Post by Selden on Jul 8, 2008 13:39:22 GMT -5
My sweet DH gave me two sheep for my birthday. I found them dirt cheap on Craigs List. My DD named them Blackberry and Azalea. They are of a breed that's common in England but not here -- Clun Forests, a hill breed that's known to be "a bit more nervous". These two ewes are 2 years old and have NEVER been handled except to be shorn twice a year, so rather than "a bit nervous" they're as wild as march hares.
Now, Blackberry and Azalea were shorn the day before I picked them up. That's late in the season, and it meant their tender skin has been more vulnerable to biting flies in the pasture. Azalea has now developed fly strike. That is, she was bitten on her backside by flies, she scratched the bite with her teeth, opening a wound, flies have been drawn to the blood and laid eggs (that hatch into maggots), and so on and so on, steadily getting worse and worse. The wound is now 3" x 3" and I haven't been able to touch her to treat her. She's a maiden ewe and her udder on that side looks bagged up as if she were nursing lambs. I'm assuming it's an infection in her lymph nodes. I've been going crazy trying to think what to do.
She won't let me anywhere close. She leaps like a deer and runs like a race horse. Last week I tried roping her. I tossed a loop around her neck and she promptly took off, pulling me off my feet and through the grass until I hit a rock and let go. (We weigh about the same, but she's a LOT more athletic!) Then she had a noose around her neck and I couldn't get close enough to get it off. After two hours of trying, I had to leave her. In the morning she was naked of noose but the infected wound still needing treating.
Working for hours and sneaking up on her when she's sleeping, I have several times managed to THROW hydrogen peroxide at the wound from about five feet away (my other ewes, who know me as the source of all goodies, crowd around -- but not her, even with treats -- her flight zone is about 20 feet). But peroxide hasn't been enough. And of course, now she's even warier because somehow whenever I'm around, her wound starts fizzing.
I called the vet and he left an airy message that I need to give her shots of 4-5 ccs of penicillin subcutaneously twice a day. I tried to explain to his receptionist that the ewe is so wild I'd need a dart gun. She called back and reported that Dr. Dave said, "Figure it out!" Azalea needs those shots. Hmm.
I thought of trying to run the sheep from the pasture into my half-finished barn, but without stalls built yet it's a 24x32 open area -- not much help. Finally I decided to empty the toolshed, fence around it, and run the sheep into that area. I've worked all day at 85° and though I'm wet with sweat and stinking, I got the shed emptied and the fencing moved. The sheep love the shade of the toolshed.
Now to borrow the penicillin from a neighbor. Picture me in sweat-stained coveralls wrassling down a 140-lb ewe in the dark of a toolshed, with 8 other ewes jostling in fright, and giving her an injection subQ in her arm pit! And I'm to do this twice a day!
So often I can't imagine how I'm going to get something done. It will be interesting to see if I can. LOL
Now, Blackberry and Azalea were shorn the day before I picked them up. That's late in the season, and it meant their tender skin has been more vulnerable to biting flies in the pasture. Azalea has now developed fly strike. That is, she was bitten on her backside by flies, she scratched the bite with her teeth, opening a wound, flies have been drawn to the blood and laid eggs (that hatch into maggots), and so on and so on, steadily getting worse and worse. The wound is now 3" x 3" and I haven't been able to touch her to treat her. She's a maiden ewe and her udder on that side looks bagged up as if she were nursing lambs. I'm assuming it's an infection in her lymph nodes. I've been going crazy trying to think what to do.
She won't let me anywhere close. She leaps like a deer and runs like a race horse. Last week I tried roping her. I tossed a loop around her neck and she promptly took off, pulling me off my feet and through the grass until I hit a rock and let go. (We weigh about the same, but she's a LOT more athletic!) Then she had a noose around her neck and I couldn't get close enough to get it off. After two hours of trying, I had to leave her. In the morning she was naked of noose but the infected wound still needing treating.
Working for hours and sneaking up on her when she's sleeping, I have several times managed to THROW hydrogen peroxide at the wound from about five feet away (my other ewes, who know me as the source of all goodies, crowd around -- but not her, even with treats -- her flight zone is about 20 feet). But peroxide hasn't been enough. And of course, now she's even warier because somehow whenever I'm around, her wound starts fizzing.
I called the vet and he left an airy message that I need to give her shots of 4-5 ccs of penicillin subcutaneously twice a day. I tried to explain to his receptionist that the ewe is so wild I'd need a dart gun. She called back and reported that Dr. Dave said, "Figure it out!" Azalea needs those shots. Hmm.
I thought of trying to run the sheep from the pasture into my half-finished barn, but without stalls built yet it's a 24x32 open area -- not much help. Finally I decided to empty the toolshed, fence around it, and run the sheep into that area. I've worked all day at 85° and though I'm wet with sweat and stinking, I got the shed emptied and the fencing moved. The sheep love the shade of the toolshed.
Now to borrow the penicillin from a neighbor. Picture me in sweat-stained coveralls wrassling down a 140-lb ewe in the dark of a toolshed, with 8 other ewes jostling in fright, and giving her an injection subQ in her arm pit! And I'm to do this twice a day!
So often I can't imagine how I'm going to get something done. It will be interesting to see if I can. LOL