Aggieterpkatie-Pics of my new rabbit-Page 38 !!!!!

Yep, I'll definitely get one after this.

Still no lambs this morning. I woke up every 2 hours to check on her, plus I had the monitor on all night. She's more comfortable this morning, and her vulva isnt' as swollen anymore, which is good. It's going to be almost 70* today, so I'm REALLY hoping for lambs today!!!
 
I was thining of a prolaps harness too. Honeslty I'm kinda glad she didn't birth last night,--my thinking is she needs a bit more time to heal from the prolapse before going through it again. Hopefully the swelling goes down and she gets her strength up before she delivers.
 
Farmfresh said:
I would buy it NOW she may prolapse again when she delivers. :(
Click to expand...
I concur. I spoke to a shepherd of many years last night after reading your story about Purl and that harness is very important to protect Purl from further injury. The prolapse retainer "does work" It can be sewn to the hide to hold it. She was firm about this.

She also said that Purl will continue to have this problem and her future is "unclear" It is a painful condition. She recommends talking to the local University "sheep unit". A vet should have some experience with positioning the lamb prior to delivery or you can do it by ensuring that the head and feet are in the proper position.

Also best to extensively clip the wool around the vulva etc. of the animal to assure cleanliness. Expose the bag well and make it easy to let the lamb find it.

She also said you ought to consider the need to use antibiotics to prevent uterine infection because you are "messing around in there". Take Purl's temperature to monitor her condition. It will help you know if she is starting to develop an infection. Apparently the thermometer can be "held in place" to facilitate this.

She was also not encouraging about C/section. She did that once for her Ewe and lost both; so that might not be a good option.
 
Thanks everyone. I have used a bearing retainer on another ewe before and it was only so-so. Also, Purl's breeder said they only had one ewe prolapse before, and they used a retainer and the next day she was dead and had a prolapse the size of a basketball (when the day before it was only the size of a tennis ball or so). In my experience, the ewe feels the retainer and constantly strains against it. I will definitely order one, but if Purl prolapses again after lambing (which hopefully she will not), I'll have the vet out again to suture her so I know it won't happen again. I think the bearing retainer will be useful in case it happens next year, and hopefully I would catch it early on.

I know "they" say it can happen again, but I plan on breeding Purl again next year if all goes well this year. She's young and I'm thinking it was just a fluke. She may be a *tad* overconditioned, though she's definitely far from obese, so next year I'll be extremely careful with nutrition and management and make sure it wasn't my fault she prolapsed. Since none of her relatives have ever prolapsed (and they have a LOT of her relatives) I'm thinking it's not genetic and is just a fluke.

Luckily the vet didn't have to go very far inside, and everything was extremely clean so I'm going to hold off on antibiotics for the moment. I'll watch her and the moment anything seems off I'll make sure to treat her. :)

I'm not worried about her lambing. I've ton lots of experience positioning lambs and other critters, so I feel confident I can handle that. :) I just want it to happen soon so the pressure is off her. Plus, she's due NOW and I don't want those lambs to get too big!
 
Oh, and I'd already crutched her last week, so the wool is clear around her vulva, belly, and udder. :)
 
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