[Jacob-list] saving lambs

[Linda]

Royal's story brought to mind the saving of Frodo.  One morning I went to feed 
to find one of my rams laying down tangled in the electric fence.
He was alive, but had no control over his muscles.  He was a literal ragdoll.  
This was in the winter and we brought him in the house and warmed him by the 
fire.  Yes, we have had a grown ram in the living room!  I gave him some 
glucose and called the vet.
The vet diagonosed nerve damage and said if we could just keep him alive long 
enough he might pull through. The nerve damage wouldn't kill, but the secondary 
effects could.  I spent two weeks hand feeding and watering him.  He couldn't 
move anything except his head (and then only to one side) so twice a day I 
balanced him in an upright position on a hay bale and massaged and flexed his 
legs for 45 minutes. 
I was so happy when he finally stood up two weeks later!
Then his lambs were born!  Even barn blindness didn't work with these guys.  So 
after all the work and money, it was off to Uncle Terry's for Frodo.  It was a 
learning experience in more ways than one!

Linda
Visit our flock of Jacob Sheep
www.patchworkfibers.comwww.patchworkfibers.com


On Wed, 7 Nov 2001 08:54:02 -0600, R Unzicker wrote:
>   About ten years ago I had a Tunis ewe lamb that  began walking funny.   As 
she was the
>only ewe lamb from one of my  favorite ewes, I called the vet pronto.    He 
suspected polio,
>took her to his lab overnight and began a regimented vitamin B  treatment.   I 
brought her
>home two days later and continued to  give her vitamin B shots.   The vet was 
very careful to
>give a  specific dosage based on weight.    He gave me prefilled syringes 
 with exact
>dosages.   It took about 2 weeks but she eventually did  recover.   The vet 
said it can be
>caused by shock and/or a very rich  diet.   Sounds like Neal and Fred know 
what they are
>talking  about!  
> 
>Up to this point my experience had been that a sick  sheep was a dead 
sheep.  But "Katrina"
>was special and so I decided to  part  with some of my money and try to 
save  her.     The
>good news was that she survived.  The bad news was that she turned out  to be 
one of the 
>worst Tunis lambs I had ever raised  ( and from 2  fantastic parents).   I 
kept her till
>breeding age and decided she was  not something I could in good faith sell 
offspring from so
>after all that,  she  ended up at the slaughter house.    I did  not  think 
the illness was
>the reason she did not turn out to be a good  Tunis.   I had noticed before 
that she wasn't
>that great but I   had been waiting for years to get a ewe lamb out of this 
particular ewe
>and so  just knew Katrina would blossom at some point.   (Nothing personal, 
 Katrina Lafever!
>)  :-)
>Royal  
>


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