The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: Wanabe farmer on September 28, 2020, 02:22:09 pm
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Hi all. Just wa ting to try and pick the brains of you knowlegable folk. I have just had to have my 18 month old ewe put to sleep as I noticed that she was not weight baring on her hind left leg. The vet said that she had fractured her femur. I have absolutely no idea how she has done it. She is in a flat field with 7 other ryeland!! Does anyone have any ideas how she could have done it? Tia.
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Got butted?
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I considered that but they are a placid little flock and it would take some force to fracture the humerus. Maybe I just got to take it as one of those things.
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That's a shame. They might have been messing around and she just fell badly/jumped off a high bit in the field. You have been unlucky. Even the mot placid sheep can have a mad five minutes.
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I guess that is the most likely cause. Can't believe how attached you can get to a sheep!! She and her sister were hand reared from 2hours old after the mum died shortly after lambing. The sister is definitely missing her in the field.
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Sorry to hear that, and yes, you do get very attached to them very quickly.
My local vets run regular courses for people keeping stock and being new/inexperienced ( not saying you are, just what the courses are for ! ) owners, which covers basics like injections, lambing, foot issues, handling and so on. They showed a video clip of a CCTV camera set up in a lambing shed, which showed a heavily pregnant sheep laying down, just as another pregnant lady was doing the *crouch back end to wee* stance. The laying down sheep was very close, and as her back end hit the ground, she landed against the crouched back leg of the other one, and it broke the poor girls leg - completely freak accident, and just bad physics of weight and angles. They weren't even crowded in. Just wrong time wrong place, but still totally gutting for the owner. It is one of those things, but it doesn't make it any easier to deal with.