The way you walk the lamb and mother into their stall is to hold the lamb in front of her, let her smell him, and then walk slowly backwards. We usually use a sling, but the distance was short, and we were not mentally prepared for such a hard birth. Socks is not a strong a mother as Susie, she did follow Maria in, I got behind her, our friend Rod Wilson stood in front of Susie to keep her from getting upset. Everybody is in their own clean stall. I would have preferred the birth to be in the stall, but you rarely get to choose where a ewe will give birth. I’m not sure about the lamb, but I’m hopeful. They definitely have bonded, we just checked to make sure Socks is expressing milk.
3
May
Walking The Lamb Inside
by Jon Katz