Post by farmwench on Jun 9, 2011 15:36:14 GMT -5
I've had one disaster after another with my sheep lately (about the last 2 weeks), and they could have been easily avoided if I'd done what I should have. Please learn from my mistakes!
My 7 year old Romney ram died recently, which was an unexpected and very expensive loss. He had done poorly through the winter- did not thrive on his hay (often not the best quality), didn't seem to improve post dewormings, would gain some on corn supplement (pain in the behind to separate him from the other ram and the donkey to grain); just not thrifty. Still thought he'd be around for a few more years, and he was the more civilized of the two rams (slightly smaller, so I could generally win in a throw down wrestling match, and he would stop attacking for a while after I would sit on him a few times). When lambing started mid-April, with 20 ewes bred I didn't have (didn't make) the time to continue the corn supplement for him. By the time lambing was over (19 days- the boys did a good job), he had lost more weight and started looking really poor. I started him back on corn, still went down hill. Dewormed him with Valbazen and he stopped eating. I tried to get him going again with Sav-a-Calf energy/electrolyte/probio "juice", which I like very much and have used with sick calves, goats and sheep for a few years. He started bloating about the 2nd day and he died the next. Disaster. Should have gotten aggressive with his weight/condition back over the winter, and definitely should have made sure to keep up his corn during lambing. Can't afford to replace him, and don't want to breed my girls to their father (breed back to grandfather, so I don't have to keep replacing rams, and the ones I have can stay around a few years).
Then I had a brainstorm; I have 2 purebred Romney ewes- 1 had a single ram lamb and the other had a ram and a ewe. I hadn't banded either of these boys yet and decided not to. One of them could be my replacement ram (dead ram was twin's father and greatgrandfather), if he looks like a likely prospect, and the other (single) I could sell as a ram for better than meat price. If I didn't like either one of them for my own replacement ram, maybe I could trade one or both for a new ram, or their sale might buy me a new ram. Silver lining, you know. So I banded these boys' tails; all the other boys just have their testicles banded and not their tails. The single lamb was about 15 lbs at birth (a whopper!) and was growing well and looking good.
Meantime, I put the sheep up in their lot one night and count to be sure they're all in, and I'm missing a lamb. Can't find him anywhere; finally look in the ram lot and there is a white lamb layed out still. Last year I had a lamb get in there and found him down and traumatized, but he lived and recovered from his injuries. (Donkey goes after the ewes and lambs; he can only be trusted with the rams.) I was praying this lamb would survive as well. But he was several hours dead when I got to him- badly abused, with his skull crushed. Disaster- went from 28 healthy lambs to 27 in one evening, right after I lost my breeding ram. The next morning I found a really obvious spot the lamb probably went in through, and two other potential spots for a lamb to enter. They were all pretty obvious and I plugged them all in about a half hour. I nearly lost a lamb last year the same way, but I was complacent and didn't stay on top of the repair situation this year until too late. Very expensive and unnecessary loss.
Less than a week after I lost that lamb, I arrive in the evening to find my 50 lb., handsome, healthy, purebred, single ram lamb layed out stiff as a board, with TETANUS! I have the toxoid vaccine, I just haven't used it , and I've always been lucky and hadn't had a case of tetanus. So of course, it's Sunday evening, after Tractor Supply is closed, and I have no Tetanus Antitoxin on hand. So go to my beef cow neighbor, and my goat and sheep neighbor, and they have no antitoxin either. So I try a horse/dog breeder neighbor, no luck. So I try a fourth neighbor- Eureka! One vial of antitoxin, which seems to help the lamb with his breathing that night. Next morning I go to TSC and get more antitoxin, dose the sick lamb again, and finally vaccinated all the lambs and breeding ewes for tetanus. Sick lamb hasn't improved any, and he needs IV fluids, steroids, Valium for seizures: lots of very expensive Intensive Care which I can't afford and don't have the supplies to provide. Thankfully the lamb died that afternoon. If I were a better shepherd, I'd have put the lamb down immediately instead of making him suffer like that. (If I were a better shepherd, the sheep would have already been vaccinated for tetanus and this would never have happened.) So another very expensive and heartbreaking, and VERY easily avoided disaster. Now I'm down to 26 lambs, and completely paranoid.
Please, please don't make my mistakes.
My 7 year old Romney ram died recently, which was an unexpected and very expensive loss. He had done poorly through the winter- did not thrive on his hay (often not the best quality), didn't seem to improve post dewormings, would gain some on corn supplement (pain in the behind to separate him from the other ram and the donkey to grain); just not thrifty. Still thought he'd be around for a few more years, and he was the more civilized of the two rams (slightly smaller, so I could generally win in a throw down wrestling match, and he would stop attacking for a while after I would sit on him a few times). When lambing started mid-April, with 20 ewes bred I didn't have (didn't make) the time to continue the corn supplement for him. By the time lambing was over (19 days- the boys did a good job), he had lost more weight and started looking really poor. I started him back on corn, still went down hill. Dewormed him with Valbazen and he stopped eating. I tried to get him going again with Sav-a-Calf energy/electrolyte/probio "juice", which I like very much and have used with sick calves, goats and sheep for a few years. He started bloating about the 2nd day and he died the next. Disaster. Should have gotten aggressive with his weight/condition back over the winter, and definitely should have made sure to keep up his corn during lambing. Can't afford to replace him, and don't want to breed my girls to their father (breed back to grandfather, so I don't have to keep replacing rams, and the ones I have can stay around a few years).
Then I had a brainstorm; I have 2 purebred Romney ewes- 1 had a single ram lamb and the other had a ram and a ewe. I hadn't banded either of these boys yet and decided not to. One of them could be my replacement ram (dead ram was twin's father and greatgrandfather), if he looks like a likely prospect, and the other (single) I could sell as a ram for better than meat price. If I didn't like either one of them for my own replacement ram, maybe I could trade one or both for a new ram, or their sale might buy me a new ram. Silver lining, you know. So I banded these boys' tails; all the other boys just have their testicles banded and not their tails. The single lamb was about 15 lbs at birth (a whopper!) and was growing well and looking good.
Meantime, I put the sheep up in their lot one night and count to be sure they're all in, and I'm missing a lamb. Can't find him anywhere; finally look in the ram lot and there is a white lamb layed out still. Last year I had a lamb get in there and found him down and traumatized, but he lived and recovered from his injuries. (Donkey goes after the ewes and lambs; he can only be trusted with the rams.) I was praying this lamb would survive as well. But he was several hours dead when I got to him- badly abused, with his skull crushed. Disaster- went from 28 healthy lambs to 27 in one evening, right after I lost my breeding ram. The next morning I found a really obvious spot the lamb probably went in through, and two other potential spots for a lamb to enter. They were all pretty obvious and I plugged them all in about a half hour. I nearly lost a lamb last year the same way, but I was complacent and didn't stay on top of the repair situation this year until too late. Very expensive and unnecessary loss.
Less than a week after I lost that lamb, I arrive in the evening to find my 50 lb., handsome, healthy, purebred, single ram lamb layed out stiff as a board, with TETANUS! I have the toxoid vaccine, I just haven't used it , and I've always been lucky and hadn't had a case of tetanus. So of course, it's Sunday evening, after Tractor Supply is closed, and I have no Tetanus Antitoxin on hand. So go to my beef cow neighbor, and my goat and sheep neighbor, and they have no antitoxin either. So I try a horse/dog breeder neighbor, no luck. So I try a fourth neighbor- Eureka! One vial of antitoxin, which seems to help the lamb with his breathing that night. Next morning I go to TSC and get more antitoxin, dose the sick lamb again, and finally vaccinated all the lambs and breeding ewes for tetanus. Sick lamb hasn't improved any, and he needs IV fluids, steroids, Valium for seizures: lots of very expensive Intensive Care which I can't afford and don't have the supplies to provide. Thankfully the lamb died that afternoon. If I were a better shepherd, I'd have put the lamb down immediately instead of making him suffer like that. (If I were a better shepherd, the sheep would have already been vaccinated for tetanus and this would never have happened.) So another very expensive and heartbreaking, and VERY easily avoided disaster. Now I'm down to 26 lambs, and completely paranoid.
Please, please don't make my mistakes.