Sheepshape
Herd Master
- Joined
- Oct 19, 2012
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Judy was lovely 2 year old Blue Faced Leicester ewe.....and the last of my ewes to give birth. Yesterday she was lying on her side, scratching and arching her back...clearly in pain. Labour....but things didn't look right. Eventually she discharged a small amount of mucky, bloodstained fluid.I took her indoors to examine her....her cervix was only about 3cm open and I couldn't feel any presenting part. I gave her Metacam and Pen/strep and waited. She seemed much more comfortable.
Today she began straining again. I examined her and felt first one set of front hooves, then the other, unable to determine the nose. One leg eventually came down, the hoof sheared off. The other couldn't be moved. We phoned our sheep farmer neighbour, who managed to bring down the other leg with ropes, but couldn't get a bearing on the head. The lamb was decomposing, the ewe very ill. To cut a long story short, the lamb couldn't be bought down the birth canal. We decided it was kindest to euthanise her (never a decision I take lightly).
We opened up the ewe to determine the cause of the problem and found a lamb with a hugely deformed head (puncturing the head led to the release of a very large amount....probably well over a pint, of fluid).I believe the lamb had developed congenital hydrocephalus.....unfortunately leading to the death of both itself and the ewe.
I show pictures here to show one rare cause of fatal dystocia.
Not a pleasant way to end lambing....but at least I don't feel there was much that could have done for either.
Today she began straining again. I examined her and felt first one set of front hooves, then the other, unable to determine the nose. One leg eventually came down, the hoof sheared off. The other couldn't be moved. We phoned our sheep farmer neighbour, who managed to bring down the other leg with ropes, but couldn't get a bearing on the head. The lamb was decomposing, the ewe very ill. To cut a long story short, the lamb couldn't be bought down the birth canal. We decided it was kindest to euthanise her (never a decision I take lightly).
We opened up the ewe to determine the cause of the problem and found a lamb with a hugely deformed head (puncturing the head led to the release of a very large amount....probably well over a pint, of fluid).I believe the lamb had developed congenital hydrocephalus.....unfortunately leading to the death of both itself and the ewe.
I show pictures here to show one rare cause of fatal dystocia.
Not a pleasant way to end lambing....but at least I don't feel there was much that could have done for either.