Sammy and Smudge are old hands these days.... Do you remember Sammy's first pregnancy with a little lad who was so poorly... and the rejoining of the two sisters who pranced round like gazelles with pure delight at seeing each other again..... Last year Smudge had her first twins and was a really confident mother, Sammy being quite the opposite after her previous experience, but we put her and her twins in the same field as Smudge and the two mums supported each other until Sammy regained her confidence.
This year both have had problems.... We blame it on the weather, with extremes of temperature during March and April we had very warm days and very cold nights, and although the lambs have been o.k. both Sammy and Smudge have had pneumonia. We got Davinia the vet in with Sammy as we weren't sure what it was, but with Smudge knew the symptoms immediately and took appropriate action..... odd that no others were affected in the flock!
Sammy had had triplets this year so I was already feeding Talulla... they were in with the high dependency unit with Mitsie and the Squiggles... so I just added her two brothers to the gang.... She couldn't deal with them while feeling so dreadful... then when she started to get much better she took the boys over again but then she suffered with mastitis on one side so has lost the use of half her udder... we love her so much that I am reluctant to let her go.... Smudge fared much better and never stopped feeding her twins... but isolated herself from the main flock until she was better and is now right as nine-pence!
Now Lupin is their sister... a year later... Nettle (their mum) is really good at having daughters with Dudley for some reason... glad we saved her (she was my first ever experience of lambing)... So this morning I photographed her as promised... see what I mean about "crusty".. she should be white and looks more like a herdwick!....I ringed her two daughters tails while she had her breakfast and let them all out into the field as its lovely and sunny today... Another happy family!.... and the grunge will weather off!
This year both have had problems.... We blame it on the weather, with extremes of temperature during March and April we had very warm days and very cold nights, and although the lambs have been o.k. both Sammy and Smudge have had pneumonia. We got Davinia the vet in with Sammy as we weren't sure what it was, but with Smudge knew the symptoms immediately and took appropriate action..... odd that no others were affected in the flock!
Sammy had had triplets this year so I was already feeding Talulla... they were in with the high dependency unit with Mitsie and the Squiggles... so I just added her two brothers to the gang.... She couldn't deal with them while feeling so dreadful... then when she started to get much better she took the boys over again but then she suffered with mastitis on one side so has lost the use of half her udder... we love her so much that I am reluctant to let her go.... Smudge fared much better and never stopped feeding her twins... but isolated herself from the main flock until she was better and is now right as nine-pence!
Now Lupin is their sister... a year later... Nettle (their mum) is really good at having daughters with Dudley for some reason... glad we saved her (she was my first ever experience of lambing)... So this morning I photographed her as promised... see what I mean about "crusty".. she should be white and looks more like a herdwick!....I ringed her two daughters tails while she had her breakfast and let them all out into the field as its lovely and sunny today... Another happy family!.... and the grunge will weather off!
RSS Feed
