Lambs Galore

We had 12 lambs born today (six sets of twins)! Sadly one ewe lamb was dead when MIL found her; she suspects that she was still born as there was nothing apparently wrong with the lamb. We also had 3 calves born today (all bulls), so overall we had a busy day.

One of the ewes had to be caught and helped as she had a lamb coming out head first who was stuck; happily this lamb survived. T put on the gloves and reached in the ewe, she had to go past her elbow to find the second lamb! After she pulled it forward, I put on some gloves and got to reach in and find out what a lamb feels like while it's still in it's mother. Boy was I confused! The lamb had pulled back in a bit before I got my hand in, and so I too was past my elbow in a sheep; it took me a while to locate the legs, and then I couldn't find the head. Sounds odd considering that the head is attached to the same body as the legs are, but I just couldn't find it. So, T had to take over once again, and after a bit of a struggle she was finally able to get the lamb positioned correctly, and pulled it out (it too was alive).
T said the head was turned all the way around (imagine it's nose resting on it's back), so that's why I was having problems finding it. She had to maneuver it around quite a bit so that it was coming out the right way.
Having your arm inside an animal fishing for a baby is a pretty strange experience. You can't see what you're doing so you're going by touch alone. It's like being in a pitch black room, searching for a banana in a large bowl of warm jello, except there is blood and other bodily fluids and the 'banana's' life is depending on you removing it from the 'jello' quickly and correctly.

We also had a set of twins born today who are quite bald. They remind us of hairless cats as they are wrinkly and pink; chances are they're going to need little coats or they'll wind up with sun burns. It's tempting to breed them and sell them for $1500 just like those hairless cats  : P .

Here are a couple of pictures I took with my phone while out in the pen today, sorry for the crumby quality.

 A half Canadian Arcott ewe lamb. I think she's the cutest thing :)

 The first hairless lamb just after it was born. Lamb #2 was still waiting to come out.

The hairless twins together with mom. I'll get some better photos of them tomorrow so you can all see just how pink they really are.