Pet sheep - help!

[ina]

A very common reason for lambs going down is watery mouth - check it out here:

http://www.wildernesstravels.co.uk/shee ... ymouth.htm

[CrazyParrot]

lamb isnt looking so good today. We are ringing the vet as soon as it opens, but we're expecting the worst. overnight the lamb has got weaker, and now wont even stand up so we have separated it from the rest.

it did get colostrum, but only one feed of powdered artificial colostrum so it wont have the antibodies or immunity to things from the mother.

I've read up on watery mouth, but it doesnt seem to affect lambs past a few days old. oh well, we'll see what the vet says.

[CrazyParrot]

GREAT NEWS! Elvis seems much better! we took him to the vet, who said it was probably the onset of a type of ovine meningytis (spelling?!) and gave him antibiotics and put him on a drip. we picked him up ten minutes ago and were amazed to see that he was walking around and bleating! When we took him home, he was still a little shaky on his feet, but had a nibble of hay. Its not over yet for little Elvis! I really thought he was a gonner.

[ina]

I'm glad to hear that! It's really difficult to tell with lambs; we always say - lambs get born determined to die. The symptoms are often so vague, too; and if they run with others, they try to keep up with them until it's too late for you to see that something is wrong. Of course, with only four to look at you'll pick up trouble much quicker!

Well, I always knew that Elvis lives...

[CrazyParrot]

more problems with elvis! He is still not 100% but is looking a LOT better than yesterday, although one side of him is very bloated. when he coughs it bulges out like it is going to explode - it really doesnt look good. I dont know what has caused it, maybe lying on his side for most of yesterday with no food? is he constipated? I really would appretiate help. he's come so far, I would hate for him to die. :-(

[CrazyParrot]

bad news. Elvis died - it was pulpy kidney this time. we've been crying all afternoon - he was such a sweet lamb.

[ina]

I'm so, so sorry... I know how bad it is to loose a pet, even if you've only had him for a little while. But there's nothing more you could have done. Lambs have very fragile lives - I should know, I'm surrounded by them - but it still always leaves me feeling helpless and sad if I haven't managed to save a life.

[red]

ah poor chap

how are the others?

[fenwoman]

Thanks for the advice! Any farmer we ask (apart from the one we got them from) seems to think that all pet lambs die, so we dont get much advice from them apart from how to dispose of bodies! The four of them are males, but are being castrated on sunday so hopefully wont get aggressive.
To be honest, I think eating them would save a lot of trouble, but I live in a house with two eight-year old girls so any suggestion of some nice organic meat just brings tears and tantrums! It looks as if they are here to stay!
What age do you start to wean them off the lamb creep? just when they are happily eating grass and seem to be fully grown?

thanks again!

Hi, newbie here to this forum.
I just had to respond to the comment about your girls having tantrums. Surely you need to sit down and have a little chat to them about the facts of life regarding meat? Explaiun that yours will soon grow into tame but pushy and stroppy boys who won't be much fun to have about. Make them feed and see to them in freezing and wet weather and accept the responsibility of the daily chores involving them. Explain how yours will be loved and well treated . Refuse to buy any lamb from the butcher etc.
I am the mother of a 34 year old son who learned from a young age that if he wanted to eat meat, there was a process whereby meat got onto his plate. Sure at first he thought the "awww fwuffy wicckle pet animal"way, but once he had to hump straw, muck out, was shoved in the mud a few times by large pushy beasts, he soon got fed up. When presented with his first home grown meal, he tucked in.
If you don't make pets of the lambs they won't be too attached to them. What will happen to these when you move house, or need the land they are on, or they start escaping, or turn aggressive because they don't think of humans other than the providers of food and start butting and shoving the children? What if then, you need them gone? They will be too big to be tasty and you won't be able to find anyone to take them.
Without wanting to preach, you should have thought about the possibility of your children not wanting to eat them, before you got them, or sat down and told them exactly what was going to happen to them (i.e. they become food). Giving in to their tantrums will not be any good to them or those lambs, nor will it teach them how food is produced and to be responsible about it all. They will end up being 2 more T***o shoppers because those nice cellophane wrapped bits of protein don't look like an animal and they won't have to think abiout what they are eating. Surely the exact opposite of what you are trying to do for them?
As a poultry breeder, I get really angry when people breed a clutch of chicks because "it is educational for the children" then refuse to cull and eat the cockerels which hatch, end up asking me if I know of a cockerel rescue anywhere because they cannot bear to kill them, yet happily go to the supermarket to buy vile factory farmed frozen chicken who have lived a short and miserable life and a stressful and slow end.
In effect, very similar to what you are allowing your daughters to dictate you should do with your lambs. Not eat what you have reared, but to eat anonymous lamb, reared and slaughtered in a manner you don't know about.
Please take control. You are the parent, you call the shots and eating your own livestock is educating them about being responsible about the meat they eat.
FArmers and smallholders children all over the country learn from their parents that meat comes from the animals they rear. If your children think that sheep are "sweet wikkle lambkins" and the meat they eat comes from supermarkets, then I'm afraid it is because they have learned it from you.
One alternative might be to buy some ewes, hire a ram in Autumn and breed your own. That way they get to make pets of the ewes and not get attached to the lambs destined for the table. I have kept and bred poultry, goats and pigs all my life. My breeding stock were also much loved pets, but my son knew that anything they produced were going to have a short and happy life before they became food.
I have to mention, that when he left home he became vegetarian. Not because he hated killing animals to eat, but because he could not bear to eat anything he had not known had been reared and slaughtered properly, with care and dignity.
I hope you manage to educate the girls into how meat gets on their plates. It will be good for them and you know, they have a huge sense of pride eating what they helped to produce. Swap some lamb for some free range pork off someone who rears a couple of weaners and teach them to make sausages, ham etc. Budding self sufficientists of the future and to hell with Tescos and the rest.

[CrazyParrot]

Oh no, not another one... another lamb isnt looking well. on friday he was straining a lot (like a ewe in labour), but then was fine on saturday. now its come back and hes been straining and running away from me all day, and hasnt been so eager to feed. I dont think its constipation, but I really dont know. please can some one help? I really dont want to lose another one, and the vet is closed on a sunday. :-(

[fenwoman]

Oh no, not another one... another lamb isnt looking well. on friday he was straining a lot (like a ewe in labour), but then was fine on saturday. now its come back and hes been straining and running away from me all day, and hasnt been so eager to feed. I dont think its constipation, but I really dont know. please can some one help? I really dont want to lose another one, and the vet is closed on a sunday. :-(

all vets have to provide emergency care. This is an emergency. Call the vet and get him to come out.

[CrazyParrot]

We took him to the vet in the end. the vet thinks he's probably OK - he probably has some sort of worm or parasite infestation, and has a sore stomach. he checked for grit in the bladder (my worst fear) but luckily it was fine, and he is not constipated - put any animal in the car and your almost guaranteed that it will poo on the seat! So our lamb was just a bit wimpy and sore. he's been given some painkillers and he and his mates have got a nice injection to sort out any parasites.

thanks for not getting too fed up with my constant worrying about health problems - I wish I had become a vet and could sort these things out myself instead of boring everyone else!


fenwoman - I just wish I was half as tough as you! I should really put my foot down and tell the kids to either face their food or be a vegetarian, but to be honest I'm getting very attatched to the little guys myself. The girls have now refused to eat lamb at all - probably because they have realised that before it gets to the packet it was a cute fluffy critter - so it would be a bit of a waste anyway. lucky boys!

I think we are going to get some grown up lambs this autumn as well (it saves the cost and worry of hand rearing babies) to cut the grass. we have roughly 1.5 - 2 acres and an old farmer told us that three sheep wouldnt be enough to keep it short. does anyone here know how many would comfortably graze a small field without needing a lot of extra feed or without churning it into mud?

[CrazyParrot]

getting a ewe and having a few lambs for the table sounds like a good idea. that way we have the pet sheep, and also get something from them. weve done that with the chickens before, and it works well - you dont get too attatched because the chicken is the mum, not you. I'll see what everyone else thinks.

[fenwoman]

We took him to the vet in the end. the vet thinks he's probably OK - he probably has some sort of worm or parasite infestation, and has a sore stomach. he checked for grit in the bladder (my worst fear) but luckily it was fine, and he is not constipated - put any animal in the car and your almost guaranteed that it will poo on the seat! So our lamb was just a bit wimpy and sore. he's been given some painkillers and he and his mates have got a nice injection to sort out any parasites.

thanks for not getting too fed up with my constant worrying about health problems - I wish I had become a vet and could sort these things out myself instead of boring everyone else!


fenwoman - I just wish I was half as tough as you! I should really put my foot down and tell the kids to either face their food or be a vegetarian, but to be honest I'm getting very attatched to the little guys myself. The girls have now refused to eat lamb at all - probably because they have realised that before it gets to the packet it was a cute fluffy critter - so it would be a bit of a waste anyway. lucky boys!

I think we are going to get some grown up lambs this autumn as well (it saves the cost and worry of hand rearing babies) to cut the grass. we have roughly 1.5 - 2 acres and an old farmer told us that three sheep wouldnt be enough to keep it short. does anyone here know how many would comfortably graze a small field without needing a lot of extra feed or without churning it into mud?

I am glad you managed to get him to a vet. I did think it might be worms but never give a cyber diagnosis. You did the right thing and your mind is at rest now hopefully
I have not always been 'tough' and don't think I am tough at all. I hate seeing anything suffer. I stop the traffic if a bird gets hit and is still alive, I cried buckets when I hit a hare which shot across the road. I rushed it to the vet (after hours) and forked out £90 to have it treated and buried it when it died. I pay vet bills out of all proportion to the value of the animal, even chickens etc, but.......I eat meat. I simply could not eat any meat unless I had either reared it myself or knew how it had been reared and where it had been reared.
The first is the hardest.
However I can understand your sentimentality. The girls have learned from you you know.
It is a real shame that you won't eat what you rear as it gives you a feeling of achievement and puts some sort of perspective on where your meat comes from. Sadly a lot of people think that as long as it is anonymous cellophane wrapped and doesn't look like an animal, then they can believe that eating meat doesn't involve the death of a living creature at all. I repect vegetarians immensely and understand why they make that choice, but I admit to finding it very hard to understand people who keep meat animals , refuse to eat them, and happily carry on with the cellophane wrapped anonymous thing.
On the grazing side of things. Have you considered using geese? They graze too and there are plenty of unwanted geese looking for homes where they can live out their 40 years lifespan happily.

[fenwoman]

getting a ewe and having a few lambs for the table sounds like a good idea. that way we have the pet sheep, and also get something from them. weve done that with the chickens before, and it works well - you dont get too attatched because the chicken is the mum, not you. I'll see what everyone else thinks.

Perfect. This is more or less how I work. Get as attached as you like to the breeding stock, but never name the youngsters and be firm right from the start that they are 'food' not pets.
I hope you can do it, really I do.
If you can steel yourself to getting the first batch butchered, it will get easier and the sense of achievement is huuuuge.