[Jacob-list] 300%

[sbennett]

Jacob lambs won't start arriving for about two weeks. We're in the middle 
of kidding right now.
I had a first timer go two hours before having the second kid. She didn't 
seem to know what to do with the first. It would try to nurse (she 
wouldn't let it) and then would wander around and mom would follow. 
Several times mom tried to lay down to push out the twin and the first 
one would try to run under her to nurse or take off. Finally, I grabbed 
the kid and held her a couple feet from mom. She immediately layed down 
and pushed out the twin. No problems from the delay. 
I did talk with my vet about some of the goats taking longer to deliver 
twins and the placenta than in the past. She suggested my does/ewes 
having twins and triplets may be low in selenium even though we put out 
salt with selenium and feed a little grain with selenium. She had me give 
BOSE shots to all the ewes/does.

Debbie Bennett
Feral Fibre


>
>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