Yes today was a better day. It began with me doing a sheep autopsy. I won't go into all of the details in case some of you are a little squeemish but I needed to get samples of the liver and one of the lungs in order for the vet to do a biopsy. It wasn't a difficult job and it certainly gave me a better understanding of sheep physiology. The one sad factor was that I checked the uterus and discovered that she was carrying triplets, 2 rams and a ewe.
When I finally made it to the vet late in the afternoon he said that part of the reason she had gone down so quick was the fact she was carrying triplets. The body was already under some degree of stress from the pregnancy and the pneumonia that struck her just stressed her that bit more. It made me feel confident I know what I'm doing though that my original diagnosis was correct - pneumonia. the liver sample I took is being sent to a lab and we are having a complete trace element screen done. that will tell us if the sheep are deficient in anything from selenium to manganese and iron.
The best part of the day though was spent moving the flock around and giving them their latest set of vaccinations. This consisted of Covexin 8, a 7-way blackleg plus tetanus and forms the basis of the immunity that pregnant ewes pass on to their lambs.
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Tomorrow thankfully, is another day
2009 hasn't begun well for us. There was some clean up from the flooding around the fields, and a couple of fence holes to repair, but yesterday morning we found a sheep collapsed in the breezeway to the fields and this morning while assembling the creep feeder for the lambs that are due soon, I saw another that was in trouble.
Yesterday's died this morning, of what I guess was pneumonia. Certainly the symptoms indicated that but only an autopsy would tell us for sure (and now that I have spoken to the local vet I am knowledgable enough to perform one). This afternoon the one from the morning died as well, making that 2 deaths in the space of a day. We have had a couple of ewes die previously, and of course last lambing season we had a couple of newborns that didn't make it (that's unfortunately just par for the course), but both of these were East Friesian, likely pregnant, and a big part of our future, so it's come as a real blow.
Sheep are fickle, and the reality of things is that when they get sick there is every likelihood that if its not diagnosed on the spot, it's going to result in a dead sheep. That has been something we have had to come to terms with, but each death still causes despair and frustration. Tomorrow we rotate them into a clean pasture for a few days until I can repair a couple of other fence holes, then we can let them into the very back field for a couple of weeks to allow the grass in the nursery area to grow, then we will bring them back to the nursery field around February 7th, a week before the first is due to lamb.
We made an executive decision this afternoon as well that if we get a good ram from our Dorset mothers this year we will use him to breed Dorset back into the East Friesian bloodline and provide a little more vigour and hardiness. East Friesian sheep are very 'fragile' compared to a lot of other sheep and almost everyone who raises them breeds some other type into them for the local conditions. You've probably read my rantings about this before.
So 2009 begins ominously, but living on a farm you accept such issues and move on, taking whatever precautions you can to prevent others coming down with the same problem, if of course you can.
The other bad news was that we have discovered our youngest border collie, Hamish also has hip dysplasia. Nowhere near as bad as Byron had it, but it is something that may need surgery down the line.
Tomorrow thankfully, is another day.
Yesterday's died this morning, of what I guess was pneumonia. Certainly the symptoms indicated that but only an autopsy would tell us for sure (and now that I have spoken to the local vet I am knowledgable enough to perform one). This afternoon the one from the morning died as well, making that 2 deaths in the space of a day. We have had a couple of ewes die previously, and of course last lambing season we had a couple of newborns that didn't make it (that's unfortunately just par for the course), but both of these were East Friesian, likely pregnant, and a big part of our future, so it's come as a real blow.
Sheep are fickle, and the reality of things is that when they get sick there is every likelihood that if its not diagnosed on the spot, it's going to result in a dead sheep. That has been something we have had to come to terms with, but each death still causes despair and frustration. Tomorrow we rotate them into a clean pasture for a few days until I can repair a couple of other fence holes, then we can let them into the very back field for a couple of weeks to allow the grass in the nursery area to grow, then we will bring them back to the nursery field around February 7th, a week before the first is due to lamb.
We made an executive decision this afternoon as well that if we get a good ram from our Dorset mothers this year we will use him to breed Dorset back into the East Friesian bloodline and provide a little more vigour and hardiness. East Friesian sheep are very 'fragile' compared to a lot of other sheep and almost everyone who raises them breeds some other type into them for the local conditions. You've probably read my rantings about this before.
So 2009 begins ominously, but living on a farm you accept such issues and move on, taking whatever precautions you can to prevent others coming down with the same problem, if of course you can.
The other bad news was that we have discovered our youngest border collie, Hamish also has hip dysplasia. Nowhere near as bad as Byron had it, but it is something that may need surgery down the line.
Tomorrow thankfully, is another day.
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