I had 7 orphan lambs this year, got them from the mart as a learning curve just in case, for lambing next year.
One died of rattle belly and the others are, or were, thriving.
One of the tups we noticed when worming etc wasnt castrated so OH wanted to keep him as a tup or sell him on next year.
I noticed on Wednesday he was a bit apart from the rest of the flock but thought it due to him being bullied a bit by the other ewes as he was having a sniff. Last night I noticed he didnt come down for his bit of feed, we are trying to get them down to feed in the pen (only half a ucket every other day) so we can shear the rest of the ewes, us being dogless, it is working. I wondered if he was ok but again as he was quite a big chap I thought again he was bullied. no scour or anything.
Anyway, I only checked the sheep from the roadside this morning as I had to get to work to do a horsedrawn wedding.
I have been down tonight and found half of him in the field, from his ribcage forwards is all that is left, all innards and backend gone.
Do you think it could be a fox? Could he have died first and then been scavenged? there are no marks on his throat or any on the half of him I have just removed from the field.
Poor Joe, will be up at the crack of dawn tomorrow to check the rest again, bit worried as my horses are also in that field, but they are all quite relaxed and so are the sheep.