[Jacob-list] 300%

[Mary McCracken]

Thought I should get this email off quickly before my record is broken.  My
first ewe to lamb had triplets.  So I'm at 300% ... that's not ever likely
to happen again.  It is a nice big suffolk ewe and she had two ewes and a
ram.  They are very close in size, hale and hearty.  The ewe only labored
for the first one and the other two just came down the birth canal as she
went about her business.  I stuck two fingers in 'to be sure she had only
singled' after waiting nearly two hours and milking out some colostrum.
Yikes.  Nearly lost the second one due to the delay.  Imagine my surprise
when I again 'checked' before leaving.  Wonder why she was doing that.  The
first lamb wasn't huge.  She was in labor with it when I came to the barn
for morning chores and she was delivered before I had finished feeding.
Mother and baby seemed perfectly normal.  I hung around expecting a twin but
when she showed no signs I milked out colostrum to have on hand.  Any ideas
on what causes this behavior.  It seems the second and third would have died
before getting born.

mary