And then he was gone

Sadly, I have to say that the baby sheep died. We feel terrible about it, because we feel responsible. The day after he was born, we noticed that the ewe didn't seem to want to let him nurse, but we weren't standing there watching them all day, so we didn't know if he had nursed at other times when we weren't around. That afternoon, Sunday, I was away for a couple of hours, and came home to find Orrin in the house with the baby curled up on his lap. He said that he'd found the baby in the sheep shed, collapsed on the ground from weakness. Orrin brought him inside and laid him near the woodstove to keep warm, then went back outside, flipped the ewe over onto her back (sheep become very docile when held on their back) and milked into a small bucket. He went back into the house and used a baby syringe to feed some milk to the baby. Shortly after he'd done that is when I arrived home. I grabbed a heating pad to try to give the baby some additional warmth, and then went and called someone locally who used to raise sheep, for advice. When I came back downstairs, the baby had died. We were kind of in shock, and as I said, feel terrible about it. From talking to other folks, we learned that we need to make sure the baby nurses within 45 minutes to an hour after being born, so they get the first milk, colostrum, and so the mother and baby make that connection.

We realized that the times that are really difficult here are when we learn the most. What will we do the next time we think an animal is going to give birth? Keep an eye on them until the baby is born, and make sure the mother nurses them. In the long run, we won't want to keep animals that aren't very maternal, but we sure don't want to let the babies die because of that. We'll just keep track of that, and try to build up a herd of animals, whichever type they may be, that have a strong instinct to care for their young.