[Hillview Farm]

Hello all,

I have had the worse 36 hours ever in my life! Checked some sheep I have at 10am on Thursday morning. At 11.35 I had a call saying there was a dog attacking my sheep. I raced up there as fast as I could and the bloke who had seen the dog (a boxer dog) pointed me in the direction of the injured sheep, went over and not only was there one attacked sheep but there was four.

Vet rushed over while we collected the sheep from all four corners of the 13 acre field, police called etc. The Police went to a very local house to see a boxer dog inside with red around its mouth, photos taken and a statement given today as to the description of the dog by the witness, at the moment the police wont say if that dog matches the witness's statement but they are having a meeting with some very high up people of the police, dog warden etc etc .

The injuries are awful! I have a Shetland ewe who I thought was in lamb (confirmed this evening by the vet when he scanned her) She may loose her lambs.  The dog has nearly ripped her ear off, slit her throat open and is very weak on her feet.

The rest have extensive damage to their noses. One is not so bad but two are serious. The dog has ripped there noses down to the skull and ripped another's ear nearly off (hanging on)

The vet has said to leave the ears as they are at the moment and they will die off naturally. There are some really bad bites to their legs which are starting to get a bit weepy so we are now having to clean off daily with hibi scrub. They are all apart from the Shetland trying to eat as best as they can and are drinking. All on Metacam for the swelling and pain and on antibiotics daily. The vet said they are likely to make it but only to be slaughtered. I will do the best thing by them and I wont keep them going if there in pain but I cant help but think he is thinking in a commercial farmers way.

My questions are:

How long would it take if the Shetland was to abort? Vet said it was too early to tell.
Does anyone here know of or have any sheep that cope without an ear? Do flies bother them? I think this is the main reason the vet thinks they should be slaughtered when fit.

Sorry for the long post and thank you to LadyGrey for her support over this heart breaking time!

[Hillview Farm]

Sorry cant get any photos to load atm

[MikeM]

I have no answers but just wanted to say gutted to hear this. Totally awful news.

[bloomer]

cant help don't have sheep but saw the pics earlier that rosemary linked to on FB and i have to say i feel for you and your sheep...


i hope it all gets sorted and the sheep make a good recovery...


 

[Tim W]

I have had sheep get by without ears but they are not always happy --flies/sense of balance seems to be affected?

But sheep are very resilient ---I had one injured in a dog attack a couple of years ago who was gashed across the face as in your pics and had its front leg almost severed. The dog had slashed it under the 'armpit' and cut through much muscle, she was heavily pregnant
I stitched her up as best I could and she slowly made progress (left in the field) --she lambed and raised 1 lamb before I culled her

Good luck, make the dog owner pay---cost your time @ £20/hr as you are a professional, cost the vet at emergency rate, cost stress and loss of income etc etc
I have made successful claims before and never had to go to court-- a quiet word from a policeman usually makes the owners see sense
Good luck....

[Me]

Hi sorry to hear this dog attacks are horrific. I am a vet and have attended several similar attacks and have found that in the main injuries such as those described heal well. I have seen many sheep with various degrees of ears missing and most have coped well. The facial injuries again usually heal well, I have attended ewes with the skin from the ears down, all hanging like a curtain at the nostrils - stitched back on - fine. Persevere, keep everything clean and keep up the antibiotics and pain killers.
 
If the Shetland doesn't abort in the next 12 hrs or so she probably wont. If you are able to take particular care over a one eared sheep with strike treatments etc in summer I'm sure she will be fine.   

[farmvet]

Hello there.  Sheep are amazingly good at healing, especially as there is no risk of maggots at the moment.  If they are used to being handled then cold hosing the affected areas for 10 minutes 2-4x daily will greatly increase the speed of healing.  A garden sprayer works if you have no access to a tap.  I've healed horrific horse wounds this way with minimal scarring.  As the tissue will be bruised & torn expect the wounds to get bigger and the edges to go green as the damaged tissue dies off - and smells dead - you may need to get the vet to tidy this up. Then in about 10days time it will start to look pink and in another few days start to contract rapidly to be nearly healed in 4weeks.
For the ears I would just spray with antibiotic spray.  They wont look beautiful but will be fine!

[Mammyshaz]

So sorry to hear this  must be an awful site.
 Wounds heal quickly. The biggest factor in any animal with bites is infection so flush, flush , flush with salty water and/or hibiscrub. Don't be frightened to give the wounds a good rub each time to take away the dead cells and exudate and leave room for new cells/skin.  The ear flap is only there to help protect the ear bits inside so don't worry too much about how they look.  for your pregnant ewe to hold. And good luck with them.

Edited to correct autocorrect 

[mojocafa]

OMG. How awful for you and the sheep

  that they all recover

[suziequeue]

Sorry to hear about your truly AWFUL news. 


Very encouraging words from Tim W and others.

[twizzel]

How horrendous, so sorry to hear this. We had a lamb last year lose half an ear after getting stuck in fencing, she was ok in the end once the ear had healed. She did it in the height of summer so sunburn etc was an issue as were flies, but kept it covered with sudocrem. She went for slaughter in the end but the half ear didn't affect her. Hope all your sheep recover and the police can help prosecute the dog owner

[Big Light]

Feel for you
As well as the issue of compensation I think there's also the issue of the dogs long term future especially if it llives locally bad enough to happen once but I think you need to be re assured in what ever way that it won't happen again
Hope all goes Well

[bigchicken]

Terrible news, I hope your sheep recover I would be so so mad if this happened to me

[Hillview Farm]

Thank you everyone for your kind words. It is encouraging to hear that others have had ears missing and coped but equally if they suffer I will do the best thing by them. Extra fly prevention is not a problem.

Thank you vets for your advice, will get a spray bottle today as I don't think they would stand for a hosing. Would a mix of salt water and hibiscrub be ok?

Tim, if it's possible can I contact you at some point this weekend to have a little chat. As the vet will write in the report that they need slaughtering I will want to claim the loss of use of these breeding sheep as obviously they are worth more to me by breeding than to slaughter.

Things are looking a lot better this morning and the shock has passed them. Will keep everything crossed!!

I will be going to all the local papers, radio station, it's all over Facebook with a lot of positive comments and I will be making leaflets to put through the locals doors including the owners door with all the pictures. Very positive the police have enough evidence against this dog. Should know more on Monday!

[Tim W]

Give me a bell---details on website

Also try NSA as they have a publicity campaign about this issue and may be keen to help in any prosecution