North Wangaratta's Karen Ritchens was gobsmacked when she saw five lambs from the same ewe.
Ms Ritchens said she initially thought the ewe, named Mary, had given birth to twins.
"We came home Saturday afternoon to see two healthy twins running along beside her. An hour later we looked out and saw number three," she said.
"And half an hour later there was another, so we had four. We took them to the stables with hay, and tucked them into beds.
"We popped out again for an hour and when we came back there was number five. I was shocked and counted them again."
Ms Ritchens said the fifth lamb was very cold and needed to be taken inside and warmed up by the fire.
"When you popped your finger in her mouth she was very cold, very close to death," she said.
"So we popped her in a box of hay, turned the heating on and rubbed her down with a towel for a couple of hours.
"Her legs were a bit jammed up — five lambs in a belly I guess one had to get squashed — but eventually she came around and stood up and started bleating."
Although the fifth lamb was nursed back to health, later in the week another of the lambs died.
"I came out Wednesday morning and unfortunately she [the ewe] had laid on one, so that was very sad," Ms Ritchens said.
Quintuplets are rare
Although multiple births in sheep is common, vets have described the likelihood of quintuplets to be "one-in-a-million".
Alison Crichton, a vet at Wangaratta's Warby Street Vet Hospital, said quintuplets were rare.
"So some will be identical and others will be related but not identical.
"Occasionally we will do things to make livestock ovulate more, or sometimes there's two splits and that's created two sets of twins and a single."
Ms Ritchens said the ewe was a crossbred Poll Dorset and Merino and only had one lamb last year.
"We've only had her for two years, so she's not very old, she's not very friendly, but she's always been healthy and strong.
"I'm not big on the breeds but I know a good sheep when I see one.
"We were asked to name them by the local newspaper so we've got Daisy, Roger, Bob, Fred and Tammy was the one we lost.
"And mum is Mary. Mary had five little lambs."
Taking the bottle
With four lambs and one sheep, Ms Ritchens has to help with bottled milk to keep them topped up.
"They have been fairly keen to take the bottle up until this morning. They are quite content so obviously mum had got plenty of milk," she said.
"It's just a matter of keeping on eye on everyone and making sure no-one goes backwards.
"Mum gets all the supplements she needs and lots of hay because obviously feeding four lambs is quite strenuous on her."
A former show horse trainer, Ms Ritchens said she kept the lambs inside the stables during the night to keep them warm during the frosty mornings.
"It's been freezing, as soon as the sun goes down they trot into the stable and into their hay bed and snuggle up together."
