative so couldn't be confirmed.
They were born alive with bent legs and no skin on their legs...sickening

tomwaterford · 26-02-2017 09:31PM

rangler1 wrote: »

No schmallenberg confirmed yet in Athlone lab up to a week ago, hope it stays away from here
We had lambs with all the symptoms of scmallenberg 5 or 6 years ago in the Dec/Jan lambers, lab even said it was but all the tests were negative so couldn't be confirmed.
They were born alive with bent legs and no skin on their legs...sickening

Had a bad dose of it myself the time aswell

Lambs with solid leg joints,some big single lambs formed perfectly but tiny miniature legs

A variety of shortened legs/fused (??) Bones in legs....

One with extreme deformity....4 mini ears,one big eye and a mouth....but also a tongue out through side of skull....this lamb came out alive

Absolutely sickening having to leave lambs die/shoot perfectly formed new born lambs except maybe miniature front legs and they crawling around bawling....I felt like quitting sheep after it

Reading that it might be back around makes my blood run cold tbh

rangler1 · 26-02-2017 09:38PM

tomwaterford wrote: »

Had a bad dose of it myself the time aswell

Lambs with solid leg joints,some big single lambs formed perfectly but tiny miniature legs

A variety of shortened legs/fused (??) Bones in legs....

One with extreme deformity....4 mini ears,one big eye and a mouth....but also a tongue out through side of skull....this lamb came out alive

Absolutely sickening having to leave lambs die/shoot perfectly formed new born lambs except maybe miniature front legs and they crawling around bawling....I felt like quitting sheep after it

Reading that it might be back around makes my blood run cold tbh

It's a shame that we're not given access to something simple to use to euthanaise them in the face of such a problem

mcgiggles · 27-02-2017 12:55PM

This schmallenberg.. only heard of it the other day, must look it up, is it contagious?
We had a lamb born yesterday small but perfectly formed but her front legs don't straighten fully, its not the knees its the ankle joint.. (would you even call them that?) she was weak when born and not able to get up for a while, but is up and feeding now but not overly steady.. we wanted to see how she got on, himself is going to ask the vet about it, could it be something like that causing it?

rangler1 · 27-02-2017 01:09PM

mcgiggles wrote: »

This schmallenberg.. only heard of it the other day, must look it up, is it contagious?
We had a lamb born yesterday small but perfectly formed but her front legs don't straighten fully, its not the knees its the ankle joint.. (would you even call them that?) she was weak when born and not able to get up for a while, but is up and feeding now but not overly steady.. we wanted to see how she got on, himself is going to ask the vet about it, could it be something like that causing it?

Schmallenberg would have the legs bent solid, bones fused together, they'd never straighten, difficult even to get them straight enough for a natural lambing.....also can have all the symptoms listed above, no skin in places, eyes missing, etc.
It comes from a midge bite I think, mild winters have allowed them to occur in this country....coming from Europe, a horrible yoke

mcgiggles · 27-02-2017 01:13PM

Jaysus that sounds terrible, you wouldn't wish it on anyone, hopefully it stays away. We'll still ask the vet just in case but the wee girl was stronger again today, and the mother in law will pop in to check on her throughout the day so hopefully she just needs a bit of feeding up

Username John · 27-02-2017 01:55PM

mcgiggles wrote: »

This schmallenberg.. only heard of it the other day, must look it up, is it contagious?
We had a lamb born yesterday small but perfectly formed but her front legs don't straighten fully, its not the knees its the ankle joint.. (would you even call them that?) she was weak when born and not able to get up for a while, but is up and feeding now but not overly steady.. we wanted to see how she got on, himself is going to ask the vet about it, could it be something like that causing it?

That bent at the ankle should be fine. Seen a good few times - they sometimes walk with the ankle bent underneath for a few days, but it always straighed itself out after a while.

We always assumed it was something that came from the ram. As we'd have a go of it together maybe one season, and then mightn't see it again for a while...

adam14 · 27-02-2017 03:02PM

mcgiggles wrote:

This schmallenberg.. only heard of it the other day, must look it up, is it contagious? We had a lamb born yesterday small but perfectly formed but her front legs don't straighten fully, its not the knees its the ankle joint.. (would you even call them that?) she was weak when born and not able to get up for a while, but is up and feeding now but not overly steady.. we wanted to see how she got on, himself is going to ask the vet about it, could it be something like that causing it?

It's could be. Mine had triple jointed legs. Some born dead at full term. All our ewes toxo and enzo vaccinated. Only a handful of them thankfully.

greysides · 27-02-2017 08:31PM

There's talk of Schmallenberg showing up in spots around the SE.

adam14 · 27-02-2017 11:38PM

greysides wrote:

There's talk of Schmallenberg showing up in spots around the SE.

Yes, I'm south east. It's terrible when you work hard all year and something like this happens out of your control!

greysides · 28-02-2017 12:02AM

There is vaccine. It was rushed to be made available but still came out too late and uptake was poor. I'm not sure how much sense it would make financially.

Lambing going wrong !!

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