A February of Significance

This February I’ve made a significant breakthrough. Young Pan is a lamb I delivered on 20th April 2016 at 2:30am. I remember it very well as his birth was utterly horrific. His poor mum Vi had ringwomb (which essentially means her cervix failed to dilate). Her lambing had begun well and seemed to be progressing normally. And then things stalled. Pan’s nose was just poking out, and with every passing minute his tongue was becoming more purple and engorged. He was stuck fast. I couldn’t get him out and I couldn’t get him back in.

Vi, a Lleyn/Cotswold cross 3 year old ewe, was understandably, in considerable distress. I gave her a shot of Calciject and a some Caulophyllum and my friend Emma went to call the vet as the only way I could envisage this lamb coming out was either by caesarian section or dead and in pieces. It was horrible. Pan’s tongue by this point was massively swollen, stone cold and so purple it was almost black. Vi herself started to go downhill at this point and I feared we might lose her.

Her eyes were rolling back in her head and I knew that the lamb had to come out one way or another to save the ewe.  I was convinced that the lamb was already dead and so got my fingers jammed into the lambs mouth as far as I could so I had something to grip and hauled for all I was worth to drag him out. I honestly thought I was going to pull his head off. A couple of heaves later and the tiny ‘dead’ snow white lamb slithered onto the floor. Overcome with sadness, I looked down at him. And I saw the tiniest, almost imperceptible movement. The lamb was NOT dead yet!

Well, let it be known that I swung into action like a woman possessed!

The tiny lamb had the whole schmoolie:

• his airways cleared,
• straw poked up his nose,
• he was rubbed vigourously with a rough towel,
• he was swung upside down,
• he had a good squirt of Nettex KickStart,
• he had the homeopathic remedy Carbo Veg,
• damn it, he even had the kiss of life!

He began to breathe. Then he began to look around. I dragged him round to Vi’s nose and she was absolutely beside herself with delight at the sight of her precious lamb. Proving herself to be an excellent first time mother, she set to work licking him clean whilst making that fabulous snuffly chortingly noise ewes make when talking to their lambs. Emma returned to say the Vet was on her way (and was more than a little gobsmacked the lamb was both out in one piece and ticking!).

Given that the ewes hadn’t been scanned we didn’t know how many lambs to expect and knowing that The Lamb Who Lived was in very safe hands (hooves?), I thought it wise to have a quick check at the business end again just to make sure there wasn’t another lamb on the way. But, just because the night didn’t contain enough excitement, of course there was.

And then the Vet arrived. And was somewhat surprised to see the supposedly dead lamb out, alive and behaving for all the world like a totally normal newborn lamb.

The birth of Pan’s sister, Ella was much more uneventful – having already got one lamb out, things had loosened up a bit for the arrival of lamb number two. Which was just as well as Ella was a good size.

After a short while, both Pan and Ella bumbled onto their feet and, with a bit of initial guidance, latched onto their mum for their very first taste of colostrum. Mum Vi, was beside herself with delight at her precious lambs.

Ella rapidly grew into a very confident and, er, ‘independently minded’ young ewe. If someone was going to test out the electric fencing (i.e. escape!), it would be her. If someone was going to try and squeeze through a tiny gap in the netting (i.e. escape!), it would be her. It someone was going to find the only bramble in a 20 acre field and roll it in (i.e. cause trouble!), it would be her.

Pan on the other hand, has always been far more timid. He’s still the smallest of all the 2016 lambs and I’d say out of all 52 sheep I currently care for he is the most nervous of humans. He’s very curious and watches everyone closely, but has never quite been able to bring himself to get close enough for a proper stroke.

UNTIL NOW!!!

Over the last couple of weeks, Pan has been edging progressively closer. And all of a sudden he has come to the realisation that humans are a Very Good Thing.

He’ll now very happily eat from the hand and has developed a real love of a decent scratch all along his spine – so much so that he actively nudges your hand back onto his fleece if you stop! He’s still not 100% about having his head touched and he hasn’t quite figured out how to eat carrots properly yet but he’s definitely getting there. I can’t begin to tell you how happy this makes me.

Given his rough arrival into the world, I’ve always had an extra soft spot for My Boy Pan.

And it is so lovely to finally feel that he really trusts me.