Emergency Caesarean Lambing

Lambing contuinues apace and all has gone well until this morning when the Farmer after a long struggle to help a ewe have her lamb had to admit defeat and we took her to the vet. After examining the ewe the vet concluded that the problem was a very big lamb and a caesarean section would be required. So, as it was a young sheep and her first lambing we agreed to the operation which took place straight away with a local anaesthetic administered. The lamb was duly removed and it was emormous. The vet said the poor ewe would never have birthed it naturally. Although the lamb was dead we still have a good strong ewe who will adopt one of the bottle-lambs and will go on to have her own lamb next year hopefully without any problems. Watching the caesarean was fascinating. A surprisingly small incision was made to extract the large lamb and then each layer of uterus, abdominal wall and skin were then very neatly stitched back together again. The stitches on the skin will have to be removed in about 10 days but the internal one will dissolve. The whole process took about 1/2 an hour. The ewe was amazing and made very little protest during the whole procedure and as soon as we got her home she was put in a pen with an orphan lamb to suckle and they should do very well.

In a few days the ewe and lamb will look like these.