Henrietta's Second Chance

Our first lamb of 2014 is here!

Meet Peat, Henrietta's ram lamb. Peat is black (no surprise there) with two white spots on his head.  His hooves are spotty, too.

Peat: Well-behaved in the car.

Why is Peat riding in a car?  Henrietta went into labor around lunchtime on Thursday.  By late afternoon, I could tell that something was wrong.  We did an internal exam and found that Peat was not in the right position for birthing.  We tried to correct it on our own.  We couldn't.  Our vet was out of town, so we called the University of Tennessee Veterinary Hospital and ended up taking Henrietta in.

Waiting for Mommy to refill her milk.

Due to his positioning, both the books and the veterinarians warned us that Henrietta's lamb had a slim chance of survival, but that intervention--and possibly a C-section--would save Henrietta and any twin.  Henrietta and Peat made it through, and are home again.  They are both doing well, but we're keeping an eye on them both for any complications. 

Nibbling some hay with Mommy.

Are we worried about the rest of our pregnant ewes?  Not really.  Henrietta had problems (small compared to this!) last year, and we hoped for the best but prepared for the worst.  Those preparations, along with the veterinarians at UT, saved Henrietta and Peat. This was her second chance...and even though Peat's positioning was not her fault, she's not getting a third chance.  Henrietta is retiring from lambing. 

Peat meets the bucket.

We have a lot of ewes due in the next week. 

Stare all you want, your turn is coming soon.

(A hint for those wondering what our naming theme is this year: pay close attention to the spelling of "Peat.")