Lambing season is intens. A blend of farm labour, miracles of mother nature and emergency medecine. I consider it to be a valuable experience for every future veterinarian. Recently I spent two weeks on a farm in Brittany, France.
Approximately 90 would give birth this season. I learned a lot from Lisa, the farmer I stayed with. Mostly practical skills, that I doubt I would learn in vetschool.
One evening we received a call from a farmer nearby. One of her ewes experienced difficulties giving birth and she has been in labour for quit a while. After our arrival, with a little help, the ewe could deliver her lamb. However, the newborn was not out of the woods yet: it was suffocating. After a lamb is born, you always clean the nose and mouth from present mucus. However, after the cleaning, the lamb did not start to breath. It was wheezing instead. We thought it might have fluids in his airways. Neither me or Lisa had ever been in this situation before. We decided to swing the lamb. This means you hold the lamb upside down and you swing it. You hold it on its legs and offer support on the chest to make sure you won’t dislocate the hips. The philosophy behind this, as Lisa told me, is to clear the airways by using gravity. Surprisingly, after a while and a few long swings, the lamb’s breathing improved.
This event triggered my interest. I was curious to find out what could possibly the mechanisme behind this technique. If it really is gravity or if there is another theory. As well was I curious what might have caused his airway troubles. This case would make a great subject for my scientific blog, I thought. Once I was back in Belgium I started searching literature. To my surprise, I could not find any cases like this. Instead, I found models for resuscitation in human newborns, oxygen problems in fetal lambs the most common obstetrical complications in ewes had been. Research on complications for lambs during or right after birth, appears to be scarce.
Ofcourse we had been speculating about a possible cause of the airway problems. Maybe it was the length of the partus. Maybe he couldn’t excrete internal fluids out of his lungs. Maybe he swallowed fluids during labour. For now, I dont’ have any answers of my questions but maybe I’ll find the opportunity to investigate cases like this in the future.
Thoughts of a Vet Student 