Down Mulberry Lane

Baaaa!

Ok, I admit it.  Last night was a crusher for me.  I am so tired of lambs dying.  I had gotten up at 4 am that morning to start working with the sheep.  I was tired and so were my girls.  Dh was at work.  We had 4 momma ewes lamb at the same time in the morning, each with it's own perplexitites.  Then it took us until nearly 2 pm before we even ate breakfast.  We knew a couple more might go, and that added to my frustration.  After a short supper break, we go out to check and find another stillborn, the sack was not off the face, so the lamb couldn't breathe... and we had been out there an hour earlier and momma ewe hadn't been doing anything.  Then my oldest stays up until nearly 2 am... I got an hour nap and got back up at 2:30 am and took over caring for lambs in the house.  We lost two more in the night.  I stayed up until 5 am double checking for my daughter's ewe to see if she was going to go... she was not showing any active signs, so I went to bed.  At around 7am, my oldest again gets up and takes over, goes outside and she found my daughter's, Megan, ewe had lambed... and one was already frozen and the other was cold and not doing well... so she runs him in the house and gives the lamb a warm bath to warm him up and awakens the rest of the house to another day of lambing. 

All the frustrations, there are apparent things going on.  We have a few with extremely HUGE udders and no milk.  We have ewes that are lambing at 150-152 days by the marking harness and the lambs appear premature, not able to walk on their hooves, eyes still shut, but they are anywhere from 7 to 12 pounds each... They are really slow to get up this year and sluggish for nearly a week after birth.   Last night at 4am between barn visits, I start looking up lambing troubles... we've had our share, but this is different and we can't figure out what it is.  I started reading about OPP, ovine progressive pneumonia and alot of the symptoms are glaring me in the face.  Symptoms such as:  labored breathing before death.  Lambs that appear to eat fine, but are actually starving to death.  Udders extremely large and hard, but not hot like mastitis.  Milk looks normal, if they have it, but can be very deficient in nutrition.  I look at the management for it and it is nearly 3 years with harsh culling and nightmarish lambing practices... 24 hour observation, isolations, pulling lambs before mom can spread the virus to the lambs... then bottle feeding in isolation.  Testing every 6-12 months for the disease as it doesn't show up right away and it takes time for the antibodies to produce that they can detect the sheep have been exposed.   

Everything about how the lambs died, fit with the OPP.  Everything about how the momma's udders are bigger than basketballs and having no milk.  In the ones we've had trouble with, it is just very evident.  We did have a couple lambs with coccidosis (blood in the stool caused by the infection), as well.  But what we weren't getting was the lack of vigor in the lambs, the premature appearance of full term lambs. 

Dh called the vet this morning and he evaluated everything... said that a few udders do look like the OPP udders, but not exactly.  He said with what he could see we have a selenium deficiency... caused by something in the soil or lack of something in the soil that it does not get to the feed.  That has never happened to us... and we are wondering what did we do differently?  Well, for the first year, we did not cut our own hay, we bought it from someone who did not live near us at all, in fact, we had it trucked in by semi.  The vet said... the biggest problem is the lack of vigor in the lambs and that was caused by a deficiency.  So, to treat, we can do two things... give momma ewes a shot... but catching them can cause early labor for momma ewe with us chasing them and trying to catch them.  It also needs to be given 1 week ahead of the birth... and we don't have many that fit into that category.  So dh opted for the other option which was to give a shot of selenium/vitamin E to the lambs at birth, which will, I guess work fairly quickly to develop some vigor.  We can also give a dextrose solution for extra energy subcutaneously.  We are also supplementing the momma ewe's feed with extra selenium, with mineral blocks.  We actually started that on Monday before we knew what was going on. 

We aren't out of the woods yet.  We will still have lots of bottle lambs, we will still have deaths, most likely as the lambs are coming out looking premature, even if they are full term.  One thing they do is not get a good breath of air, you can swing the lambs and poke them, pinch them, but they never breathe.  They look like fish out of water.  We'll still probably have a few more of those.  But, thankfully, the vet says... it is not OPP... the second flock we bought has problems of mastitis, yes, but it is not OPP, we have such a wide variety in ages in that flock that something else in the list of symptoms would have manifested if it was OPP... weak legs, shortness of breath for momma ewes, thin ewes... of which we have none in those categories. 

So, I praise God for the mercy that it is NOT OPP.  The management would be a 3-6 year big issue, not to mention very costly to us to not be able to sell lambs at all for such a long period... and if we are honest with people... who would want to buy sheep from a flock with OPP??  It just would not have been good and I was so worried.  But God is good.  He knows what we can handle and is with us even in this huge trial. 

Well, need to get some last minute cleaning done.  We will have company over tomorrow afternoon to feed some bottle lambs.  To us it is like... ugh... another bottle to feed out, but everyone else loves to feed them.  But one feeding is different than what we are doing each day.  LOL.   I'm hoping the momma ewes cooperate with our plans.  We are having some things calm down... sometimes just knowing what to expect is easier to handle than wondering what is wrong. 

Warmly, ~Melissa   

Oooh, Melissa...

7:56 PM, March 16, 2007 .. Posted by Joanne

When I was reading your posts, all I could think of was--selenium deficiency, selenium deficiency....before I even got to the part with the vets diagnosis. Sadly, this will be a bad year for you, but get those lambs injected ASAP so you will save them. I am not sure how to handle pregnant ewes, but selenium is deficient even in our area. We have goats and I give them a goat specific mineral with selenium and have my kids injected with supplement after they are born.
Good luck and I hope things improve...
Joanne

Tough year!

11:45 PM, March 16, 2007 .. Posted by heritagehill

I am so sorry to hear of your problems! I know the feeling of being so tired you can't keep making those trips out to the barn, but just have to. In dry years like we have had, having hay brought in can be the problem.
We raise goats and last spring we had such a bad kidding year, losing many, having some abort, many born small and weak. In researching I decided we had Chlamydia. So we treated over the summer and were desperate for a better crop this year. The Lord has blessed us with bigger, healthier, happier babies! We had one abortion. I do believe minerals are very important for their health.
Try to get some rest and enjoy the babies you do have, they grow up so fast!
Marilyn
at Heritage Hill Homestead

I'm so sorry!

12:08 PM, March 17, 2007 .. Posted by BlueApple

I have no experience to offer you...just deep sympathy as I know this must be very difficult. I hope you are able to get some very much needed rest very soon. You can't keep running on empty - wish I was close...I'd come and help!
Hugs,
J