FaithManor Posted February 1, 2011 Share Posted February 1, 2011 :sad::sad: Ds is very sad. He called me out to his room a few minutes ago. No respirations, no heart beat, pupils fixed. Sigh....He's felling pretty low. I have to admit some anger at the farm owner. This particular one never wants to bottle feed or try to graft a lamb onto another nursing mother because it's labor intensive, and she has a nasty habit of waiting until too late to decide to call us even though we have a good standing reputation for our little "lamb clinic". Plus, it's no cost to her or any other farmer. We take as many as we feel we can handle and afford as a learning experience/4-H project for the kids and they are returned to the farm weaned and healthy. The only thing we ask in return is that dd and ds get the first shearing of their choice of lamb for entering a "raw fleece" at the fair. The farm owner gets their business card and a sign at the display so it's free advertising for their fiber or meat lamb. I just don't understand the attitude. Last year, a farmer with a prize blue leichester ewe lamb that would have been worth huge money, waited until too late to call. She was going to be traveling, hadn't successfully grafted it onto another nursing ewe, and due to travel, wouldn't be able to bottle feed. But, she thought, well...we'll just wait until morning and see if the ewe accepts it. Of course, she does chores at 4:00 p.m. and never checked the lamb again until morning. Sub-zero temperatures and a ewe determined to reject the lamb....so morning=dead lamb. Every single time, waiting until morning=dead lamb. If they haven't eaten since birth and the night time is bringing these kinds of temperatures, the lambs are going to die. ARGHHHHHHH! My frustration level is very high. I need to go fetch a cup of coffee, dispose of a lamb body, and hug my ds. Faith Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
simka2 Posted February 1, 2011 Share Posted February 1, 2011 :grouphug:'s to you guys!!! That has to be very frustrating :glare: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SonshineLearner Posted February 1, 2011 Share Posted February 1, 2011 I'm sorry for you, your son and the poor little ewe :( Shame on the farmer for telling you about it and then waiting too late to call :( Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Teachin'Mine Posted February 1, 2011 Share Posted February 1, 2011 :grouphug: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CalicoKat Posted February 1, 2011 Share Posted February 1, 2011 :grouphug: awww, I'm so sorry. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jean in Newcastle Posted February 1, 2011 Share Posted February 1, 2011 :grouphug::grouphug: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parrothead Posted February 1, 2011 Share Posted February 1, 2011 That is awful. I suppose nothing can be done to the farmer for such neglect. :grouphug: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LibraryLover Posted February 1, 2011 Share Posted February 1, 2011 Oh, the poor little guy. :grouphug: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FaithManor Posted February 1, 2011 Author Share Posted February 1, 2011 (edited) No Chucki, Nothing can be done. Many farmers never, ever try to get another ewe to adopt the lamb or bottle feed. Most have a let nature take it's course kind of mentality. To some degree I understand this because labor, is labor, and saving the runt animal is labor intensive and many times, if milk or milk replacer has to be purchased to feed said animal, it's expensive too. Part of making a farm profitable is probably having the will to allow unprofitable animals to suffer their natural fate. Sheep are tough. They were probably one of the first animals ever domesticated by man because of their generally gentle personality. Modern sheep have viritually no instincts for survival anymore. If they weren't domesticated, a huge number of breeds...especially like these romneys which are naturally polled - hornless - would be extinct. Very few fiber breeds of sheep would make it outside of fenced pastures, barns, and shepherds. If one is keeping largely untamed sheep - out to pasture, never brought in, never handled accept once a year for shearing, largely on their own...then I can understand allowing the flock to become strong through "natural selection". But, these flocks are just ridiculously, heavily domesticated and as such, by the shepherds own making - animals kept close in, handled regularly, dewormed, sheared twice a year, routinely looked over for injuries, signs of illness, petted, etc. then these ewes are going to be about as stupid as they can be...the human did it. The more domesticated the ewe, the less natural instinct she has. So, if you go out of your way to create a flock of stupid ewes, and especially if you refuse to go to the labor of separating out your 6-8 month old ewes from the rest of the flock at mating season so you don't end up with moms that are less than a year old, then you are inviting trouble at your own hand and you ought to deal with that with at least a modicum of compassion. That's my philosophy. But, I'm not a farmer and I don't have to make a living off of it so it is easy for me to say and I realize that completely. Plus, I do believe that one reason the ewe didn't have enough milk for her triplets (she had three teats), is because when hay was delivered last month, while she was traveling, it was the worst quality she has EVER had. I think the farmer took advantage of the fact that she was out of town, had pre-paid, and I didn't have authority to refuse delivery, demand a refund, and purchase elsewhere on her behalf. We had the full winter's stock of horse hay and it was good. This was nasty, too much straw, not enough timonthy and alfalfa...plus it was full of some stickerish type weed. This is what they've been eating. Low quality hay, high caloric need due to sub-zero wind chills, and low sunlight, equals low milk output and not as much fat content. Sheep milk is basically only second to zebu, water buffalo, and human mother's milk to fat content. Cow's milk for bottle fed lambs has to be laced with coconut or sunflower oil in order to raise the fat content high enough to properly sustain growth. I just have some problems with the way she is managing the flock this year, but in reality, it is within the bounds of accepted farming practice. Honestly, if the commercial dairy can keep 1000 cows in a cement building, never allowing them to see the light of day, and feed them corn, a substance they aren't even properly endowed gut-wise to digest properly, so that by the time the steers are butchered they are already suffering from painful liver disease, and this is OKAY with the powers that be, then there isn't anything legally wrong with the farmer choosing to let nature take its course. I just have to keep reminding myself that since I don't know what it is like to try to make a living off farming, I don't have a level of expertise that makes me knowledgeable enough to make a judgment call on her methods. I do know that I would do it differently if it were my flock or I wouldn't be keeping sheep. Faith Edited February 1, 2011 by FaithManor Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amy g. Posted February 1, 2011 Share Posted February 1, 2011 I'm so sorry. My daughter will so sad when I tell her after her class. My cousin is a vet, and he used to live with us. He had a terrible track record with pulling calves because farmers wouldn't call him until it was too late to save the mother or the calf. I felt so sorry for him. It is one of the reasons my oldest doesn't want to be a vet. She'd rather spend her time and energy keeping her own animals healthy rather than trying to save animals that might not have been cared for properly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FaithManor Posted February 1, 2011 Author Share Posted February 1, 2011 Amy G., this is one reason that dd decided not to go into vet school and instead, went into human medicine. She figured that she'd have more control over the outcome and if people made a habit of waiting too long to get medical assistance and a child died or was irreparably harmed because of this, it is acceptable to do something about it. People tend not to abide Natural Selection for humans! Our vet is actually a large animal vet in a huge practice, they maintain a list of "no service offered" farms and pet owners who have such notorious reputations for letting animals suffer ridiculously and then call at the last second leaving the vet in a no-win situation, that the practice no longer takes calls from them. In the case of horses and cows, it's just such an amazing loss of income to lose the cow/calf or mare/foal, that I don't understand why even the hardest amongst them wait so long to call. You'd think it would not be profitable. Faith Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jenL Posted February 1, 2011 Share Posted February 1, 2011 I never realized how farmers attended to "natural selection" although I knew it must exist somehow. I'm so sorry that you had to see another lamb die. Your poor ds; mine is an animal lover through-and-through so I understand how hard it is to watch your son right now. I'm sorry. :grouphug: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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