Archived News

23rd April 2012

One of the Hampshire Down sheep had twins late this afternoon; the first lamb presented well, with his head and two front feet coming out first.  This ram lamb was up on his feet fairly quickly and was being licked clean by his mother when the head of the second lamb came out without any feet.

Christopher spotted this 'hung lamb' quickly and we were able to intervene before the problem became any worse.

Both lambs were born with their eyes closed but the ram lamb didn't open his eyes naturally in the first hour or so which wasn't good news for Christopher's first lamb!  Our friend Paul suggested it might be inverted eyelids or Entropion a condition that can occur in one or both eyes.

There are a number of techniques used to resolve this problem and so I tried what appeared to be the simplest and least invasive of these which is to pinch the skin around the eyelid.  This causes the area around the eye to puff up a little so the skin tightens just enough that the eyelid opens; it was wonderful to see the first eye open, followed fairly soon by the second and now the little ram knows where to find the milk!