Faith's story (and hopeful recovery)

The story of this little cutie. She is a babydoll Southdown twin ewe lamb. Her sister is black. Their daddy was our beautiful black ram Brock... Both seem to smile back at you. 
Their growth rate is equal. Their eyes are bright and curious. Their energy level is about the same...

The sister left to live at her new home. This little one can't go yet.
She has symptoms of vitamin B deficiency, and every time we think she's pulled through, her symptoms crop up again. Out of the whole flock of goats and sheep, she is the only one.
So far, it has required about 3 weeks of vitamin B injections, vet visits and consultations, "polio" symptoms (when she is stressed, her legs seem to buckle under her, or she does a high-stepping walk, or her back legs kick her into a bounce--straight into the air). The injection used to work immediately. Now it takes a while and she collapses in a heap until the B gets in her system. 
And she hates the sight of me and trembles when I come in with her, because I'm the one who catches her up to give her a shot in the rump. It's become rather heartbreaking.
The vet still holds out hope that she will pull through if I can continue to treat her. With puppies, and a family reunion coming up, and a whole barn full of other animals to care for, my energy for this on-going treatment is wearing thin. 

Enter my neighbor, Katie, who knows much, much more than I do about vitamin deficiencies and restoring good bacteria, who sees a promising future for this little ewe and whose eyes lit up at the idea of helping this lamb come back to full health. 
Tomorrow, "Faith" will join two lambs for a few weeks at Katie's place. I will continue to give the injections as needed. Katie will put Faith on pasture with two similar age lambs. 
We'll see if a change in environment and less stress will make a difference! 

The owner of Faith's twin is hoping that she will be able to bring Faith to live at her farm, once we are completely through this strange phenomenon. 

I guess I can say that I'm now praying for the recovery of....a lamb named "Faith". 

 

Laura

Day 2

Pupdate. Babies and mama are thriving. 
One day after delivering pups, Mama Taffy was anxious to show the sheep and goats that she hadn't been away for THAT long. Some received a reminder nip on the ankle last night when they didn't move off the pasture in good time (they sure knew it when I was the only one trying to move them the night before!). 
Taffy was up for morning chores as usual, her morning egg fresh from the nest, her milk fresh from the cow, and then right back to the babes as if they had always been part of the routine.

 

Laura

News of the day

I started the day with the sight of a dead piglet.  He was sick last night, we gave him penicillin, but he just didn't make it.  

The other four piglets in the litter were/are as spunky as ever, and now mama Cameo is quite angry when I come near, because of the squealing of that one piglet last night as I gave him his injection, and now today the other four got their treatment.  Hoping they all pull though and show no symptoms. 

And for the past 3 weeks, the vet and I have been watching one of my lambs that has "polio" symptoms.  I cancelled the sale, her new owner came for the twin but not for her, and I've been giving her vitamin B injections whenever the weird high-legged walk occurs, causing her to collapse on the ground.  Five minutes later, she'll be fine.  And she is bright-eyed, curious, and until her twin left yesterday, they were growing equally well.  Just this weird thing, and she will be here for a while yet because of it.

But then today....  Life!  

Taffy gave birth to five little ones in quick succession.  I thought she was done.  Two more surprises.  And then two more.  

There are five boys, and four girls.  All seem to be doing well, 6 hours after birth.  Taffy is an attentive mom, listening for the other dogs walking by the bedroom door, perking up to hear who is coming in to peek at her babies, watching us as we take photos and lift the little ones to get a better look.

And she is exhausted.

There's no puppy that definitely points to Waldo as his or her daddy.  All of them could easily be Smoke's babies.  But we'll do the DNA testing to be sure.  

All of them could stay here forever.  (But in 10 weeks, we might think differently.  Or not!)

Welcome, little pups!  

 

Laura

Let Summer Commence!!!

Sheep were sheared yesterday. The lambs had a hard time believing that these were really their mothers.  :)

Here are the "before" shots. With the Southdowns, the only way I could see their eyes is in the light of the flash! 
Only got one good "after" shot. It's the white mama sheep "Bunny" from the third photo, all shorn and out grazing with her black twins.

 

Laura

More kitten pics, and an orange gnome comes to stay

 

Brave Little Kittens

Kitties are venturing out. Five weeks old.  We have homes for all of them, (keeping the calico), and actually lined up a few extra kittens for friends who wanted one or two and we didn't have extras!
Mama cat has let us hold them every day, but draws the line at letting Shadow the black lab come close to them. 
Little Miss Taffy the English Shepherd is free to come as close as she wants, having won the trust of the mother cat last year with how gentle she is with new babies. 
The kittens are brave enough to explore the entire first floor now and hiss angrily at the dogs. So funny to see the babies all puffed up and trying to act fierce.

 

Laura

Babies everywhere

The baby season that never ends. :)

These Cayuga ducklings hatched yesterday and today.  

We've had a number of disappointments this spring:

-unsuccessful incubator hatches (tiny errors on my part that created the slightly wrong environments at hatching time)

-geese that set on their eggs and then either hatched one and ignored it until it died, or the wrong goose was on the nest when one hatched and she killed it (a tiny gosling, seen as an intruder), -turkeys who all three have sat on eggs for much longer than the required time, even as those eggs one by one disappear, same as last year (I suspect rats stealing eggs) leaving one egg that no doubt is ready to explode fumes everywhere

-and chickens who wanted to set on eggs during the day but eat them early in the morning....

Out of about 20 eggs from our own Cayuga ducks and Christa's, we have 14 cuties alive and peeping.

Other hatches have yielded 3 turkeys here, 6 chicks there, another 7 turkeys, another 4 chicks.... This one is the best. A good change of pace.

There is another large clutch of duck eggs ready to hatch under a real live hen in the barn. The resulting hatch might be the same as past years. We end up with more ducklings than anything else. I won't mind that too much.

 

Laura

Garlic Mustard and Milk

'Tis the season...  

The grass is growing, the violets are blooming, the animals are crying because I won't let them on the newly reseeded pasture....

The garlic mustard is taking over as it does all over the Midwest, anywhere it has gotten a foothold.  It's an invasive plant, and it is taking over and choking out native woodland species, here, in forest preserves, along the roadways, anywhere it can spread seeds and declare war.  We have it everywhere, and when we clear out old branches or trim up trees, the garlic mustard is the first thing to sprout the next spring.

Except....where the hogs rooted it out last year.  Literally, they dug up the dormant roots and munched them ecstatically on cool fall days. 

Except....where the goats and cow are grazing it this spring.  It's not their favorite, but it IS the available greenery that grows the fastest in spring.

Except....when I yank it out on the perfect day like today, when the air is damp and chilly and the soil releases the long roots without any fight. There's a small window of opportunity, when the rain has softened the soil, and the flower heads aren't quite open.  When the height of the weed itself is still below the knee level, and not up to your thigh as you wade through the thickets of it...

The seeds from the white flower heads can still germinate 6 years later.  It will take years to eradicate it here on our tiny 2 acre property...  It's maddening.

Every year I wage this battle, and every year we get a little bit closer to not letting any of the thigh-high weediness go to seed.  Last year I lost the fight, and it took over faster than I could pull and dig and shovel.  The pigs helped, but we fenced the area too late. 

This year....the photo of what looks like nearly bare earth?  That's where the pigs killed the garlic mustard.  It's seeded with grass, and the goats are managing the new seedlings of weeds while the grass establishes itself.

What better snack for piggies and mama, holed up in the barn stall until the rain stops later this week?  Freshly pulled garlic mustard, topped off with a sip of fresh warm milk.  :)

 

Laura