Belle's Turn

It seems only hours after my last post, that Belle gave birth. Soon ended up being real soon. It was deja vu at it's best. I was driving down the gravel drive to the house, and I do a double-take, with thinking I saw 3 lambs, instead of 2. One lamb was with Belle. I slow down in the car, and carefully count. Yep, three lambs! Eve and her twins, and Belle with one. I drive up just enough to jump out of the car, and go investigate. I run out to where Belle is and realize she has indeed had this lamb. I touch the lamb, and she's dry. That means Belle had to have her earlier in the day. Then, those same thoughts begin: Where did she have her lamb, is there more, is she done, did she have another lamb and leave it somewhere, is everyone okay? So many questions. I walk around, looking to make sure there is not another lamb, and checking to see where she had her lamb. It seems these lambs just drop from the sky while I'm at work. No evidence anywhere, that Belle had her lamb in the pasture or in the barn. So my next thought is: will Belle be having another lamb? If the one she's had is already dry, I doubt it. I had predicted triplets for Belle, because she was quite large. But, I've mentioned it before, Belle's just a big girl, and she's my girl.
The little lamb beside Belle is trying to nurse. I know the best thing for them is to get them in the lambing stall in the barn. That way, I can isolate them so they can bond, nurse and be safe. I did this with Eve and the twins for about 3-4 days, to let the lambs get strong enough to venture out. So in order to get Belle in the barn, I pick up the lamb, and carry her slowly towards the barn. Belle follows me crying out for her baby. I make it to the lambing stall, and have no trouble getting them settled there. I do the usual food of grain and alfalfa, lots of water, along with straw in which to snuggle in. I turn the heat lamp on for the lamb. This is the critical first 24 hours. The first critical item is to name her, of course. LuLu it is. LuLu The Lamb. I must watch LuLu to make sure she nurses and gets that first milk from Belle. But uh oh. Belle's udders are not hardly filled at all. Not anything close to how Eve's were. LuLu does nurse on Belle, and I've read in my Raising Sheep book, that sometimes the milk does not come in until after the ewe gives birth. Well, Belle has til in the morning to get some milk in those udders, or else we will be bottle feeding this one. How appropriate that is, since Belle was a bottle baby from literally Day 1. I'll give her a little time in the lambing stall to settle in, and keep watch closely.
At this point, Eve's twins are about 12 days old. They are still nursing on one udder. Clara is nursing the most, with Grace getting the leftovers. We have already been offering them bottles, as we wanted to make sure if they are hungry, that they have another option. Thus far, they have not taken more than a few sips of the bottle. That's a good sign, as they are, at this point, getting the milk they need. But that will be short lived.
All evening, David and I watch LuLu and Belle. Eventually, Belle and LuLu begin their bonding rituals using their sheep language. It's different than Eve's, but effective just the same. I know that Belle will only be having this one lamb, as too much time has elapsed for another one to appear. LuLu is nursing, and although I'm unsure of the amount and frequency, I know that in the morning I can monitor this further. I am happy to report that Belle's udders the following morning have grown substantially, and she is working hard at nursing LuLu. They are a match made in heaven. Belle's headdress is exactly the same as LuLu's. LuLu looks exactly like Belle did when she was a baby. (LuLu's marking are different than Clara and Grace's.) She is a carbon copy of Belle. Belle's mini-her. Thank you, Sam. I owe you big, my friend. You have given us the gifts that we had only dreamt of.
As Belle and LuLu take up residence in the lambing stall, Eve and the twins share the area of the barn beside them. Just as Belle did, while she waited for Eve to be released. The tables are now turned. Eve is just busy trying to keep up with her lambs, eat enough, nurse them and live her life. Belle is doing the same, just 12 days behind Eve.
Belle is very laid back. She doesn't get too frazzled by much. Her and LuLu are now on day 4 in the lambing stall and I let them out today to venture out into the world together. Belle was very happy to be free, but she watched her baby close. And so did Eve. Eve did not like Belle's new lamb. I don't think I would have guessed that, but it's true. Eve would try to head butt her, and LuLu was scared out of her mind. She's just a few days old, and someone is chasing her. This will take time to acclimate them all together. It will all be okay, once everyone gets to know everyone better. Baby steps with the introductions.
In the meantime, while all this has been going on, Little Grace is noticeably lagging behind. She's not as playful as Clara, and is just a touch smaller. David watched Clara and Grace, off and on on Friday when he had the day off work, and was able to assess that Grace would need more aggressive supplementing. Eve was not allowing her to nurse as much as Clara, and Clara was the more aggressive nurser. I came home from work that day, and we fixed a bottle (like we had offered them before), but this time Grace drank enough to make us realize that she's very hungry. By the next morning, she drank a whole bottle, and it's only been a short time for us to supplement her nursing with a bottle, but she knows she wants it. All good news. Dr Shelton had mentioned that supplementation might be needed when it comes to Eve's twins and one udder. And we are ready and willing to do that. Who wouldn't want to give a bottle to a willing participant of a cuddly cute baby lamb. Baby animals are adorable, but getting to bond with them in this way, and have them imprint to you will last a lifetime. Already, our sweet Grace sees me walking toward her, and baa's in that little tiny voice of hers, asking for her bottle. It doesn't take long, as these little one's instinct kicks in strong. Need milk, must have milk, who has the milk.
Along with this fun of lambing, we've begun to let the puppies out and roam the pasture with Levi and Whisper. Levi and Whisper are setting the tone for whose the boss. Davis and Dixie (also brother and sister) are our two trainees. Duke was given to a family friend, who also raises sheep and chickens, except they do not have any guard dogs, so they are struggling to keep their livestock away from predators. When they were over recently, we were having this conversation and it seemed natural to give them one of our suburb puppies to help them with their farm. Duke will be a perfect guard for them, and we are happy for them all.
Davis and Duke are beginning to acclimate to the world outside of their safe, fenced area. They feel secure there, and go back to "their little home" sometimes, while out investigating. But, they love being out smelling, playing, watching, and basically checking everything out. They smell literally everything, and have the freedom to look around. They watch Levi and Whisper, not knowing that one day, that will be them. Whisper goes in for surgery in a week, and she will be housed in the lambing shed for about a week, before she will reside in a 10X10 fenced area to recover. (Belle and LuLu should be out of that area by then). The recovery time for Whisper will be 2-3 months of staying still, no running, and letting her leg heal. She'll be having a TPLO (tibial plateau leveling osteotomy). Whisper will have an incision down the length of her back left leg, will have her cruciate ligament fixed, and she'll have a screw placed to hold it in the proper position while it all heals. It's similar to an ACL surgery in a human. The recovery time is lengthy, and it's imperative that she does not run, and only rest, heal and recuperate for 8-12 weeks. As a guard dog whose used to running and "working", this will be a challenge. We've positioned her to have the ability to be beside (with a chain link fence between) her partner and brother, Levi. He will still be working, and will have the pups to keep him occupied. This will be a very trying time for everyone, but we will get through it. Whisper is at the point where she is not weight bearing on that hurt leg, so it has to be fixed. There is no other option. She's still young enough to be able to heal from this, and then an evaluation will be done on whether she can work again, or not. Only time will give us this answer. Dr Shelton says Yes, and he seems to always be right. So that's good news, esp for a dog who wants to work. But we will give Whisper the option, and will see what serves her, too. Having her caged could be one of the most difficult things we've had to do with one of our animals. I'm thinking since she'll be hurting and healing, that will keep her at bay.
The next week will bring it's own set of challenges with incorporating Belle and LuLu along with Eve, Clara and Grace. It seems like this would be an easy task, right? Oh, but contraire. They are both ewe's who have just had lambs, why the contention? Why can't we all just get along? I think if I wouldn't be such a helicopter Shepherdess, then I might not even know it happens, under normal conditions with most every flock. And they probably just work it out among themselves. Dang, that's hard to do, but I promise I will try to let nature teach them how to all get along.
As this next chapter evolves, Grace will continue to be bottle supplemented, and we will watch the others for the same need. Cold weather is coming, the holidays will arrive, and life just keeps getting better all the time. If it wasn't for David wanting to have lambs so badly, I would have been content in life to have my little flock of ewes, just like they were. But my eyes have been opened to a whole new world now.

I've learned so much these last 16 days. Lambing is not easy. There's so many things to consider, to watch for, to be ready for and then it keeps going, evolving and a very fluid process. Who knew? Not me. But now I know. My biggest take-away thus far? Management. It's all about managing what's happening, what's about to happen, and making things happen. Lamb management. Is there a class for that somewhere, because I would go. Or I should have gone. Yes, I have watched my share of YouTubes on it, but they usually just scare me. So I quit watching them. And now I'm bouncing along trying to keep everybody alive. Did I mention I don't know what I'm doing? I've learned so much, and I know there will more learning ahead. It's not done. It's just starting.

Hanging on for this ride and loving it,

Cyndi