Dear Curiosity Journal,
Sometimes, no matter how closely you monitor them, ewes give birth in secret. I had been frequently and expectantly checking them out the window while working on office tasks, as Cauliflower has been presenting signs of early labor for a few days. So, when Rufus ran in and announced that Joy Jr. (JJ) had a lamb on the ground, I whipped my laptop and ran to her. JJ had not been showing signs that she was in labor. She just quietly meandered into the tall grass in the back of the pasture and had her lamb, a wispy little baby girl named Judy. I quickly assessed the situation and checked her for another lamb and felt hooves. I wasn’t sure how long it had been since she had the first lamb, but Judy was already cleaned off, standing, and nursing, so I figured it was time to intervene to get the second lamb out. Sadly, it was a stillborn boy. He was big and fully formed but wasn’t breathing and I never felt a heartbeat. Reeling with questions, hypotheticals, and guilt from the loss, I had to turn my attention to JJ and Judy. I cleaned them up, treated Judy’s navel with iodine, gave Joy Jr antibiotics, probiotics, vitamin supplements, and herbs, and got them moved into a lambing pen. Mother and baby girl are both doing well. JJ is a sweetheart of a mommy, giving Judy all of her love and attention. It’s bittersweet to celebrate life and mourn death in a set of twins, a strange entanglement of the heartstrings. Cauliflower is still holding her lambs hostage on the inside, and now I’m even more determined not to miss the last birth.
~Joy
