The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: Roxy on March 15, 2012, 05:06:31 pm
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Came from work at lunchtime, Bertie the very old pet Shetland was grazing with the llama. A while later I looked up the field and he was standing by the fence ....and still in the same place ages later. Thinking that strange I went to see why. Thank goodness I did. Poor old boy had been rubbing on the stock netting, and somehow, broken a square and one of the pieces of that square had got caught on him. Having a thick fleece he does get caught on things, so I went to pull the wire from his fleece, and to my horror the end of the wire had gone through his bottom lip and into his mouth.
I was on my own, and my phone was low on battery; I had nothing to pull the wire out, and not sure if I was brave enough to even try, to be honest. No one in at neighbours. Rang hubby at work, praying battery would hold out, and gabbled that Bertie was stuck, and to come quick with pliers. Fortunately, he is only 5 minutes away, and able to get away without causing any bother. He arrived, and like me thought Bertie was just held by his fleece, until he saw his mouth.
Bertie was remarkably calm about the procedure, and is quite happy to stand and be fussed, which was a great relief, cos had he tried to free himself like most sheep would, he would have caused more damage. Hubby was calm too and snipped the wire from the fence, and then pulled the wire from Berties mouth. Bertie toddled off down the field, and although it must have hurt, seemed not the worse for his experience, and started to graze.
I had visions of having to cut the wire and take him to the vets ....and maybe have him put to sleep. Thank goodness the old fella is ok.
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poor poor Bertie, sheep do get themselves in a pickle sometimes. I hope he recovers fully and doesn't think about doing anything silly again for a while anyways :sheep:
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Silly Bertie! I'm glad he's ok :sheep:
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Glad it went ok. Just keep an eye on him and make sure his mouth heals ok.
As I say, you can't look at your sheep too often.
:sheep:
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So good Bertie's ok - every year we have a spell of 'head in fence' always the same bunch of culprit's always the same time of day, while I'm doing the goats but before feeding the sheep, luckily like you Roxy they are pretty tame and with a bit of manoeuvring and a fuss go off quite happy - maybe if it was more traumatic they wouldn't do it again!! but I wouldn't bet on it :) :)
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So glad the old boy's OK :thumbsup:
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poor chap!
Hope he heals well :)
:wave:
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what are they like?! glad he's ok - and well done you for keeping calm and getting the help you and he needed
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poor chap, it's amazing how much pain and trauma animals can take and they just get on with it. if that was my mouth i would be screaming the place down!
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Bertie sounds like an absolute love and very loved. Sometimes us humans, no matter how well we know our sheep, take a while to catch on don't we! I apologise to my sheep often for being a 'stupid human'. The times i've thought oh 'so and so's' being unsociable today only to find that 'so and so' is stuck...