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.
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