Lambing Help, Part 3…When to Call the Vet
Well, we’re wrapping up our Lambing Help series…today with a pretty serious topic–when to call in reinforcements. Just like the rest of this series, this is pretty subjective. I think the biggest factor in calling the vet is not so much what’s going on with the animal as how experienced you are as the farmer. Our first couple years the vet was out here two or three times a year. Now? Maybe once year, more like once every two years. Thinking back, I believe they’ve only been out there twice in the last three years for the sheep. One pregnancy toxemia case in 2011, and a few weeks ago with a pre-lambing toxemia case–which we recognized immediately because of the previous case.
There’s two factors in that. One is that our management has improved so we have less problems. I’ve been talking about that throughout the series. Better management and the right livestock for your management system make a world of different.
The second part of that is that we’ve learned so much over the years! We’ve learned how to spot problems earlier and we’ve learned how to treat basic things ourselves. For example, that hard labor case we had a few weeks ago…in the early years I would have wanted to call the vet because something was clearly not right. We’ve learned to wait, and watch, and give things time to work themselves out. Another case would be pulling a lamb. If the lamb was showing it’s feet, as I described last week, I wouldn’t call the vet right away because we’re pretty confident that we can catch her and help in that case.
So we’ve talked about when “normal” turns into something we have to help with…but when does it turn into a vet call?
Well, for starters, we’ve never pulled a lamb that wasn’t showing. The two times we called the vet for a lambing was when the ewe was laying down, laboring hard, and making no progress. No feet sticking out, no water sack or birth sack, just a ewe in clear, distressed labor. In one case she was actually laying in our backyard and BAAAAAing with each contraction. It’s the only time I’ve ever heard a ewe make a sound during labor!
The vet came out, we penned her up, and the vet pulled the lambs. One was huge, and stillborn. And because it was coming first and couldn’t get out, nothing was happening. The second lamb was very small, but made it. I don’t mean to be gross here, but this is real life–the vet had to reach up inside the ewe to get a hold of the lamb. I don’t feel qualified for that. {smile}
The second lambing vet call we made was similar. The first lamb came out fine, but the ewe was clearly still in labor and there was no second lamb in sight. If I remember correctly, the lamb was trying to come out nose first rather than feet first and our vet had to reposition the lamb inside the ewe and pull it out. That ewe also ended up with a possibly retained afterbirth and the vet removed that too before the night was over.
Mr. Fix-It is more livestock experienced than I am, so he’s braver about these things. For me, I wouldn’t want to put my hands inside an animal for the first time without supervision by a vet or experienced farmer, so I would call a vet for any no-show labor case that moved outside our “normal” labor parameters. We haven’t actually had one of these in more than 5 years.
However, being more confident myself these days, now I would use that call to learn everything I could to do it myself next time.
We would also call the vet for any retained afterbirth. If we couldn’t find it in the field within 2 hours of the last lamb, or saw it only partially passed from the ewe after two hours of showing, we would pen the ewe and call the vet. The vet explained the complications of a retained afterbirth and the dangers of pulling it ourselves during that second case we had and I wouldn’t mess with that myself.
We would call the vet for a lamb that was showing, but didn’t pull easily, or a lamb that was showing but clearly in the wrong position (such as upside-down feet). This is a problem that has to be corrected by pushing the lamb back inside the ewe and reaching inside the ewe to reposition. Again, we’ve never done this and I would prefer to learn how at the hands of the vet.
We would call the vet if the ewe wasn’t up, mothering. We have never had a ewe with complications after the lambs were out–health wise. Nothing outside of a lamb rejection. A ewe that didn’t recover (almost immediately–they are so tough!) from labor would be a vet call.
In general…we would call the vet the first time we experienced a complication–for the hands-on experience. For example, we’ve never had a prolapsed uterus. If that happened, we would likely call the vet and learn from them to handle it ourselves next time.
I think the key when you call the vet is to make sure you learn everything possible from them while they are here. When you think about the cost of calling them, weigh that against all the information and experience you can gain from them coming out as well. Always ask what they are giving the animal, and what that medicine is supposed to do. Ask why they use a particular technique. Ask them to show you how to do it. Ask about alternative treatments. Ask about something you read or saw online. Pick their brains! Always talk about why. Don’t get so caught up in treating the problem that you don’t stop for a few minutes to ask the vet why this might have happened and discuss future prevention. Vet calls are expensive–get as much out of each one as you can!
I’ve written a post about general health and wellness that includes a FREE PRINTABLE for When to Call the Vet that you might want to check out! But as I’ve said throughout all these posts…Good management and healthy animals mean that all these issues are the exception, not the rule.
And if you’re looking for more specific information, here’s our very favorite sheep books–the ones we keep close by all year long!
I’d love to hear some of your animal stories! Feel free to share, or share a link in the comments to your own post about farm baby adventures!!
Be sure to visit the rest of the Lambing Help series to read about some of our more colorful lambing season adventures!
- Part 1: What Does Normal Look Like?
- Part 2: Common Problems We’ve Faced.
- Part 3: When to Call the Vet.
I think the last part about getting info from the vat at the time of visit is a great one! I might have been able to help if I had done that. I only remembered my reading of “All Creatures Great and Small” much too late to help in saving a beautiful animal I had come to love
.
My story is not one about sheep, but cows. My very first experience with a cow did not go well, but did end happily; sort of. I always lived in town, but wanted to be a farm girl. After my divorce, I bought my dream home of 5 acres, and someone suggested I get cows to help in keeping it mowed. So…. I got one. I had her bred and waited. Not knowing if she was pregnant, sent her to a friends while my fence was being repaired. ( The cows, mine and a few I was pasturing for a friend, had a couple of times decided to head for the coast , so I needed a new fence!)
The day I went to see her, and find out if she was pregnant, another friend said that she hadn’t been seen for 24 hours. (he had over 600 acres) so we went looking. We found her in the only source of water, a rain fed pond, stuck. she had been there for awhile. We wenched her out and waited: she was obviously in labor, and had struggled for hours,with no luck. Eventually, everyone went home, and I stayed the night.
She did manage to get the head part way out. I went to help, but found no breath when taking hold of the calves’ mouth or nose, so went to see if I could help the cow. I assumed the calf was dead. A few minutes later, I saw the calf move, and thought I had a chance. So, around midnight, I put my hands inside, and found the hooves, and pulled gently but firmly. The cow had long since tired of trying to push, so I did it all.
I lost track of time, but I think it must have been a few hours later, there was a newborn calf at my feet, and, a day later, a dead cow. The vet came out and gave her a few shot after trying (to my HORROR!) to prod her with an electric shot!
The light came a few days later when I remembered my reading and figured out she probably had milk fever, something that could have been remedied by a calcium shot, something the vet had NOT tried…. but by then, the cow was dead.
So, I drove the newborn calf home, about a 30 minute drive, while it peed the whole time! I was very fortunate to be able to get colostrum milk from a local dairy and give her, and she survived and grew and gave me many of her own calves! She always thought I was her mom! I used to go out into the pasture in the summer, lay down a blanket and read. She would come over, lay down on the blanket and chew her cud with me. Later, when she was full grown, would stand over me while I read, and drool all over my book! I used to take a curry comb and brush my cows, but she would push all the others away when I tried to brush them after her. I named her ‘Miracle’, as she was truly a miracle. I miss her to this day.
While I do agree that most of this type of thing SHOULD be taken care of by a professional, don’t allow the lack of one to hinder you from doing what you can to save livestock. If you are a mother, chances are, you know what to do and what NOT to do, so just go gently.
In my case, cows apparently are not considered worth taking the time to come out for a vet. I had, over the years, called three in the area only to be told: sorry, can’t come, it’s horse season (like horses haven’t been mating since practically the dawn of time without help from vets…). Fortunately, most of the issues were taken care of by nature, but as a newcomer to having any kind of livestock, it would have been helpful and much less stressful for ME had they come out.
I love cows, and hope to have them again, but I AM thinking about sheep, too. I even have a couple of heritage breeds in mind. I’m looking forward to having livestock again: I HATE mowing 5 acres every summer!
Thank you for this series, I know it will help when my sheep finally get here!
(Sorry for the length, but you DID ask for my experience!!! 😉
Thanks for sharing!! I love hearing other people’s adventures–there’s always something to learn! Our vets definitely specialize and do mostly horse-work. Especially the newer vets coming out of vet school. It’s much harder to find an “old fashion” large animal doctor–at least in our area. Even within one practice, we have found that all the vets have different levels of experience and expertise. I feel like we’ve really had to develop a collaborative relationship with our clinic to get the kind of care we wanted–they didn’t just roll up knowing everything we wanted to know–and we had a lot to learn! There’s been questions we’ve asked that they had to go back and research and call us about and a couple of our cases have stumped them when it came to determining the final “cause” and we just had to keep trying different treatments until we hit on something the animal responded to and then try to backtrack into a diagnosis.
Thanks for sharing your sheep experience at the HomeAcre Hop!
Living on a sheep farm, I love sheep post 🙂
Thank you!
Mine is a story of non-rancher assisting in delivering a lamb for the first time…
I currently seasonally rent space for my trailer from a small farmer/rancher with about 20 sheep (don’t know the breed) and am not a rancher/farmer by a long shot. I help with feeding, and other odd jobs around the ranch as partial payment for my staying here during my work season. I have known they had lambs being born but not been present or seen much other than newborns running around occasionally. I was caught completely unaware yesterday. This post and the others have absolutely eased my mind and let me know I was right in that something was amiss, and that the ‘half-drunk friend’ advice I was given was correct.
Most of the other lambs that have arrived were not ever a problem as far as I was aware, so yesterday when I arrived home from work (the owners are currently overseas for two weeks) and went to let them out to the pasture, I noticed a ewe with hooves and a head (partially delivered) running with the other sheep. I made a few calls to veterinary offices (24-hour places as it was late and the nearest is 2 hours away) without much response or was promised a call back when the vet was available. The ewe made no effort over the next hour (still awaiting a vet return call) to lay down and made a calls to people I know or family who have horses and such but could not get any definitive answer on what ‘normal’ or ‘abnormal’ might be in this case. Enter the ‘half-drunk former rancher friend’ who said I might have to pull the lamb and described it as ‘out gently and downward’ by the hooves.
After getting her separated from the herd (it’s been almost 2 hours by this point), and seeing no progress or attempt to lay down and push by the mom I got her gently pinned down and began pulling hooves downward and outward at which point she started pushing and delivered.
End result: What appears to be a healthy newborn, afterbirth was expelled 45 mins later, and today mom is caring for it and lamb is feeding. I actually feel like I can get some real sleep.
Again….thank you! I will say that reading your posts definitely gave me more peace of mind today to think that I was right to believe this was not ‘normal’ and that I did the right thing in this instance. More information than the vet did (who finally called about 10 minutes after the lamb was trying to nurse and explained how to milk the mom briefly to ensure lamb could feed. Still not heard from other vet).