The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: Yberllan on November 11, 2016, 09:58:34 am
-
:sheep:
Hi,
New here but needing to vent and chat. We have a flock of 10 Shetland ewes, with a weather and a ram lamb running with them. Checked on them last night and no sign of the ram. Found him stood up but motionless at the bottom of the field. No weight bearing on back leg, hubby carried him up to the shed, with no resistance or sound. Got him into shed and could see that he was scouring.
Called the vet out, lots of swelling on the back leg and pulse up resps up - no sign of any puncture wound. His Penis was alaso stuck out and very dry. She gave metacam and antibiotics. We penned him in the shed with fresh water and food. The vet advised that she was not optimistic at all and someone could come out in the morning if he was still alive.
Husband went to him this morning and he was much morning alert and moving his head etc and sat up. Vet coming back out this morning.
I know the first months are the worst, but had a 4mth pig die last weekend and then this with our handsome ram. All feels like a loosing battle at the moment.
Anyone had similar?
-
No sorry, not one I have experienced. Fingers crossed.
-
Do let us know how you get on - good news that he improved overnight.
It's so hard when you lose any livestock, and when you're just starting it can be a bit too easy to blame yourself for everything that goes wrong (and of course not give yourself any credit for the things that are going right). Seems to me that there's a fair bit of luck, good and bad, involved in all of this. The fact is, you noticed very quickly, got him safe inside very quickly, got the vet out, and got him treated, all very quickly, and you care. This is a lucky ram, whatever happens.
-
Stuff happens. The thing is to pick it up quickly and react swiftly and appropriately. Sounds as though you've done that. Something you'll encounter on this forum on a regular basis!
Did the vet give any indication what the problem was?
-
My heart goes out to you. Lambed for the first time this year and had to put a ewe down who got chronic mastitis. I cried my eyes out and felt so guilty for getting her in lamb but as the others have said we saw it quickly and did all we could for her and there were so many other difficult parts of lambing we managed to get through really well. She left me with two gorgeous lambs that got bottle fed and are therefore now the friendliest lovely sheep.
I hope your ram has pulled through x
-
HI,
Thanks for the lovely comments, on the 2nd vet visit ( with a different vet) Lorenzo was diagnosed with Clostridium. The 2nd vet was amazed the that first vet hadn't recognized it the night before.
They left us some injections of anti-biotics etc to administer on Saturday morning, but unfortunately her was dead by this time. We are gutted, he was such a lovely little fellow and had such great potential.
He had been heptavac'ed at all of th right times etc, by the breeder and we had only had him 7weeks, I know these things happen but we have had 2 of ''one of those things'' in 7 days.
Hoping that we have some nice off spring from him and we can get another ram that had is character for next year.
Thanks for listening - I really do appreciate it
T x
-
I am very sorry to hear this [member=160693]Yberllan[/member]
It sounds like it has been a real horrible time for you both. Everything will get better though, whenever anyone starts out with animals it can be tough at times. When we first started out we lost a fee animals, but it is all patt of a learning curve. Sheep hide disease very often so it is very hard to pick up until it is too late. I am sure he will hsve left you with a legacy of daughters in the flock, as did our bull when he passed. You cannot blame yourself for anything, youre both doing a fantastic job and well done for spotting it and acting on it! That is very good stockmanship!:)
-
TBH - I would be boostering the whole flock asap.
-
See my recent post on Watch Out for Pasteurella (one of the clostridial diseases and quite possibly the one you've just experienced). They look fine then ..... they're dead. By the time you realise there's a problem it's far too late for antibiotics to work. I'm hearing more and more reports of it being really serious this year, in flocks that have followed their usual vaccination schedule (like ours).