It has been really amazing to see the changes that occur in the springtime in NW Iowa. Sure, it's great in South Dakota too, but right now I'm experiencing it in a whole new way! Let me start earlier in the semester.
A week after spring break, which was in the middle of March, my Animal Science class received an assignment which required us to be in a group that would care for a group of ewes (sheep about to have lambs), a calf, or chicks. I was assigned to a group that would be caring for four ewes. The ewes had been bred prior to the college buying them and they were due to lamb out within the next two or three weeks. We had to feed them every morning and afternoon and keep their pens clean. It was an experience lab, and that's exactly what some of the students got, including myself.
About a two weeks into lambing, my roommate Elisa (also an Ag. Animal Science major) and I went out to the farm to do afternoon chores. We had just walked into the barn when we noticed that one of her ewes was in the process of lambing out, and so we decided to stick around and make sure that everything was going okay. Sometimes ewes need help because the lambs get so big that they can't come out on their own. That's the way life goes sometimes.
Well, that wasn't exactly the case with this ewe. Elisa and I ended up waiting with two more of our fellow ag. girls (Abigail and Rachel) for around a half an hour. Nothing happened. So my roommate put a full-arm sleeve on and went in the ewe's backside to investigate what was going on. The lamb was in the normal presentation (front feet then head coming out first), so we decided to wait for another half hour, more or less. Nothing happened. Half an hour later she went in again and found three legs. Now for those of you not familiar with most farm animals, this is NOT SUPPOSED TO HAPPEN.
Well, at this point, the ewe was not very happy, so I got into the jug (a small pen for an individual ewe) and held her still (with the help of Abigail) so that Elisa could go in again and figure out what the heck was going on. She figured out that the she had two back legs and a front leg, leaving us to assume that there were either two lambs, or the single lamb was sandwiched in half and trying to come out all feet first, which doesn't work and is asking for trouble. Luckily for us, there were two lambs, but they were completely tangled and intertwined together.
Well, at this point we were all feeling a little out of our league because none of us had ever done anything with sheep. So we decided that it was time to call in our supervisor Mike. However, Mike was out to supper with his family and told us to handle it. So, out came the cell phones. At one point, we were using four cell phones to call everyone we could think of who might be able to give us directions on what to do. I'm not kidding when I say everyone. Calls were made to people clear across the country to the West Coast before we got a hold of someone who could tell us what to do.
Following instructions via a phone conversation, Elisa went back in to double check how things were doing and was able to untangle things a bit. Now one lamb was backward and the other was forward but turned on its side. Things had been going on for a while and the ewe was so tired she had stopped contracting. Using her knowledge from Animal Science, Rachel instructed Abigail and I to massage the ewe's udder which would cause her to produce oxytocin, which would cause her to contract. Finally, Elisa was able to turn the lamb with semi-normal presentation enough to pull it out. The lamb was alive but in the way, so we got it breathing, waited for the ewe to claim it, and them promptly moved it out of the way.
The next problem we faced was getting the second lamb out alive. We had been told that if we ever pulled a lamb backwards, it would be dead. We didn't want that, but it was too big to turn around and all our messing around inside the ewe had probably caused the umbilical cord to break, which meant that the lamb might already be breathing and already dead. It had to come out, and it had to come out with or without the ewe's help. So Elisa pulled hard and quick and the lamb slid out.
It was barely alive. In fact, it took both Elisa and I to get it to breath. We were sticking straw up its nose, pulling its navel (gently), rubbing it, and eventually picked it up and shook it gently in order to get the thing to breath. And it did. It was alive! After an hour of working together, our task was done and we had been successful!
And guess what happened right after we finished... 10-15 people (including Mike) walked into the barn as the ewe was claiming the other lamb! It was nice to have visitors, but the four of us were thankful that we had not had an audience to watch us doing something completely new and foreign to us. Sure, we had read about it in a book, but doing it yourself is the point of an experience lab, and that's what we got: an experience. It was great!
Well, I shall have to continue my spring tales in a later blog, but I have another story for you that happened just today! Look forward to it! I know I'm looking forward to telling it. God bless!
Psalm 8
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