VIDEO: Survivor sheep gives birth to quadruplets

Louise Walsh

A wonder sheep, who survived a marauding dog attack on a local farm, has given birth to four healthy lambs 'au naturale.'
The ewe, whose ear-tip was bitten off in the attack which killed five sheep and 23 lambs, had a rare four live births without any intervention on Monday.
While the odds of a ewe having quadruplets are apparently one in 400, it's very rare for all four to live after being born without medical help, according to farmer Gus Martyn.
'It's even more rare for a sheep that suffered such an attack to get pregnant at all after the trauma', he said.

 

The Suffolk cross sheep gave birth to all four lambs in about 15 minutes, under a tree in a field on his farm in Dunderry on Monday evening.
He said: 'I'm delighted with her. It's reasonably rare for a sheep to give birth to four lambs but it does happen. However, it's very rare that all four will be born strong and healthy. Usually one or two won't make it.
'She was in the flock of 80 ewes and some lambs that was attacked by dogs on my farm two years ago. The dogs slaughtered five ewes and 27 lambs.
'The top of her ear was bitten off and she was lucky to escape with her life. However many of the other untouched sheep were left traumatised by the attack.
They were that afraid, their milk dried up and they couldn't feed their babies and other ewes never lambed after that because of the fright.,' he said.
Gus, who is originally from Galway, has been sheep farming all his life and his ewes have produced quadruplets before but not all survived.
'One or two didn't make it which is quite common. A sheep giving birth to four lambs usually has to have medical intervention but not this sheep. She picked the driest spot in the field, under a tree and went and gave birth by herself. No vets were needed.

'My wife Olive was keeping an eye on her as we knew she was due any day but no help was needed and mum and all her babies are doing well.
'We don't scan our sheep so had no idea that she was carrying four lambs.
'This sheep also surprised us last year. Normally a sheep would only have one lamb in her first pregnancy but she had two.
'Actually because of the trauma, we didn't expect her to ever get pregnant.'
Gus was taking no chances with the new lambs and made sure they had adequate shelter on their first night.
'We put them in a shed and put a red lamp on them to give them every chance. I got up at 3am and Olive got up at 5am to help feed them. 'Mum' is feeding them mostly but I might take two of the lambs away and bottle feed them, just to give her a chance to recover.'
The next few weeks will be busy for Gus as he prepares for even more little 'uns on his farm.

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'I've about 40 ewes to give birth and some are quite big, so expecting twins or more. I've also 20 calves just born and there are three mares and three donkeys due to foal in the coming weeks.
'It'll be a few sleepless nights but when you're born into farming, you love the job and it's not work to me at all.'
He appealed to dog owners to secure their pets during this busy time.