Purplequeenvt in 2026

Sad morning. Freesia (teen mom, accidentally bred to her dad) lost her baby. She was 4 weeks exactly from her due date. It was a little moorit gulmoget boy.

I did a quick necropsy and there was nothing obviously wrong. All organs present and accounted for, everything seemed to be attached properly, no external deformities. Development was on track with his gestational age. No signs of infection or decomp. Mom hasn’t passed the placenta yet so I don’t know what that looks like.

I sent pictures to my vet friend and she agrees that it’s most likely something congenital (due to father/daughter cross) and not infectious, but I’ll be keeping a close eye on everyone just in case.

Freesia got some antibiotics and pain meds and she’s in the stall so I can watch her from work today. She was starting to nibble on some hay at last check. She would have been a good mommy. She didn’t want to leave the spot that she had him and he was nicely cleaned off.
 
Ive left the dead lambs with the moms long enough for them to go through the heartbreaking grief, leave, come back, leave, come back and finally wander off. It seems to help.

Sorry about the dead lamb, I hope Freesia heals up quickly.
 
Freesia is still droopy this morning. She’s retaining her placenta so far so I’m keeping her stalled for a while and keeping her on antibiotics. She doesn’t have a huge appetite, but I have seen her eating and chewing her cud.
 
Freesia’s perked up a lot. I gave her a friend yesterday. Actually *I* didn’t give her a friend, the friend darted in behind me when I went to feed her and I decided to leave her there.

My theory on the retained placenta is that since the lamb was premature, she didn’t have the hormones (oxytocin, specifically) encouraged by a lamb nursing in her to stimulate its release.

I’m still thinking that this was a fluke loss. Congenital, injury, etc…I’m still keeping a close eye on everyone since we are right in the window where there would suddenly be loses if this is an abortion storm.
 
Mini Horses said:
You said lamb was "cleaned up" well. So she may have cleaned up the placenta, too. 🤷 If retained shed prob be showing some spicy signs by now. I'd keep her in a few more days to be sure.
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No, she did not eat it. She still had/has placenta hanging out.

Sheep, thankfully, aren’t like horses where it’s a medical emergency if they retain a placenta.

*Usual* treatment is just antibiotics and keeping an eye on them. That’s not to say that there can’t be complications, but generally speaking, things will slip out on their own within a few days. She’s already had antibiotics and is due another dose soon. Her temperature is normal.
 
Freesia is much better today. She finally passed her placenta. I sheared her and got her all cleaned up. She got her CD&T booster and another dose of antibiotics.

I’ve got 6 more ewes to shear. Technically it’s 9, but there’s 3 I’m not shearing for a while. I’ll do the last 6 on Saturday. I still have to do all the boys, but they’re not a priority right now.

Twig


Fern


Cantata wants a turn


A bunch of nekkid ladies


Mallie is due on Monday, but we’re expecting a storm tomorrow so it wouldn’t shock me if she goes this weekend. I have her in the stall with Symphony. Symphony isn’t happy about her new roommate. Mallie is meaner that Patti.

Patti got turned back out with the main group.
 
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