Stuck lambs

Around 4:30am I was awoke. My Mom, my brother and sister were up checking on a ewe, who had 2 very stuck lambs. They were both at least 10 lbs and both were trying to come out at once. No bueno.

Both lambs tongues were hanging to the side. The ewe was pretty exhausted.
My mom probably wouldn't have been strong enough. My brother doesn't have the experience, and the same for my sister. Plus both of them are a little "wimpy" when it comes to pulling kids and lambs out. So, I am the elected kid and lamb "puller".

Mom runs up the stairs and says, "Suriyah, wake up. We need your help. There are 2 dead lambs trying to come out at once."
I say, "Ok, I'm coming".
Under my breath tho I say "oh great".
Grab a sweatshirt, walk downstairs, get my boots. All the while praying that God would give me strength to do this.

By the time I get out there (just a couple minutes), one lamb's head had been pushed back but just barely. Of course, I know what to do. One lamb was a lot further down in the birth canal than the other. This ewe is huge, I mean huge, for a sheep. Which was a very good thing cause I had plenty of room to move things around.

First, I had to figure out whose legs were whose. That was pretty easy.

Next, with literally most of my strength, I had to go in, grab the top lamb's head and shove it back out of the birth canal. Of course, the ewe is contracting thru all of this making things that much harder. Once that lamb was out of the way, I was able to grab the dead lamb (whose head was pretty swollen from hanging out for awhile) and pull him out. He was large and dead. Had we found the problem sooner, we probably could have saved him. But, that didn't happen and such is life.

So, I flopped him to the side. Went back in and grabbed the 2nd "dead" lamb. Pulled her out and amazingly she was alive, but very floppy and lethargic (not surprising). We started rubbing on her, the ewe was licking her. She ended up being fine, it just took her awhile.

I look back a minute later and there was another lamb's head hanging out. Slipped that one out - another ewe lamb. She was very spunky, very much alive and well.

The ewe cannot stand. Probably birthing trauma. Hopefully she recovers. The crazy ewe lamb has learned to nurse off of her laying down mother. The other lamb is being bottle fed for now.

What a crazy morning.

Have a good evening everyone!

Suriyah

p.s. - this was typed on my iPod so please forgive any spelling errors.