Farmers at a recent Beef + Lamb New Zealand Lamb Survival Focus Group in North Canterbury heard how veterinary lubricant - and lots of it – can help get the best outcome when lambing ewes.
Vetet Ginny Dodunski told farmers that when lambing ewes, the more veterinary lubricant they can get into a ewe’s uterus and birth canal the better. Three to-400ml may be all that’s required for a straightforward lambing, but for more difficult births, one to two litres l may be required.
Lubricant can help 'float’ the lambs up within the uterus which then makes them much easier to manipulate.. Ginny recommends buying the veterinary lubricant in five litre containers and diluting it down so it can easily pass through a tube, (a plastic bottle with any type of tube attachment), a 100ml syringe or a drench gun.
“You need to get the lube into the uterus, not just the entrance to the birth canal, so you need something with a nozzle or tube.”
Lambing a ewe
When lambing a ewe, ideally, she should resting on her sternum with her hind legs out behind her in a frog position. This keeps the abdominal organs out of the way, giving the lambs more room and creating more space through the pelvic opening.
Often lambs that are malpositioned will need to be pushed back slightly to create enough room to bring their head and legs into the correct position for delivery. This should be done with gentlysustained pressure, without any shoving. shove.
When a lamb’s head is stuck or bent back rather than using a rope around the neck, Ginny suggests a ‘head snare’ made bycreating a loop in one end of the rope, passing the loop behind the lamb’s ears (fold the ears back down over the rope to hold it in place), then gently passing the loop through the lamb’s mouth, and tightening. “When you pull on the snare, it will pull the head straight, instead of allowing it to flop, as happens with a rope around the neck. A snare can’t choke a lamb either”.
Assisting a breach birth
Ginny says lubricant is definitely the farmers’ friend when it comes to assisting breech lambs. A lamb is ‘breech’ when all that is presenting is the tail, and the back legs are pointing forward towards the ewe’s nose.
Once sufficient lubricant is pumped into the uterus, gentle pressure on the lamb’s pin bones (the pelvic bones either side of the tail), can move the lamb forward and downwards (as if it is doing a summersault).
“This change of position usually allows the lamb’s hocks to come up, flexing the back legs to a point where you can gently cup the hoof and straighten the leg out backwards. Repeat with the other leg, and then the lamb can be pulled out by its back legs.”