More from Lesley and our Bowmont…
We won a ‘Highly Commendable’ RSPCA Award a couple weeks back, recognized for our Bowmont Regeneration Program. It’s always a team effort here at Finisterre, but when it comes to our Bowmont, it is the energies of Lesley and Lesley alone, who have made this program work. Once again Lesley, you’re a huge inspiration to us all - so fired up!
The latest from the farm below:
Today was crunch time for my Bowmont ewe. For the last two weeks she has been programmed with a whole series of injections then inseminated. Today was the day we collected the embryos – assuming of course things had gone well. This has been expensive, time consuming and, more important than anything else, not very comfortable for the sheep so I have been most anxious to ensure we got something out of the whole thing.
We arrived at 8am this morning at Horsepond Vet Centre in South Molton and the sheep spent a little while in a quiet pen getting settled. Fortunately she is a calm, laid back animal and had already been in this pen once when she visited for insemination, so she quietened very quickly. She was anaesthetised then placed in the “cradle” which holds sheep gently yet securely, head tilted down a bit to help breathing and circulation, then her belly was shaved and cleaned.
As this was Bowmont, all the belly wool was carefully put in a bag for me to bring home! Waste not want not!!
Cath, one of the vets, was keeping a very careful eye on sheepy’s breathing during this time and in fact all the time she was under anaesthetic, checking her heart rate etc regularly. She was very well cared for at all times.
Mike the other vet then set too and quickly had a small incision made and the uterus gently pulled up to the surface. The little embryos at this stage, (day 6) would be securely in the body of the uterus, if they were there at all.
The next stage was to flush the uterus with sterile saline solution so that the embryos would float out gently into the waiting petrie dish. Helen was there to catch the precious liquid. One cough at the wrong time or a jolted elbow and the whole lot would have ended up on the floor. It was a nervewracking few minutes.
After this, the ewe’s job was done. Helen took the dish and the embryos to the microscope to check the quality and number while Mike and Cath concentrated on stitching the incision and bringing the ewe round from the anaesthetic. I was there all the time of course and while she was coming round in her pen. She was very wobbly and coughing quite a bit but soon managed to clear her chest.
Helen was only a few feet away, looking carefully through the microscope. We all held our breath. After what seemed an age she declared: “Nine good embryos to freeze!” I was so relieved!! All the effort and the discomfort for the ewe was worth it. She had done a brilliant job.
The next task was to freeze the minute globs. These are my Bowmont insurance policy. Hope for the future in case of some devastating disease outbreak. They are for use only in extremis – at least, for the time being. The freezing might mean some of the 9 don’t make it but it’s the best way to preserve these unique sheep.
I left the vets to it as it was a slow and painstaking process. My task now was to concentrate on my sheep and get her home safely back to her stable. Mike the vet gave her a powerful painkiller to make sure she stayed comfortable and Cath gave her a final check over. Within an hour of the procedure she was ready to go home.
We said our goodbyes and set off , relieved things had gone so well. Unhappily, for some ewes, this is not the case and all the drugs and stress result in no viable embryo harvest. So far this year this has not happened at Horsepond AI centre but it is always a possibility. All that effort for nothing. We were lucky.
As I write tonight, the sheep is comfortable, back with her companion in a warm stable and has eaten some food. She has earned her place on this farm and will have an honourable retirement from now on!!
My grateful thanks to Mike, Cath, Ronnie and Fiona from Horsepond and also to Helen, the AI Senior Technician from Innovis who came down to help with the freezing. Their care for the sheep was exemplary and their care for me just as good. The coffee and croissants all round were particularly appreciated once the job was done! I shall be back for more!
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