Twist to lambing season

MY night on call this week was reasonably uneventful. Apart from the surgery alarm going off at 1am (a poster fell off the wall) and a ferret with low blood sugar to feed at intervals, I had no other jobs to break my sleep.

But breakfast was interrupted by a call to visit a sheep which was having difficulty giving birth.

When I examined the ewe it became apparent there was not just one head and two legs, as I was expecting, but two heads and four feet.

It was twins and they were completely jumbled up. I showed the farmer, who was new to lambing, what to do so she might have a go next time.

Sore

She put her arm in the ewe. “It’s lovely and warm in here isn’t it?” she said.

I soon unravelled the twisted twins and both were on the straw, trying to stand and searching for their mother’s udder.

Waiting for me when I returned to morning surgery was Thor, a Belgian Shepherd police dog who had a sore leg.

He was a lovely fellow but did not like strangers. He growled and bared his teeth but quickly relaxed when he realised I was not a robber.

It became clear his lameness would need surgery to repair a damaged ligament.

Lambings and new ligaments, both in the same morning. The job of a vet is certainly a varied one.