Anne Shirley. We name any ewe that comes to our farm from somewhere else after a fearless female. This group of 4 ewes came from The Creeks Edge via Wyoming. My daughters named them after literary fearless females. Anne Shirley, Katniss, Arya (Stark) & Pollyanna. Anne Shirley is a big ewe who usually weighs in around 155-165 lbs at a healthy weight. The pictures indicate she had two beautiful SGGM ewe lambs that weighed 8 & 8.2 lbs. The back story is more complicated. Everyone realizes that conditions like toxemia & hypocalceamia are directly associated with body score condition and overall health of the ewe, but may not be aware of the risk that being too thin or too fat can present during delivery. Dystocia & Diet are also linked.
Dystocia: difficult birth, typically caused by a large or awkwardly positioned fetus, by smallness of the maternal pelvis, or by failure of the uterus and cervix to contract and expand normally. Dystocia is the shadow that haunts the lambing season. Over the years I’ve made tough choices to continue to lower our percentage of difficult, or assisted, births. Studies show that ringwomb, failure of the cervix to dilate, could be hereditary (there are studies that indicate it can be passed from the sire, as well as the dam). Difficult decisions are continuously being made to streamline labor & delivery, but sometimes factors besides genetics can play a role.
I had a long day yesterday. Two deliveries that could have gone easier. Unbelievably, I walked away with three beautiful lambs, but I’m also nursing a mother who will never be bred again. It’d be easy to label both cases dystocia, which they were, but I would be missing an important point. Both cases were ewes who had pasture lambed unassisted in the past. These deliveries were both dystocia directly related to diet. This means as a shepherdess I am directly implicated.
I think diet influences FAR more cases of dystocia then we realize. Selenium deficiency alone causes more dystocia & weak lambs then anything else in my experience, but what happens when your minerals are zeroed in & your ewes are extremely healthy? I believe nutrition becomes an even more important variable. I’m going to share both my difficult delivery stories & the role I believe diet played in the hopes it might help other shepherds see patterns in their own flock & management strategies. The first is Anne Shirley. It’s very mild. The second, and more painful story, is Dandelion.
(This ‘hollowed out’ less then 24 hours before delivery).
This is Anne Shirley. She’s a big beautiful ewe, a granddaughter of Vali & Throttur bred by the Creeks Edge in SD. She’s four years old this year. She was bred as an OWE & yearling. She pasture lambed unassisted. Last year she was the only ewe to go unbred. The ram had missed one ewe nearly every time I bred him & last year it was her. Not ideal, but not the end of the world, right? Well, not exactly.
Previous unbred ewes had ended the summer looking healthy & at the most ten lbs heavier than usual. We are entirely grass-fed & I truthfully didn’t think a sheep could grow fat on my management plan. Anne Shirley proved me wrong. She emerged 20-25 lbs heavier and weighed 183 lbs in September… before the period of two weeks where I’ve started feeding my ewes a very good alfalfa/grass mix before breeding season. I was horrified. I’d let her get huge. This was a first for our farm & it kind of slipped by me. It’s been my experience that MOST Icelandics on grass fed diets will never get fat like this. Anne Shirley was an exception. She was bred to be a meat sheep & her rumen capacity is spectacular. I don’t advocate feeding your ewes any less hay! I feel many people underfeed their sheep, but if you feed grain or other supplements please be aware of the risks of a fat ewe at delivery. Take a look at BSC charts & check your ewes. ONCE A EWE IS PREGNANT YOU CANNOT MAKE SUDDEN NUTRITIONAL CHANGES SAFELY WITHOUT THE RISK OF TOXEMIA/KETOSIS.
“Pregnancy toxemia in sheep and goats has also been called ketosis, lambing/kidding sickness, pregnancy disease and twin-lamb/kid disease. It occurs in all parts of the world and is an often fatal disease occurring only during the last month of pregnancy. Death occurs in two to 10 days in about 80 percent of the cases.” (Colorado State University)
“Ketosis, or pregnancy toxaemia, occurs in cattle, sheep and goats. It is caused by the abnormal metabolism of carbohydrates and volatile fatty acids. Ketosis usually occurs in animals in good condition that suffer a sudden deterioration in their nutritional status.” (Meat & Livestock Australia).
(Just going out on pasture in 2022 )
So fast forward to Monday. I noticed Anne was walking funny. Yes, she’s a small boxcar by this point, but her back right leg wasn’t right. I feared PPT problems, but after sending the video to the vet we decided it was more likely a pinched nerve associated with her bulk & lamb weight. Ten hours later, contractions began, but after hours no water bag. I checked her cervix. It wasn’t dilated. I tried gentle stretching, but there wasn’t a chance. Gradually contractions ended & sadly all the lamb movement stopped. I was devastated. By the afternoon, after working with my vet, contractions resumed & a water bag emerged but due to being so fat Anne’s regular hormonal responses were off. Her contractions were also comprised by the pinched nerve. Thankfully her cervix did dilate, but not as I would have expected. The entire experience felt more like helping a poor beached whale then my strong willed, pushy ewe. I will never know for certain, but the chances of her body being able to deliver the twins alive, alone, seem low.
Keep in mind, this isn’t an ill animal. She is eating (no problem there), drinking, has high parasite resistant, & gotten plenty of movement the last six weeks… it’s just that her bodies normal hormonal responses were effected by her overweight condition. There are studies that predict lamb fatalities directly off the fat mass measurements of the mother. I’d read those studies, but I saw it in play on Monday. Please remember that the majority of Icelandics ewe need every calorie they can get before lambing (cannot emphasis this enough, most ewes need MORE hay rather then less) but occasionally, especially if a ewe misses a season, making an attempt to keep BCS no higher then a 4 may help avoid dystocia.
If you have a heavy ewe you’ll need to monitor her closer then you might usually do so. If your ewe has been laboring heavily for hours without the emergence of a water bag, you may need the assistance of a vet. Playing the long waiting game with an over-conditioned ewe whose contractions are intermittent for hours is a gamble. There are prescription medicines that will help, but managing BSC is the best preventative measure.
Thankfully Anne Shirley got through with some help & has beautiful twins to nurse through the summer. She should be in good condition by the fall (phew!) & hopefully we can keep her there. This is something to think of whenever you consider giving a ewe a year off. Some can handle it fine, but your bigger ewes with either heavy meat genetics or large rumen capacity may need to be watched carefully. Lambing with an overweight, obese, ewe is no fun!
Anne Shirley x Lamborghini
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