The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: colliewoman on November 12, 2012, 06:42:43 pm
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:gloomy: :gloomy: :gloomy: :gloomy:
I am the worlds worst shepherd.
I lost little Venus, the lamb who never got colostrum 2 weeks ago. Surprised she made it that long but after surviving so long I thought she was going to be ok.
Then the other day I lost a fully vaccinated meat wether to clostridia, died whilst at the vet.
Today Tarragon, Venus' mum choked on sugar beet, seems she managed to swallow the froth coated beet down and looked to be ok, but the beet then swelled before it got to her stomach and the blockage killed her as we tried everything we could to save her. I loved that sheep :love:
Hubby and I, the vet and all the equipment in the world couldn't save her. The vet says it was a tragic freak accident bless him.
I will never feed unsoaked beet again, but they won't eat it soaked! I have fed unsoaked for YEARS with no problem. She was a greedy pigger, and it killed her hoofing too much in in one go (hence the reason I scatter feed it) but still she managed to grab too much in one go.
Sorry for the blurb but I am so gutted, apart from one ewe I had to PTS years ago I have never lost sheep. Now 3 in a few weeks, all unrelated.
I'm terrified I am killing them :'( :'( :'(
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You're not killing them :hug:
Unfortunately you've had three bad incidents one after the other.
1. A lamb who hasn't had colostrum is always at risk - they do sometimes just die, way afterwards
2. The clostridial thing seems to have been an issue all over this year, not just you
3. I do think unsoaked beet is risky but as you've said you've fed it without problems for years then you've had plenty of evidence otherwise. And after all, what can we do but try our best and do what seems to work?
I'm so sorry, it's s**t when you get a patch like this :hug:
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Sorry to hear about your 3 casualties :bouquet:
But it's not your fault Donna, none of them are. It's just life - and death - with sheep. And this year is a tough year on all livestock, us too. :hug:
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:bouquet: :bouquet: :bouquet:
It never rains but it pours CW. Really sorry. Often find that things come together like that and it can really get you down but as Jaykay says it is just coincidence that it all happened at once ...... not your fault at all.
Hope that's your bit of bad luck done for a while :bouquet:
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Oh Colliewoman - don't kick yourself, your love your animals and do your absolute best - it's just crap when things go wrong - sending you BIG :hug: :hug:
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:hug: That's sheep for you.
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:bouquet: really sorry its cr*p when it all comes together like that but you can't be the worst shepherd ......you care too much :bouquet:
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shut up... your about the best. sh.t happens.xx
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So sorry to hear about your losses - it makes it so much worse when you care so much about your animals, as you obviously do. In fact you must be a very good shepherd to care so much.
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Don't forget - sheep get born determined to find a way to die. (That's a free quote from a very experienced shepherd I used to work with...)
These things happen - they are nobody's fault. But still very dispiriting.
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You could do no more, sorry for your losses :bouquet: that doesn't make you a bad shepherd :hug: remember, trouble comes in threes so you've had your quota! :fc:
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Don't forget - sheep get born determined to find a way to die. (That's a free quote from a very experienced shepherd I used to work with...)
These things happen - they are nobody's fault. But still very dispiriting.
Sheep have two main aims in life, to escape and to die, if they can do the second whilst attempting the first they fulfill all their dreams!
Unfortunatley you have had abit of rough luck with several incidents rolled together, they say things happen in threes so hopefully that's all the bad luck you'll have with them.
C B
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That is what they say about sheep:
That it's a sheep's main aim in life to meet its Maker as soon as possible and a shepherd's main aim in life to delay the process!
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Donna, big hugs girl! Its not you its just sometimes sh1t happens....all at once. I never vaccinate as I'm organic.....but many years ago lost the Bath & West champion goat....just after vaccination...was gutted as she wasn't mine and was just boarding here....
Sugar beet is fine 99.999999999999% of the time, they hate it soaked.....
As for those who don't get colostrum.....sudden death is often the way it goes :(
You are a very good sheep keeper...xx
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Big :hug: colliewoman. These things happen, they are sent to test us. You do a great job, :fc: there will be no more shocks for you now.
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The bad sheep keepers are the ones who it wouldnt occur to to soul search after a run of losses.
You are a good shepherd.
:hug:
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Thanks guys, It really does mean alot :-* :-*
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So sorry to hear about your losses CW- you obviously care about your animals so much, please don't beat yourself up, you can only do your best for them.
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No no and no you aren't. I had a cry on the vet's shoulder the other day because I lost a couple of lambs and a ewe and failed to work out what was going wrong until it was too late so you aren't alone. It is a brutal year and really strange things seem to be happening. And it is sods law that bad things seem to happen together.
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You aren't, and you know that you aren't really?
Learn from it, that's all we can do. You'll never see it all with sheep.
I remember eavetroughing to 2 shearers at a sheepshow who were talking about a lady near here who had just jumped up from 10 sheep to 200. She was turning an enthusiastic hobby into a career overnight.
One of them remarked, 'it'll just depend on how many dead sheep she can live with.'
I thought that he was being callous and spiteful, but thinking about it afterwards perhaps he was right.
If you keep a lot of animals then statistically you are going to get a bigger incidence of trouble. Having the spirit and confidence to pick yourself up after all of the inevitable trainwrecks is part of being a shepherd.
Things happen that would floor the average marshmallow townee git [!] but we keep going.
The flock needs us!
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....apart from one ewe I had to PTS years ago I have never lost sheep. Now 3 in a few weeks, all unrelated.
First of all :hug: and :bouquet: - I'm really sorry to hear of your pain - it is miserable to lose any animal when you care about them so much.
BUT take heed in your own words CW, to me it sounds as though with your love and care you have made a great shepherdess over the years. As other people have already said it has been a lousy year so you really do not need to beat yourself up at all. Shed some tears for your lost babies but then pick yourself up, learn what you can from the experience and carry on doing what you are good at! :hug:
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:bouquet: :hug: . And thanks for sharing - there is learning for novice me in all this.
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Bad luck does come in threes, and that's all it is, bad luck. The worst shepherds are the ones that don't care, and you clearly do care very much. *hug*
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You aren't, and you know that you aren't really?
I remember eavetroughing to 2 shearers at a sheepshow who were talking about a lady near here who had just jumped up from 10 sheep to 200. She was turning an enthusiastic hobby into a career overnight.
One of them remarked, 'it'll just depend on how many dead sheep she can live with.'
I did this - actually, if you think of it in terms of percentage loss, then I'm doing much better with more sheep simply because with my initial 15 ewes, 1 lamb represented a much greater portion of the lamb crop.
And don't worry, Colliewoman, you aren't a bad shepherd, losses happen, its just part and parcel of stock-keeping.
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*Big hugs*
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To quote Henry Brewis, one of my all time heros "the more livestock you have the more dead stock you have". Yes it really sucks when you have a 'clusterf*ck' like you've just had, you just have to cut yourself some slack and get over it, it happens to us all. So big :hug: stop second guessing and doubting yourelf and get on with trying to keep the rest alive ;)
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Take heart at all these kind and sincere words CW. We all have these times when every bloody thing that can go wrong does go wrong. You can only try your best and you so obviously do just that. It is a particularly challenging year this year for so many shepherds. Remy has lost many, I lost eight over a short period. I felt like giving up but after the lovely people on this forum gathered around me I felt able to carry on. We can't control everything. We can only do what we know to do and learn from our mistakes on the things we've somehow missed. BIG BIG sympathy. You aren't the world's worst when you love so much.
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Sheep are born to die, all you can do is distract them for as long as possible.
This year i lost one of my best tups 4 days before i was going to lose him to the ewes :'(
At least they had a really nice life before they went :sheep:
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Sheep are born to die, all you can do is distract them for as long as possible.
This year i lost one of my best tups 4 days before i was going to lose him to the ewes :'(
At least they had a really nice life before they went :sheep:
has to be a candidate for quote of the year :roflanim:
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It is so hard to not feel totally responsible when, obviously, we are responsible for our animals' welfare. But we can't be omnipotent, and misfortune strikes even the most vigilant of shepherds. It might feel like you are at fault, but really, from what you have said about these three, you are not at fault, and cannot hold yourself responsible for them not surviving. Hope you feel better soon :bouquet:
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Sheep are born to die, all you can do is distract them for as long as possible.
This year i lost one of my best tups 4 days before i was going to lose him to the ewes :'(
At least they had a really nice life before they went :sheep:
has to be a candidate for quote of the year :roflanim:
Thanks ;D shame its so true ::)
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Please don't worry Colliewoman the longer you live and work around sheep, the more mistakes are made and you never stop learning.
We have lost sheep to listeria this year and i've lost lambs in the past through silly mistakes that i should have rectified sooner, my only consilation is i wont make the same mistake twice.
Learn from it and move on, you are a good shepherd because foremost you care :hug:
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I don't know if they stock it down your way but they make a sugar beet pellet that stays firm ,meant not to break up on the ground , or would shreads be an alternative?
But definately nothing you could have done differently in that situation = hard luck
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I've had a really bad year too CW, at times I wondered if it was worth it - they were just dropping dead on me, and typically all of them pedigrees bought in so a great financial loss too! The main flock then got a virulent eye infection in summer which raged for months throughout the flock and I thought it was down to something I'd done :( . Every time I thought it had gone more went down with it or it reinfected ones that had had it! I've had sheep for five years and never the problems I've had this year, despite my efforts to worm/vaccinate/be more efficient in my husbandry. It makes you feel totally inadequate and despondent but I think it's just the way with sheep.
Just when I thought all was finally well I went away in September for five days having checked the sheep beforehand, leaving them for my husband to check although he didn't know at the time how many I had. On my return I brought them all in for worming and realised one of my favourites was missing, only to find her skeleton in the field!! :o What on earth happened to her I have no idea but I was gutted. I can't blame hubby as I think she must have fallen ill in a corner of the field where she couldn't be seen, he was just watching for healthy sheep and obviously missed her.
Don't feel bad about it CW it's just sheep! ::)
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i think you should all pat you re self on the back .you have looked and cared for you re animals and its bad luck that this has happend .As we say its only farming .Try and put this out of you re head i no its hard i have 200 sheep and in 2010 i left Friday night to go to a Friends house i st opt over night when i got back 6 ewes lambed and they was all dead with the cold ,it was my folt but you have to Carey on .So you are not a bad Shepperd i hope things work out for you.
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I hope by now Colliewoman you have stopped blaming yourself. .. all your animals think you are the bees knees.... and that's what counts. :hug:
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Awww, only just read this :hug: :hug: :hug: It happens as everyone says and just bloomin bad luck but you're a brilliant shepherdess and just look around you to see the proof. :thumbsup: :hug:
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:hug: :hug: :hug: :hug:
Thanks guys, I am feeling better now :thumbsup:
Will be feeling even more so by this afternoon hopefully, with a few new sheepy faces about the place :sheep: :sheep: :sheep: :sheep: :sheep: ;D
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My sheep will love being with you :) :) :hug:
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Awwww...now that's a perfik outcome :thumbsup: :hug:
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Totally away from the original topic..., but I have never heard the word "clusterf*ck" before... Maybe I have lived a sheltered live ;D But it describes the situation perfectly!!!
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My sheep will love being with you :) :) :hug:
they sooo will, you and donna are both similar types sylvia, as im sure you have noticed by now! i hope today went well, and that its been a good outcome to the problems.
a perfick outcome? definitely!
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:love: :sheep: :love: :sheep: :love: :sheep: :love: :sheep: :love: :sheep:
They are gert lush ;D ;D ;D
Trotted away up the hill and led down under the hazel bowers like they'd always been here :thumbsup:
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Bless :hug: :excited: :thumbsup:
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Totally away from the original topic..., but I have never heard the word "clusterf*ck" before... Maybe I have lived a sheltered live ;D But it describes the situation perfectly!!!
Clusterf*ck, first (and only) time I heard it used by anyone else was by an ex SBS person, I thought it was such a brilliant accurately descriptive word I appropriated it :innocent:, sometimes its the ONLY word that accurately sums things up