Oops! Unexpected diversion

[altivo]

Gary went out to feed horses and sheep this evening while I started making supper and he came back in to say "We've got a lamb!" I think my jaw hit the kitchen countertop before I recovered. I was sure that we weren't having any more lambs. After all, our old ram died over two years ago, and all the remaining males were neutered ("wethered" in shepherd's jargon) and couldn't sire lambs. I thought.

Do it yourself neutering is the rule with lambs, and I thought I'd gotten it right, but this winter I kept thinking one or two of the ewes looked just too fat and if I didn't know better I'd say they were pregnant. Seems I didn't know better.



Here is our newborn, a little black ram, who couldn't have been more than 20 minutes old when Gary found him. He was still wet, hadn't tried to stand up yet, and was panting from the exertions of birth. Mom was alternately licking him dry and gobbling hay as if nothing had happened at all. The afterbirth wasn't delivered until I had arrived on the scene with the camera and the little guy had managed to stand up and start walking.



Here he is wobbling to his feet. He stood like this for half a minute or more before trying to walk on those spindly little legs. Mom was keeping an eye on him, but letting him figure it out.



And here are baby's first steps. He didn't fall down, and even managed to step into and out of that rubber feed tub. All this when he was not yet an hour old.

Moving mom and baby into private quarters for a few days wasn't hard in terms of getting them to cooperate, but there was no room at the inn until we evicted Gary's last remaining duck from the lambing jug. He's been living in there for protection from the neighborhood fox ever since she killed his mate back in February. Now he had to go back to his duck house and be confined. Tomorrow I guess we'll be putting up a fox-proof fence for him. Meantime, mom and baby are doing fine, and will be safe because the lambing jug has a welded wire cover tied down with bungee cords.

Comments

[schnee]

Awww. :) Cute li'l guy.

So, if your rams are neutered, where DID he come from? o.o

[calydor.livejournal.com]

Guess someone's rubber (band) broke.

[schnee]

Ah, could be. (When I hear "neuter", I usually think along the lines of "with the quick flick of a very sharp knife", but yeah, I imagine you'd probably use a band or burdizzo or so instead these days.)

[calydor.livejournal.com]

With rams especially you use a rubber band placed just above the testicles when they're still very little. Blood flow is cut off and they just end up falling off. Can't say I approve of the method, but that's probably just my own ideology.

To quote Jurassic Park, though: Nature always finds a way.

[schnee]

Mmmm, yeah. Still, if the testicles are actually physically gone... I'm still really surprised.

[calydor.livejournal.com]

Don't be. Keep in mind this is a rubber band, it stretches.

Think for a moment (assuming you're male) - how do your private parts react to suddenly cooling down? Imagine the same thing happening to one of the lambs and the rubber band stretching just a little bit and falling off.

Not saying that's how it happened, but it sounds logical to me.

[altivo]

Those bands are very tiny and tight. They are not likely to fall off, but it's just conceivable that one could break early enough.

I don't think that is the case, though. They all look like they're wethers. A band that broke would leave an intact ram, and they have really low hanging balls. More likely one of them had an undescended testicle that eventually dropped far enough to become functional.

It's hard to tell by behavior. They all butt heads and act rambunctious as it were, and several of them have always taken an interest in the ewes in season. Since mom obviously has a black wool gene, color tells us nothing. It could have been any of five individuals who sired this guy, though I'm pretty sure I can rule one or two of them out.

[calydor]

Meant to reply to this sooner.

I admit to knowing next to nothing about sheep; is it normal for wethers to retain sexual behavior the way you suggest?

[altivo]

It's not unheard of. Just as with horses and cows, individuals vary.

Even our ewes butt heads on occasion, sometimes with loud enough noise that you'd think someone should at least be knocked out but they never are.

I stood and watched all the wethers yesterday evening and sure enough, one does appear to have a single gonad that isn't hanging as low as an intact ram's but probably low enough. Rams often look like they are in danger of dragging on the ground or stepping on themselves. I'm guessing that evolved because the wool grows so thick they don't get cool enough higher up. A lamb born now was conceived right around New Year, when our weather gets the coldest.

[calydor]

So what's the plan, then? Let him stay as-is or call the vet? I figure at this point there's no such thing as a DIY solution.

[altivo]

I think we'll let it slide as is. I rather suspect a fluke that he managed to actually impregnate the ewe. We have only three ewes left, one of them has never had a lamb and another has only had lambs once and that was nine or ten years ago. The current mom is a consistent breeder, But was not pregnant last year nor the year before. She's getting old herself now.

[schnee]

Could be. Still, wouldn't it be noticed if the testicles aren't actually gone?

[lhexa]

Wow! This made me wonder... do sheep generally have an easier time giving birth than cows do? Because I've heard that the latter are very risky to the mother.

[altivo]

I'm sure it all depends on the breed, genetics, and the individuals involved. I've heard stories about sheep requiring assistance, but ours have always just popped their lambs out with no intervention required and usually in the middle of the night. In a decade, this is only the second one to be born in the daylight hours.

My mare was pregnant when I bought her and we were very worried about possible difficulties in birthing, but that too seemed near effortless. I thought she was due and checked at about 11 pm but she didn't seem concerned or uncomfortable and was just eating hay. Went back at 1 am and the foal was born, dry, and walking around.

[avon_deer]

Lovely arrival anyway..despite being unexpected. :)

[altivo]

He's doing well today, too. Figured out where the milk comes from and seems quite content and healthy. We'll give them a couple more days of isolation to solidify the bond between mom and offspring, and then back into the flock they go.