We have had a whirlwind of a weekend....
With the weather so changeable we spent much of Sunday clipping mucky bums caused by so much lush grazing and spraying for fly as its been the sort of weather for a flystrike.. damp and humiid!
Yesterday, Bank Holiday Monday, was our yearly village fair, when all the surrounding families gather for a chin wag, a mooch round the village stalls and a game of quoits on the green outside the Fox and Hounds. I had fed all the lambs their breakfast quite early on, so that I could give them their lunch half an hour early... Nigel and I wanted to have a look round the fair... all the lambs was bouncing around in their usual boisterous manner.... we were having some friends round for a meal in the evening, I popped round the the reading room field to give our 4 poppets an early tea... it was just after 5.00
Berty, Bob, and Daisy-May came romping towards me, but Flossie stayed where she was......... she's never done that before... I fed the three clambering up my legs and then took the last half of a bottle over to her.......... she just looked up at me....... I stood her up and stroked her head....... her breathing was, well, staggered is the only word to use.. laboured... is'nt quite it... so I rushed home to get Nigel......... and to call the vet.... The vet said that if she hadn't improved by 7.00 (an hour and a half later) we should call back...
By the time we returned, 10 mins later she had a little froth at each side of her mouth........ Nigel went home to ring the vet back.... Michael turned up really quickly, he'd been at the fair in the afternoon and wasn't far away.... he listened to her chest...... then gave her an anti-inflammatory injection and a steroid... "see how she goes" he said and gave us a further 4 days of steroids... its probably pneumonia.. brought on by changes in the weather conditions.
Our guests arrived for dinner at 7.00... and at 8.10 I donned my wellies and went back to see how Flossie was doing........ not good... the froth had turned to a little stream of saliva and when I got to her she collapsed.. she wasn't afraid, being used to sitting with me in the field with her her head on my lap while she chewed her cud.... her breathing was so shallow and when she laid on her side I just cradled her little face until it stopped completely... The other lambs crowded round to see what was going on....... then when I stood up Daisy-May pawed at my knee to be picked up and cuddled...
I came home, collected the keys to the pick-up and went round to collect her.. more for the sake of all the visitor who may have walked past and who may get the wrong end of the stick... a dead lamb in a field looks like neglect and it was far from that!!
Today I'm just sad... Nigel too......... He's just confessed to going for an early morning cuddle with Dudley and Vincent...A Ryeland sandwich we call it!!.....so its time to pull my socks up and do something to take away my misery........ Planning a warp faced rug is on the agenda... in my lovely coloured rug wools..........
With the weather so changeable we spent much of Sunday clipping mucky bums caused by so much lush grazing and spraying for fly as its been the sort of weather for a flystrike.. damp and humiid!
Yesterday, Bank Holiday Monday, was our yearly village fair, when all the surrounding families gather for a chin wag, a mooch round the village stalls and a game of quoits on the green outside the Fox and Hounds. I had fed all the lambs their breakfast quite early on, so that I could give them their lunch half an hour early... Nigel and I wanted to have a look round the fair... all the lambs was bouncing around in their usual boisterous manner.... we were having some friends round for a meal in the evening, I popped round the the reading room field to give our 4 poppets an early tea... it was just after 5.00
Berty, Bob, and Daisy-May came romping towards me, but Flossie stayed where she was......... she's never done that before... I fed the three clambering up my legs and then took the last half of a bottle over to her.......... she just looked up at me....... I stood her up and stroked her head....... her breathing was, well, staggered is the only word to use.. laboured... is'nt quite it... so I rushed home to get Nigel......... and to call the vet.... The vet said that if she hadn't improved by 7.00 (an hour and a half later) we should call back...
By the time we returned, 10 mins later she had a little froth at each side of her mouth........ Nigel went home to ring the vet back.... Michael turned up really quickly, he'd been at the fair in the afternoon and wasn't far away.... he listened to her chest...... then gave her an anti-inflammatory injection and a steroid... "see how she goes" he said and gave us a further 4 days of steroids... its probably pneumonia.. brought on by changes in the weather conditions.
Our guests arrived for dinner at 7.00... and at 8.10 I donned my wellies and went back to see how Flossie was doing........ not good... the froth had turned to a little stream of saliva and when I got to her she collapsed.. she wasn't afraid, being used to sitting with me in the field with her her head on my lap while she chewed her cud.... her breathing was so shallow and when she laid on her side I just cradled her little face until it stopped completely... The other lambs crowded round to see what was going on....... then when I stood up Daisy-May pawed at my knee to be picked up and cuddled...
I came home, collected the keys to the pick-up and went round to collect her.. more for the sake of all the visitor who may have walked past and who may get the wrong end of the stick... a dead lamb in a field looks like neglect and it was far from that!!
Today I'm just sad... Nigel too......... He's just confessed to going for an early morning cuddle with Dudley and Vincent...A Ryeland sandwich we call it!!.....so its time to pull my socks up and do something to take away my misery........ Planning a warp faced rug is on the agenda... in my lovely coloured rug wools..........
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