Help! I'm Kidding!!!!

It’s kidding and lambing season!!! This means we get a lot of calls from people at very random times of the day. This week, I had three calls from owners that were a bit overwhelmed with the birthing process.  "Dolly's" owners called about 10:30pm on my night on call. She was one of two ewes that were suffering from a prolapsed vagina.

Prolapses are a bit of a confusing thing for owners that do not have a lot of experience with sheep. The call usually comes in as a prolapsed uterus or a ewe that has “cast her withers.”  The first question I always have to ask is; “Has she had her babies yet?”  Many times, it’s just the wall of the birth canal prolapsing out. This is certainly not normal, but not as severe as the uterus being prolapsed.  In order for the uterus to be prolapsed (turned inside out, outside the body), there has to be a lamb or kid (or a calf, in the cow world) on the ground.  No baby yet= no prolapsed uterus.

As normal labor commences, the muscles and ligaments of the hind end start to relax, allowing the birth canal to open up.  As the ewe starts to push, the wall of the vagina can protrude out and will block the birth canal, causing a road block for the lambs.  In order to assist the ewe, we have to push the wall of the vagina back in place and reach in to deliver the lamb. This is a bit tricky when you can only get about two or three fingers inside the ewe. After the lamb is delivered, we place a stitch in the vagina of the ewe so that if she continues to strain after lambing, she does not actually push the uterus out. We then give oxytocin and calcium to help with the muscle contraction of the uterus, so it starts to “involute” and shrink down.  Dolly had been in labor all day and was exhausted by the time we were done. Seeing as it was 11:30pm by the time we had finished, I did not take any pictures of Dolly or her baby, but she had a healthy baby ram.   I know you all get very excited to see cute baby pictures of lambs and kids, so I promise I'll take some the next goat/sheep call I get....

Another issue I had was with a goat that had triplets named “Jamaica.” It’s common for goats to have twins, but triplets can put quite a strain on a doe. Often times, there is a drain of calcium on the doe and they can have pregnancy toxemia. Calcium is needed for muscle contractions, so a doe will often times get weak, act “drunk” and have trouble kidding.  If they do manage to have the kids, they may not drop the entire placenta. “Jamaica,” suffered from what we commonly call a “retained placenta”. She had lost her appetite, was not making any milk for her kids and was lethargic. When she arrived at the clinic, her temperature was normal, but she still had placenta hanging from her vagina. The rest of her physical exam was normal.



The black is the fetal portion of the placental attachment.

If the placenta does not drop on its own, the body will naturally start to break down the placenta. The placenta can also act as a wick for bacteria from the environment to enter the uterus. To prevent a doe from becoming sick, they are often started on antibiotics. The placenta can be manually removed, but has to be removed with extreme caution, so as not to rip off the maternal placental attachments.  Cow, goat and sheep placenta is attached to the uterus similarly to each other, but drastically different from cats, dogs, horses, pigs and humans. The harder the birthing process was for the animal, the greater number of babies born and the nutritional status of the mother all play an important role in whether or not the placenta drops on its own after the baby has been born.   

Jamaica received calcium directly into the blood stream (in the jugular vein), was started on an antibiotic and an anti-inflammatory and was sent home with some additional calcium to be given later that evening. If she still has no appetite, the owner was instructed to start her on an electrolyte solution and to entice her to eat with whatever she can. Hopefully the meds start to work quickly and she will perk right back up to her normal self.