The life of bill, part 2.

[ford_prefect42]

Yesterday was an odd mix of productivity and frustration. Many days, my life reminds me of the old song "dear Liza".

https://youtu.be/MAfCQ-t7xY0

Comments

[kharmii]

A friend of mine had to bury a cow with a back hoe.

Interesting googling the sheep problems. My parents were thinking of keeping them when we get to Indiana.

[ford_prefect42]

Eh hem:

NNNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! DON'T DO IT, YOU'RE A YOUNG MAN! YOU HAVE SO MUCH TO LIVE FOR!

One confounding aspect of the sheep health concerns is that the shearer came last Saturday. The same thing happened last year, a number of animals developed health issues a few days after the shearer came. We're wondering if there's a correlation, and if so, what it might be.

[banner]

my guess would be that his equipment is spreading disease or parasites from one flock to the next.
How many nicks or cuts do the sheep pick up from shearing?
Have you talked to this or other shearers about this sort of thing happening?
Animal diseases, for some animals, will carry on the clothing of people handling the animals.

Also, it just may be that the 'shock' of being sheared is depressing their immune system, opening them up to infection, in which case, you might want to does them with antibiotics a day or two before they get sheared.

[ford_prefect42]

The shearer always nicks a few. It's something that happens.

We're leaning toward a thiamine deficiency in the feed being "triggered" by the shearing stress. Of course, that has nothing to do with the prolapsed ewe, or the convulsing lamb, but it might explain the 2 blind dead ewes.

[ford_prefect42]

footnote: The prolapsed ewe wasn't sheared (being marked for culling), and the lamb wasn't sheared due to being only 2 months old.

[kharmii]

Why was that ewe marked for culling? Also, did the symptoms of the thiamine deficiency progress so fast you couldn't treat them? I'm reading about it on the internet and it sounds so complicated.

[ford_prefect42]

I think that the prolapse ewe didn't lamb last year or this one. She was marked for culling last year too, but didn't manage to get gone.

Thiamine deficiency is pretty uncommon, and the symptoms are kinda generic until it's progressed right to the edge of beyond treatability. One of the animals was dead before she even noticed there was a problem.