Quintuplet lambs arrive unassisted on Inverurie farm

A farming family from Inverurie has welcomed quintuplet lambs to their farm.

Kathleen Kirkland and her brother Jim Shand, who farms at Hillside, Fetternear, discovered the set of five lambs from their home-bred ewe this morning.

Sadly, a sixth lamb was found stillborn but the surviving five are doing well.

The family are in the midst of lambing the 100-ewe flock and were unaware that the Texel cross ewe was expecting so many lambs.

Kathleen, who left her accounting career three years ago to help with the sheep, said it was the first set of quintuplet lambs they have ever had on the farm.

One-in-a-million quintuplet lambs on Inverurie farm

“We were really amazed when we went into the lambing shed this morning and found so many lambs from one ewe, especially with them being born completely unassisted,” said Kathleen.

“It was even more impressive that she had managed to carry six lambs through the winter but a shame that one did not make it.

“She had been prolapsing prior to giving birth so we were keeping a close eye on her and she was fitted with a harness.

A prolapse harness for sheep is a wearable device designed to keep a ewe’s uterus inside her body after a vaginal prolapse.

It uses straps and a harness-mounted retainer to exert gentle, consistent pressure on the vulva, preventing her from straining and pushing the tissue back out.

Sixth lamb stillborn

Kathleen said the Beltex cross Texel lambs have all received colostrum and will receive a second dose before three are taken off her and bottle fed.

“Sadly, we cannot keep all five lambs with the ewe as she only has enough milk to rear two,” said Kathleen.

“I will bottle feed three and two will stay with her. If another ewe loses a lamb, one of the three pet lambs will come into use.”

Quintuplet lambs are extremely rare, with industry experts often citing the odds of a ewe giving birth to five lambs — and all surviving — as approximately one in a million.

[Source: Press and Journal]