Stillborn

I was hoping that last lamb death would be my one and only for the season, but sadly this morning when I went into the barn (nice and early before sunrise) I found my last expecting ewe licking up a pool of pink membranes.  At first I thought a sheep had vomited inside the pen but soon realized what I was actually looking at was the very thick deep pink membrane containing a deceased lamb.  It was premature hence why the ewe was still inside the sheep pen and not inside the lambing pen.  It was a good month premature and had some deformities.

Not noticeable at first but having called in my daughter's farming boyfriend, he was able to point out many I hadn't visually been able to see.  It's one foot was bent forward, one of it's eyes was larger and further down the face then the other, their was no bone or muscle on one side of it's hips, and weird of all, the membrane had grown into the side of the lamb's body.  It was definitely far smaller than even my small bottle fed lamb which could explain why I wasn't sure what I wasn't looking at first when entering the barn.  After I realized it wasn't vomit, I thought she had expelled the sack without any developing baby since it seemed so small and empty.  But when I came in closer I noticed little legs so helped her out by removed the sack from around it's face.  However, there was nothing to be done, it was already dead.

I think it died inside her womb which explained the deep pink membrane surrounding it.  As far as I understand, the sack is usually clear but murky.  My daughter's boyfriend thinks it was a deep pink because it had died inside her womb.  We'll never really know but she peed clear urine afterwards which indicated no rips or infections inside the womb.  There might even be the possibility of another lamb in there and fingers crossed could make it full term.