[Jacob-list] starving ewe.

[dave & katrina]

Any advice for a sad situation?
A week or two ago a yearling ewe (due late march)appeared to have been hit with something right in the side of her mouth... our only guess was she was hit by the end of one of the ram's 4 horns...good-natured ram and haven't noticed any aggression a feeding time, but can think of no other explaination.  Her upper lip (on the side) had been cut with the force and a strip was dangling down. One tooth might have broken, but the rest seem ok.  No broken bones. She still had an appetite and while she looked in pain, semed healthy.  We had no choice but to cut off the dangling, damaged skin, gave penecillin and watched her for a while.  She is seeming to heal ok, although now has a gap on the side of her mouth.  Here's the problem.  The gap is causing her cud to leak out in large amounts.  She has a constant green cud dribble down the corner of her mouth and we can see large piles of grassy cud all around the pasture where the sheep lay down.  

It seems the gap in her lips may slowly starve her to death.  Sad.  We are open to putting her down since it seems she will always have eating problems, but we thought about trying save her lamb, which certainly is not getting the nutrition it needs.  Any thoughts?  What would you do?  We have a strictly pasture/hay based system here and we have thought about isolating her and putting her on a grain diet until her lamb is born.  Is it worth trying?  Our shearing is tomorrow and our shearer is full of sheep wisdom.  Maybe he will have a few thoughts.

Katrina Lefever, Chicory Lane Farm
http://wwwfac.wmdc.edu/HTMLpages/Graduate/TI/pages/lefever/chicory.htm where we are starting to post lamb pics.  
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