Happy Endings?
Denise >
Here at the Big Garden, not all our stories arrive safely at a happy ending.
One of No 11‘s twins, who were born just a couple of days ago, died yesterday afternoon.
It was Wet, the boy-lamb. He was probably an hour or two older than his sister Windy, and perhaps just a little larger and livelier. Both got off to a good start, with bottle-fed colostrum, moving on to the milk formula the following morning Though, oddly enough, in the morning, he seemed to be slightly smaller than his sister, and just a little bit less lively : but perhaps J had got that the wrong way round in the first place. Nevertheless, all seemed well at their 5pm feed.
But when J came back from the croft – just half an hour later, he immediately saw something wrong by the way Wet was lying down next to his sister.
Jonathan >
It’s not normal for a sheep to lie on its side, flat to the ground – and its certainly not normal sleeping posture : it’s to do with conserving body heat. A young lamb might stretch out like that, dozing in warm sunshine – but only on a still dry day, on dry ground : that’s to do with relaxation – but could be about cooling down the body (that would be in the shade, though – and very unlikely in our climate!).
So a day-old lamb layed out flat on a cold concrete slab on a cloudy cold windy day?
I took it all in in a moment – and without stopping to question I scooped him up and rushed into the kitchen, opened up my outer clothes to get some of my body warmth into him, and did everything I could to provoke him back into consciousness. I could see he’d got ‘scour’ – acute diarrhoea, and so I got Denise making up some warm ‘electrolyte’ (a solution of glucose, bicarbonate of soda and salt – the universal emergency stablizing treatment), and I started administering it to the lamb with a syringe, little by very little.
The lamb responded : there was some attempts at bleating, and the little bursts of kicking that indicate the primitive fight to survive …
But then it was all over.
Just half an hour, from ‘well enough to not give cause for concern’, to dead. The cause would almost certainly be a clostridium bacteria : that’s the most common cause of death in lambs (and calves, kids and so on) in the first day or two of life, particularly in bottle-fed lambs that don’t receive protection through their mum’s milk.
I just sat with him for good while, wondering what mistake we might have made, what we could have done better. And just sad at the loss. And letting go.
Jonathan and Denise >
Let’s finish this reminding ourselves those that are living – that are thriving.
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So sorry. I am surprised at how quickly sheep can go from OK to dead. One of our ewes died suddenly a day or so after lambing so now we have two orphans to raise. Do you know how old they have to be before you can vaccinate them? – usually I do the mums a few weeks before lambing so the lambs are covered, but they won’t be now. Your thoughts about the clostridium bacteria made me think about that.
J > We don’t know Claire. All the literature we have assumes that it is a pregnant ewe that will be vaccinated: I guess you’d have to ask a vet. The dose would be smaller, I would imagine, for a young lamb. For us, the losses due to illness are not the main concern – which is attack by birds of prey.
Was so sorry to read this. But you should always know, as I know you, that you both did everything you could. Hope Windy is doing well.
J > Windy doing very well – she’s a bright and lively lamb. She’s been coming with me on little walks!
Oh dear. I guess this sort of thing happens when you keep livestock but as your account clearly shows, it’s always a sad event xx
I am sorry. Poor little chap. Hopefully Windy will thrive.
Always demoralising but perhaps makes us value life that little bit more.
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I’m sorry the little one lost the fight, despite the helping hand from your instincts and care. The hidden heart on the pictures is a nice touch – I like the way it only appears when you hover.
It’s so difficult to lose them when you think you have caught them in time. So sorry!
Oh! Darn it! I’m so sorry! The loss of our animal friends is always hard. Always!