I spent the better part of 6 hours in the barn last night with my first ewe to lamb this year. She was the first to lamb last year as well, so I thought that was kind of interesting. She is not the speediest when it comes to this process and was really taking her time again last night. When she finally got down to business after 3 hours, she produced a nice ewe lamb and started in on cleaning her up and the baby was up and nursing within 20 minutes. As I thought she was a bit small, I thought that there was a strong likelihood that another was on its way. I waited and watched for another hour until I saw what appeared to be a water bag. I had read in my sheep book that the surefire way to tell if the ewe is done lambing is to examine this water bag to see if there is a white wormlike appendage attached to it. Since there was, I thought that surely she was done. I stayed with her for another hour, during which time she pawed the ground slightly, but was more interested in eating some hay. She would never lay down, she never appeared in distress. She seemed like all was fine.
So I went into the house to catch a few winks at 2:30 a.m. and came back out for barn check at 6. Lo and behold, there was a bigger ewe lamb dead on the ground that she apparently had soon after I went inside as it was partially cleaned off and cold.
What is frustrating is that this scenario played out almost exactly as it did last year, except that she had the lamb in the early a.m. around 5 last year. I honestly think that she holds out until I am out of sight. I hear some people that leave them completely alone and things work out; others are hover shepherds that have to be there the entire time. She's not an overly nervous ewe, and I've never really had to assist her. But it's getting doggone hard to know when to step in and when not to. I was so sure she was done based on the appearance of the water bag.
Besides reaching in to check (I can do it, but hate to resort to that as some have suggested damaging the ewe and the lambing process), what do you do to determine if the ewe is done? This is a shame as I have now lost 2 ewe lambs 2 years in a row. I hate to beat myself up about it, but I feel pretty lousy.:smack
So I went into the house to catch a few winks at 2:30 a.m. and came back out for barn check at 6. Lo and behold, there was a bigger ewe lamb dead on the ground that she apparently had soon after I went inside as it was partially cleaned off and cold.
What is frustrating is that this scenario played out almost exactly as it did last year, except that she had the lamb in the early a.m. around 5 last year. I honestly think that she holds out until I am out of sight. I hear some people that leave them completely alone and things work out; others are hover shepherds that have to be there the entire time. She's not an overly nervous ewe, and I've never really had to assist her. But it's getting doggone hard to know when to step in and when not to. I was so sure she was done based on the appearance of the water bag.
Besides reaching in to check (I can do it, but hate to resort to that as some have suggested damaging the ewe and the lambing process), what do you do to determine if the ewe is done? This is a shame as I have now lost 2 ewe lambs 2 years in a row. I hate to beat myself up about it, but I feel pretty lousy.:smack
Don't beat yourself up too hard, the lamb may have been dead when it was born (and it sounds like she possibly was). 
