3 weeks later...

It's 3 weeks on from when the first lambs were born and I'm very happy to say they are all doing really well! All of the lambs (and mothers) are back out and have been feeding regularly without problem and are now graduating to grass, feed and hay. As well as my three lambs we have also had the arrival of Freya's twins - a boy and a girl! They surprisingly came out a solid black colour and look just as pretty As the other three.

However, it appears lambing never does go smoothly! Last Tuesday we spotted Dolly was looking very under the weather. We first though it was maybe a calcium deficiency but after a call out from the vet it was decided to be mastitis. This is an inflammation of the mammary gland caused by a bacterial infection. The udder normally feels rock hard and this was very much the case with Dolly. The vet gave us a course of antibiotics to clear up the infection over 5 days and once we started the course, you could see she was already feeling better!

We seem to still be waiting for Gigi to produce her twins and her due date was thought to be last Thursday. I am beginning to think we may have got it wrong! It could have been possible that she was caught later than we thought. There hasn't really been any signs of abortion so fingers crossed she produces in the next few weeks.

Back to the babies. Once a few days old, the lambs need their tails docking and the ram lambs need their testicles off. I didn't want to keep my ram lambs entire as I would need to keep them separate from the flock when they mature and we don't really have the means for that. So out come the rubber bands. By putting a rubber band near the base of the tail and around the scrotum of the boys, it cuts off blood circulation to these parts leading to them eventually falling off. It's not a great procedure but it has to be done. The tail docking is done to reduce infection as with long tails, they get very easily soiled and attract all sorts of pathogens and flies etc.