1 February 2008
A01 “Millennium Milly”, Born 2002, Died 2008
Posted by Richard under: Sheep; Smallholding .
Milly had a prolapse a few weeks ago, which was attended to by the vet and some running repairs were done - but she was always at risk from that moment on.
Kate checked the sheep at 1pm today before going to collect the kids from school (which was closing early due to bad weather). She went to check the ewes again at around 2:30pm and found Milly had prolapsed again and this time much more seriously.
Kate quickly checked Milly over, identified the problem, checked for obvious lambs (feet/head showing) and decided immediately this needed professional assistance. The vet was called, but it was already clear before he arrived that Milly was swiftly deteriorating and was on her way out. On arrival, he sedated Milly and performed a caesarian, but the lambs were already stillborn, and had probably died a few days ago (causing Milly to abort early). They were around two weeks early. By then Milly was also dead.
Not the great start to lambing we had hoped for, and sad to lose a ewe with so much character as well as two lambs, but we have to be both pragmatic and optimistic - we know these things happen. As the vet said, there wasn’t anything anyone could have done for Milly.
5 Comments so far...
uphilldowndale Says:
1 February 2008 at 9:36 pm.
Sorry to read this, whilst it’s all ‘part of it’ it still not nice
Jo Knight Says:
2 February 2008 at 2:04 pm.
Really sorry to hear about your loss - & losing the lambs too is a double blow.
Last year one of our goats aborted a mummified foetus; whilst the birth appeared to be happening ‘as nature intended’ I was a bit concerned as she was in labour a full fortnight earlier than expected. I’ll never forget the shock as she swung round, straining to give birth - & seeing this horrible, decayed corpse slide out. However, the rest of the goats kidded perfectly normally, all producing healthy babies; so we’re keeping our fingers crossed that this is your one and only ‘incident’.
Lucy Says:
2 February 2008 at 3:06 pm.
Poor Milly - seems she had a good life though, which is the most important thing.
colour it green Says:
3 February 2008 at 1:47 am.
shame, but as you say nothing you could have done about it. Lets hope the rest of your lambing goes smoothly