Maternal Failure?

Rogue lamb was really testing my patience.

And Rae's, too

Yep, that's her angry mom on the other side

The last straw came when I looked out my bedroom window to see her on the road trying to get hit by a pickup.

Same song, different verse

A second round of fence-repairs seems to have done the trick, as she's remained INSIDE for 3 days straight!

I had a first-time mom cause me numerous headaches.  One day I came home from work to find newborn twins left in my burn pile (which is approximately the size of a singlewide).  They were weak but up and moving and screaming for mom, birth fluids dried to their wool as they'd never even been licked clean.

I found the yearling out running with the flock, not in the least concerned about her new babies.  With some work I managed to get the new family up to the barn and in a jug, but she had some serious hatred of the lambs.  She ran from them, kicked them, butted them, and offered the same toward me.  After ensuring her udder was not mastitic, I restrained her to allow them to nurse, offered her some water and hay and let them chill out.  Every time I went to check on her, she continued to reject the lambs who were trying desperately to nurse.  I gave her a shot of oxytocin to get the motherly hormones flowing and ended up tying her in the jug to keep her from neglecting or hurting the lambs.  First-time mothers produce lower levels of oxytocin than experienced ewes, so I was hoping the injection and the act of nursing would help the ewe bond to her lambs.

Not happy

I fed her grain to take her mind off the lambs and I supervised as each one found the udder and nursed vigorously.  But she didn't talk to them or nuzzle them, she just spazzed out and tried to get away.  I thought about giving her a little sedation but ended up just letting them be for the night.

Next day, more of the same.  I supplemented the lambs with an occasional bottle to be sure they were getting enough.  One had a weak hind leg, so I was doing a little PT when I'd go check on them all.  She was improving and continued to nurse mom and the bottle well.  As time went on, still no change in mom.  She hated me, she hated them, so eventually I gave up and took her babies from her.  More bottle babies, but oh well.

The twin ewe lambs did great the first day, then the one with the weak leg up and died on me the next day.  I went out in the morning to find her agonal, so I euthanized her.  Didn't find anything on necropsy, so I don't know what happened to her.  Maybe mom knew all along.