[Jacob-list] Re: Jugging - snip, dip etc..

[Neal and Louise Grose]

Cords that are long enough to reach the ground probably should be shortened. I have also seen cords that are stretched close to the body bleed excessively. Vet supply and dairy catalogs carry navel clips similar to those used on human babies. Using these might be more important for preventing navel ill than using a dip. The iodine dip (this should be 7% iodine, strong enough to burn your skin) is used to wither and desiccate the entire cord, not just the end. If you are lambing on clean pasture, I question how necessary that is. 

A few months ago, I had a cow calve in the pasture and hide the calf. We brought the cow in and I went back several times to try and find the calf. Finally, I found it shortly before dark and right before I was supposed to leave to go to a meeting. Since I normally carry a supply of barbed wire for fixing fences in the back of my pick-up, I tossed the calf in the cab with me and started for the barn. THEN I found that the navel cord had started to bleed profusely. I drove bouncing back to the barn and grabbed a piece of baling twine and tied it off. Saved the calf's life and spent the next 15 minutes hosing out the pick-up. Thank goodness for vinyl seats.

12 inches of snow a week ago, 60 to 70 degrees last week, and 40 degrees and raining tomorrow. Ah! Spring in the Carolinas!

Neal Grose

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Mary Hansson 
  To: MarmontJacobs at aol.com ; jacob-list at jacobsheep.com 
  Sent: Monday, March 08, 2004 4:45 AM
  Subject: Re: [Jacob-list] Re: Jugging - snip, dip etc..


  Hi,

  I was also curious about what people are actually doing regarding the cords.  When I first started out, I was told you HAVE to get that iodine on the cord first thing to seal the cord from bacteria that will easily travel up the moist environment and into the baby.  This I did religiously.

  A friend and much more knowledgeable breeder asked me a question a couple years later:  Tell me why you want to seal IN the bacteria that have gotten up there before you can even get to the cord.  Good point.  Even pouring iodine on a cord before it breaks, the cord hits the ground WITH THE INSIDES OPEN TO THE ENVIRONMENT which will provide the same risk of bacteria entering the cord and then being sealed in.

  After another year or two of trying to CATCH cords and be ultra-efficient, I realized this wasn't feasible and realistic.  How many lambs are born every spring without the aid of iodine and obsessive-compulsive shepherds peering over their every first actions?  LOTS.  I finally sucked in deeply and stopped---waiting for all the dire predictions that the iodine-devotees had touted.  I have yet to lose a lamb between 1-2 hours post birth and 3-4 months of age.  I don't use antibiotics unless I feel there is pretty just cause, and really can't remember using them on a lamb in 8 years.

  Cords are torn naturally. The mother delivers the baby lying down and the cord tears when the ewe then stands up and swings around to tend her baby.  In only one case have I had a cord that bled.  At the above-friend's recommendation, we tied a string around it and that solved the problem.  All cords dry up within a short period of time and fall off anyway.

  Can anybody comment?

  Mary Ellen

  MarmontJacobs at aol.com wrote:
    Hi Denny...I'm a little concerned about what you mean by SNIP. Shepherds here learn never to cut the cord of a lamb, but to gently tear it, but only if it's almost on the ground...due to the real risk of the lamb bleeding to death if the cord is cut. Then iodine is dribbled down the cord to dry it, or dipped but only in a use once and chuck it away container as bugs can, and do, live on in the iodine bottle.  Maybe you mean something different :)

    Trisha, Wales 


  Mary Ellen Hansson, MEd, RD, LDN
  ISeeSpots Farm
  Jacob Sheep: Lambs, adults, wool
  www.iseespots.com
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