[zwartbles]

Good news and bad.
Have been lucky up until now with some very nice lambs.
Yesterday one of our best ewes went into labour and then stopped pushing with no lamb visible. Got the vet out who then struggled for an hour with a giant dead lamb bent double with feet facing forward. Impossible to turn around until two legs broke off. It the took two of us to pull the rest out.
Poor ewe will quite likely die of peritonitis as she has a tear to the uterus. Antibiotics of course but they can only do so much.
Four still to go so fingers crossed !

[smudger]

  I'd give a hug but can't find the smiley thing.

[OhLaLa]

Sorry read your news. Bless her.

Hope all goes well with the four.

[Haylo-peapod]

So sorry to hear about your ewe, I hope she manages to pull through.
Why oh why is it always our best or favourite ewes that come a cropper...
Hugs from me too. I hope the rest of lambing goes smoothly. x

[Remy]

Sounds awful, so sorry  .  Hope the ewe manages to repair herself, poor thing 

Best of luck with the rest ..

[Rosemary]

  Hope the ewe is OK - where there's life etc etc.

[Tilly]

Hi Zwartbles,
I hope your ewe will  recover , heartbreaking when that sort of thing happens

I like the good news though    your little -uns look so sweet 

Tilly

[feldar]

So sorry this is a horrible thing to deal with good luck

[Fronhaul]

The only solution is to go and visit the lambs - especially at stomping time which is around 5.30 -6.00 pm here at the moment.  Thinking of you.

[Anke]

If you already had the vet out - would a C-section not have been easier on the ewe? Even if she then would be a non-breeder, her cast value should have made up for it. If she dies on your holding you will have nothing... except the vet's bill.

[SallyintNorth]

zwartbles, so sorry to hear about your ewe   

If you already had the vet out - would a C-section not have been easier on the ewe? Even if she then would be a non-breeder, her cast value should have made up for it. If she dies on your holding you will have nothing... except the vet's bill.

I wondered the same, then thought our vets are usually very reticent to to a c-section when it's dead lambs, saying that you usually can't keep the wound clean and will end up with a very sick ewe who will die in any case, so I don't know if that's what they thought here.  But yes, if the uterus was going to tear you would have thought a c-section would perhaps have been the best of the available options.

[kanisha]

How is the ewe today Zwartbles?

I have everything crosed for you and her its so very distressing when things like this happen ((hug))

[Bramblecot]

[I have everything crosed for you and her its so very distressing when things like this happen ((hug))
[]
And from me.  Rotten luck.

[wellies]

will be keeping my fingers crossed for your ewe, so sorry to hear about the lamb

[zwartbles]

Thank you all for your good wishes. The ewe is up and walking and grazing, which is good. The outcome won't be clear for a few days when we will find out if any infection has occured.
A section wasn't a feasible option in a dark muddy field shelter on a ewe who had been fighting for three hours and was very weak. The primary concern was trying to get the lamb out before the ewe died of shock or exhaustion, the tear not being inevitable, just a side effect of fused limbs etc.
In a perfect world ,with hindsight a lot of our decisions might be different!!!!!!!!!!!!!