Groundhog Day=Maternity Day!

What a day yesterday turned out to be! When I checked the animals in the morning, I noticed that one of our heifers was going in to labor. Heifers are female cattle that have not yet had a calf, and they tend to have the most problems, because birth, nursing and caring for their young are new to them. I kept an eye on the heifer all morning, but I also noticed that one of our ewes was getting ready to give birth too. She is a veteran mother so I wasn't too worried about her, BUT her udder was bigger than I have ever seen. By 1pm, the calf was born and the mother was licking it- so far so good. I left them alone and checked back in an hour. The calf should have been up on his feet, but he was not. Fortunately, the mother let me near it- it was unable to stand without help and it was starting to get chilled. We were about a quarter of a mile from the barn, but the calf needed a heat lamp and a confined space where we could get it nursing. What to do? I hoisted the calf onto the tailgate of our pickup truck and my father-in-law, who loves to help out on all aspects of the farm, drove very slowly to the barn while the mother followed her calf. We put the two of them in the stall with double heat lamps on the calf. By this time is was getting late in the afternoon. Time to check the ewe. I found her tucked in a protected spot. As I approached I saw one lamb and them another- twins! But when I got closer, I saw a third lamb that was curled up and chilled- TRIPLETS! I grabbed the chilled lamb and ran it down to my mother, who lives with us. She dried it and fed it a quick bottle of colostrum while Ellie and I worked with the calf. We rubbed him under the heat lamp, got him up and walking and headed him in the direction of his mother's teet. Then we grabbed the now warm lamb and headed up to the sheep. The mother accepted the third lamb and we walked them to a pen to be safe for the night. The snow started after dinner so we brought the ewe and her lambs to a stall for the night. This morning all of the babies were up and nursing! Life is tenuous and all of the babies may not survive, but so far so good. We'll keep a watchful eye over the mothers and their babies.