[Jacob-list] Re: Jugging - snip, dip etc..

[Mary Hansson]

Hi,
 
I was also curious about what people are actually doing regarding the cords.  When I first started out, I was told you HAVE to get that iodine on the cord first thing to seal the cord from bacteria that will easily travel up the moist environment and into the baby.  This I did religiously.
 
A friend and much more knowledgeable breeder asked me a question a couple years later:  Tell me why you want to seal IN the bacteria that have gotten up there before you can even get to the cord.  Good point.  Even pouring iodine on a cord before it breaks, the cord hits the ground WITH THE INSIDES OPEN TO THE ENVIRONMENT which will provide the same risk of bacteria entering the cord and then being sealed in.
 
After another year or two of trying to CATCH cords and be ultra-efficient, I realized this wasn't feasible and realistic.  How many lambs are born every spring without the aid of iodine and obsessive-compulsive shepherds peering over their every first actions?  LOTS.  I finally sucked in deeply and stopped---waiting for all the dire predictions that the iodine-devotees had touted.  I have yet to lose a lamb between 1-2 hours post birth and 3-4 months of age.  I don't use antibiotics unless I feel there is pretty just cause, and really can't remember using them on a lamb in 8 years.
 
Cords are torn naturally. The mother delivers the baby lying down and the cord tears when the ewe then stands up and swings around to tend her baby.  In only one case have I had a cord that bled.  At the above-friend's recommendation, we tied a string around it and that solved the problem.  All cords dry up within a short period of time and fall off anyway.
 
Can anybody comment?
 
Mary Ellen

MarmontJacobs at aol.com wrote:
Hi Denny...I'm a little concerned about what you mean by SNIP. Shepherds here learn never to cut the cord of a lamb, but to gently tear it, but only if it's almost on the ground...due to the real risk of the lamb bleeding to death if the cord is cut. Then iodine is dribbled down the cord to dry it, or dipped but only in a use once and chuck it away container as bugs can, and do, live on in the iodine bottle.  Maybe you mean something different :)

Trisha, Wales 

Mary Ellen Hansson, MEd, RD, LDN
ISeeSpots Farm
Jacob Sheep:  Lambs, adults, wool
www.iseespots.com
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