Flock Mates: Woolhelmina

She’s a beauty from a flock in the Midwest.  This stunning moorit ewe arrived here as a 2 year old having never been sheared.  She had no name and was pregnant with twins.  We were warned she was flighty and had no interest in being around humans. 

Woolhelmina blanketed in snow.

We had a snowy winter that year.  I would constantly find this ewe under inches of snow, cozy warm with her inches of wool.  One day when I found her under 12” of snow, her name came to me.  Woolhelmina!

That February we sheared her.  Woola, as we affectionately call her, began to build some trust with us.  In April she had her twins, Ivan and Iris.  Her lambs were small and needed help.  Without hesitation, she allowed me into her space to help the lambs nurse on her.  Ever since, she has been a calm and steady presence in our flock.

This year I chose Woola to be part of our breeding group.  She is an amazing mom and we couldn’t wait for her lambs.  In April, while watching the mom group, I noticed Woola looking as though she was getting very close to having her lambs.  Her belly was getting quite big and seemed closer to the ground than the day before.

At 4:00 the next morning, I found her standing in the barn with her belly even closer to the ground.  I walked over and checked her.  Her lower abdomen was filled with edema – fluid that gathered where it didn’t belong.

I made a call to the vet.  The exam didn’t give us any answers as to why this was happening, but it did leave us with some decisions to make.  She was stable at the moment, but her condition would continue to worsen.  The lambs were alive, but we didn’t know if they were developed enough to survive.  We decided to take her to the clinic for an emergency C-section.

There we stood in the bright, white clinic.  The smell of rubbing alcohol, iodine, and her freshly sheared wool filled the air.  Woola was kept awake and stood on a stand.  My husband held her on one side, the vet on the other injecting numbing medication then making the long vertical incision on her side.  I stood behind the vet holding a towel, ever hopeful the lambs would be alive and viable. 

Woola loving on her lambs while still in surgery.

The vet reached in and began to pull. 

In a way similar to a magician’s scarf trick, out came a really long moorit ram lamb…..mature and alive!  He was holding up the natural delivery.  I cleared his mouth and dried him quickly, he took a breath.  Immediately after him came a black ewe lamb.  I cleared, I dried.  And before I could finish, there was a third lamb!  This one was a black ram lamb.  Triplets!!  All alive and ready to stand!

A C-section birth can mean the ewe doesn’t have the hormonal surge of a natural birth needed to help them bond and nurse their lambs.  I picked up all three lambs still wet from delivery and put them in front of Woola while she stood being stitched back together.  I hoped the sight and smell of her lambs would help them to bond.  Woola immediately started licking them and nickering to them!

Woola was lifted off of the stand and steadied herself.  She headed directly to her wobbly lambs to nuzzle and lick them.  We gathered everyone and got them loaded into the trailer for the ride home.  I rode in the back with them to be certain everyone was safe.  To my complete amazement, Woola began nudging the lambs back towards her udder. 

Our trailer ride home.

We settled Woola and her lambs Count, Greta, and Ace into their pen at the barn.  All three were able to nurse on her without assistance.  I have had ewes raise triplets without any need for me to supplement with bottles of milk. Under normal circumstances I believe Woola would have done so, too.  Since we were needing her to heal from surgery and her edema, I started each lamb on a bottle of formula.  Woola fed the lambs, too.  She wanted those babes with her.  Woola and I agreed we would raise them together. It's truly a privilege to work with our sheep in this way.

Woola, Ace, Count, and Greta resting at home. You can see Woola's incision coated with an aluminum spray.

The first week after surgery was touch and go for Woola.  With her blood work presenting as normal, the vet’s best prescription was “the tincture of time”.  It took her a couple of weeks to heal from surgery and another month to fully recover from the edema.  She’s now returned to normal and has seemed to truly enjoy her triplets.  The three lambs are now weaned, growing well, and happily bounce up to see us each day.  It seems the tincture of time did its work for Woola in so many ways.