The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: messyhoose on November 10, 2025, 12:34:32 pm
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Its a horrible month. You never hear from me unless theres a problem, but i really have no one else to share with
Friday afternoon i fed my pet NR sheep and the youngest (2) a castrate i call Jasper is.... no, was... a proper mommys boy after i hand reared him and his sister from birth due to losing his accidentally pregnant 3yo mom to PT
He still (at 2) came into the house for cuddles and sometimes to sleep if the weather was bad. He was the first face i would see in the morning and the last i would see at night.
A few hours later he came into the house (normally i shut the inner door so he stays out with his field mates but i didnt this night. Rather can coming to say hi he went into the hall and i heard a noise like he had collapsed rather than lain down. I went to him and he was obvs not himself. Watching he was tooth grinding, and looked to have tummy ache, though feeling the rumen it was not hard but squidgy and i rubbed it and he burped. But his undercarraige did look swollen.
At first i feared Uroliths as i had treated him for that when he was younger and was a nagging issue since i lost 2 boys to it in the past. I gave him ammonium chloride but he did wee 1/2 hr later so i ruled that out. I gave him sodium bicarb to treat bloat and acidosis, but he was no better. I then got scared he had a blockage and gave veg oil and a warm soap enema. He did poo something an hour later so i dont know if that rules out blockage. You see he started to get Pica as a weanling- trying to eat anything not food. I had over the year pulled latex gloves, staples, tin foil out of his mouth and he had eaten an amount of memory foam off the mattress in the bedroom but the vet hoped as he wasnt a dog he would only nibble small amounts that could be passed rather than cause a blockage.
With hindsight i did notice his lower belly was big a few days earlier, but its easy to thing maybe thats normal, esp as he was ok in appetite and behaviour.
but that night things seemed to go so fast, i assumed he would recover like he had from "issues" i treated him when a baby, so when he went downhill it was blood freezing to know i wasnt helping him but losing him. He died gasping for breathe in my arms (had it been daytime id have called my gun licenced farmer neighbour out but i knew he wouldnt answer the phone at 2am).
Heres the thing. I never expected i would lose Jasper now, even though in the back of my mind i thought his pika might lead to a future problem. But i am already dealing with an elderly arthiritic NR ewe who i was hoping i could keep going but in the past few weeks has had reduced quality of life. Shes been on daily painkillers for a few months and i offer her anything she will eat, but now as well as the mobility issues she isnt that interested in food. I cant bear losing 2 animals in one week but i know i have to do whats right for my animals.
i just dont know how to emotionally deal with this impending loss when i am already dealing with grief and guilt over my precious lad.