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Breakfast for the sheep

As well as the ‘daily hay ceremony‘ which I wrote about a couple of months ago, I thought I would write a few words about another little ceremony which the sheep really enjoy; the daily ‘nut ceremony’.

Sheep go absolutely bonkers for their nuts.  I should add, these are not actual nuts, ‘sheep nuts’ are rolled pellets containing a variety of grains and legumes.

sheep heading towards the gate

Like the hay, we only do the ‘nut ceremony’ during the winter when the sheep appreciate a little extra nutrition.

First thing every morning I scoop a carefully measured amount into a bucket, then, bucket in one hand, dog leads in the other I call the the dogs and off we go.

first at the trough – Clippy the hen

Our sheep are really good at telling the time.  They come down to the paddock exactly half an hour before I make an appearance and stand in a group looking towards the house.

Then they watch me walking along the fence round the outside of the paddock before moving as one unit to the gate which stands between them and the troughs soon to be filled with ‘nuts’.

I used to fill the troughs while the sheep milled around me but this proved slightly hazardous and required my wits about me, not a great situation to be in before I’ve had my breakfast.  Sheep can be quite adept at rugby and thought nothing of tackling me to the ground if it meant they could stick their head in a bucket.

waiting at the gate
yum yum!

These days I put the troughs in a separate part of the paddock and close the gate before the sheep come down so they can’t get up to tricks.  This makes life much easier and is also very amusing to watch when I open the gate and the sheep bundle through closely followed by Elliot who likes to join in the scrum.

 

 

 

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Belinda Bibble-Bott and her Egg Yolk Peritonitis

the Orpingtons as chicks

Belinda Bibble-Bott (Belinda for short) is one of our big, friendly Orpington hens who came to us as eggs back in the spring of 2022.  We’ve seen Belinda and her siblings grow from tiny chicks the size of daisies into enormous hens almost twice the size and weight of our resident flock.

Last spring the Orpingtons started to lay their first eggs.  This was a cause for celebration for us!  The main reason we wanted to bring younger hens into the flock was because our resident ladies (bless their feathers, being on the elderly side) had all but stopped laying.

the chicks growing up

At first it took a while for the Orpingtons to work out what the nest boxes were for and quite often we would come across an egg lying in the grass.  They also went through a phase of only wanting to lay in one particular nest box.  This caused a few scuffles, kerfuffles and broken eggs.  But gradually the new girls got the idea, egg production went up and we were able to bake cakes and make omelettes again, hoorah!

But, as is often the way in life, after an up there is a down.  One morning in late April as I was scattering corn for the girls, I noticed Belinda’s walk looked ever so slightly off.  There was the merest hint of a waddle about her, barely noticeable and could have been easy to dismiss because hens waddle at the best of times.  But you learn to be a detective when you run a smallholding, monitoring the behaviour of animals on a daily basis, looking out for things that might be amiss.  I didn’t have a good feeling about Belinda and my gut was saying ‘Egg Yolk Peritonitis’ (internal laying).  I hoped I was wrong but I had a sinking feeling as I picked her up and checked her over.  However, she didn’t have the swelling that hens get with EYP and there was no heat which would have indicated infection, but something still felt off.

I had a think and decided to take her indoors and sit her in a bucket of warm water on the off chance that she was egg-bound.  Sometimes first time layers can lay very large eggs which can get stuck and cause discomfort.  I handled her carefully as if there was an egg stuck inside her, I didn’t want to break it as this would be fatal.  After sitting her ever so gently in a bucket of warm water for 15 mins, I gave her a blow dry and popped her in a darkened cardboard box with plenty of cosy bedding.  I had a cup of tea and half an hour or so went by when suddenly I heard a loud ‘post egg cluck’ coming from the cardboard box, Belinda had laid an egg!

My happiness was short lived however.  The following day Belinda’s walk was still off.  After some thought I decided to go to the vets and get some antibiotics to cover all bases.  If she did have EYP there was a chance it could be halted in its tracks if the infection was caught early enough.  However it was a slim chance and would only work if the internal laying was a one off.

Belinda sitting on a rock

Off to the vets I whizzed and came back armed with needles and antibiotic.  So as not to cause Belinda any discomfort we decided to treat her at night.  Hens have a funny way of giving you the eye when you administer injections so I hunted out the little ‘hen hood’ we keep for moments like this.  At dusk, we scooped her out of the hen house, placed the hood over her head and popped the needle in.

During that week we gave Belinda her course of antibiotics and kept our fingers crossed.  We closely monitored her laying, (a) to see if she was laying eggs on a daily basis which would be a good sign, and (b) to discard any of her eggs because they would contain traces of antibiotic.  It broke my heart to throw away her precious eggs but thankfully it would only be for a short period of time.

Sadly Belinda didn’t respond to the antibiotics and over the following weeks her abdomen started to show the tell-tale signs of EYP, it became red and swollen.  At this point we made the decision to step back and not give her more antibiotics or go down the hormonal implant route which some vets recommend.  Rather we would keep her comfortable and let her live out her life with the other hens without invasive medical procedures.

Belinda at the hair dresser’s

Belinda surprised us all, she lived through the summer and is still going strong.  She’s a spirited lady and despite her condition, is by far not the lowest hen in the pecking order.  Usually the smallest or weakest hens get bullied by the hens further up the pecking order, but not Belinda.

During the winter when the hens stopped laying, Belinda’s condition improved slightly but sadly didn’t clear up.  Her swelling went down but she still waddled and maintained her ‘penguin stance’.  This upright posture has an unfortunate side affect.  Orpingtons have extremely long, fluffy feathers and as we came into winter we noticed Belinda’s feathery ‘skirt’ was dragging on the ground and getting wet in all the puddles.  So to keep her comfortable and prevent her from catching a chill we decided to give her a wee hair cut.

just stepped out of the salon

We brought her into the kitchen and made her comfy on Adrian’s lap while I got to work with the scissors.  Belinda relaxed right into the salon experience.  So much so that as I worked on her tail feathers she couldn’t help herself and did some reciprocal grooming on Adrian’s arm.

As we come into spring and the hens come into lay again we’ll continue to keep an eye on Belinda, keep her feathers trim and do as much as we can to keep her comfortable.

 

 

 

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The daily hay ceremony

 

From the end of October through to the beginning of April (give or take), we move the little darlings onto hay.  During the winter, the grass pretty much stops growing and what grass there is isn’t very tasty or nutritious.  While many sheep are thrifty and do fine in the leaner winter months, ours are a lowland breed and appreciate their creature comforts.  We also have several elderly ladies in our flock who need a little extra tlc.

the much loved shelter

As well as providing the teddies with daily hay, over the years of keeping sheep we’ve come to realise what our woolly friends really appreciate is having somewhere to get out of the elements, whether that’s the scorching sun in the summer, or the driving rain in the winter.  So we give them access to the lambing shed which they love.  To be honest, they are rather too fond of it at times and can make a real mess if they set up camp for too long.  While we like them to have access to their shelter, we don’t want them to spend all day in there.  So we’ve found if we fill up their hay feeders (which are next to the shelter) in the evenings rather than the mornings, this encourages them to go up the hill and forage during the day and only come down to the paddock in the evenings for the daily hay ceremony.

Seline leading the flock down

The daily hay ceremony is basically me bringing the little darlings hay every evening.  Usually the gang are still up on the hill somewhere, but it’s not long before they make an appearance led by Seline the flock leader.  They have an uncanny knack of knowing what time to come down for their tea.

I really enjoy the hay ceremony, mostly because I love the smell of hay.  Good quality meadow hay can be hard to come by and our little darlings are particularly fond of soft hay without tough stalks.  During the first few years here on our smallholding we struggled to find good meadow hay.  Our first year here we made our own but didn’t have enough to last all winter and ended up scrabbling around.

Our second year here we decided to buy in hay.  Unfortunately that turned out to be a bad decision as it was the year of the ‘beast from the east’.  That winter went on and on and on … there was hardly any hay to be had and we ended up buying in posh, dainty bags of haylage from the local agricultural store.  Our winter feed budget took a big hit that year.

tea time

So our third winter here we couldn’t believe our luck when we discovered that our Highland Cattle friends from up the road, Jim and Fiona, (https://www.highland.scot/)  had started supplying hay!  We feel very fortunate about this, it’s taken a big worry off our shoulders.

the hay-mobile

Every four weeks, Fiona comes by in her ‘hay-mobile’ with a delivery of hay.  Whilst tipping bales off the truck we have a good old catch up.  As smallholders on somewhat remote farms it’s good to chat to a likeminded soul and compare notes about this and that.  I always look forward to Fiona’s visits and I’m sure our sheep do as well!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Planting apple trees

‘before’

Back in the summer we decided it would be nice to plant some more apple trees.  Over the last few years we’ve been gradually expanding our orchard.  There were already about ten apple trees here when we moved here six years ago.  Last winter we added some more, and this year we ordered another ten.  We’ll have about thirty apple trees eventually which is great because  Adrian and I love apples. and Adrian makes a very tasty cider!

At the beginning of November the new trees arrived through the post.  Being bare rooted we heeled them into the veggie patch as a temporary home.

marking out where the trees will go

Fast forward a few weeks and this week was the grand tree planting ceremony.  A wet week was forecast, perfect weather for planting!  First we marked out where the trees would go.  We carefully positioned ten bamboo canes, taking our time to make sure they were neatly spaced and looked just right.  Elliot helped out by following us round and repositioning several canes.  After a cup of tea we had to start all over again, this time with the dogs at a safe distance.

Next, Adrian got to work with the tree guards which entailed banging in 40 stobs with his fence post knocker-inner.  It was a hard slog getting them in and we now have a large collection of rocks of all shapes and sizes for dry stone wall repairs.

The following day Adrian dug ten large holes for each of the trees.  Now we have even more spare rocks for wall repairs.  Then it was over to me, I filled my wheelbarrow with several bags of compost, a tub of fertiliser and of course the apple trees.  Thankfully they were all alive and well, the roots looked healthy and there were plenty of worms nestled in the root-balls.

putting stobs in

 

digging holes

Three days later and all ten trees are in their new homes, hoorah!  All we have left to do is attach some lengths of stock fence and railings to the posts to keep them safe from the sheep.

As a side note, we have a Himalayan Cedar in a corner of the orchard which the sheep took a great liking too a couple of years ago.  (You can see it in the photo on the left).  They’d taken several inches of bark all the way round and we thought the poor tree was doomed.  In desperation we attached several bridge grafts all the way round and taped moss over the damaged trunk.  Two years later and the tree has not only survived but has put on growth and is looking healthy.  Even more surprising, none of the bridge grafts are alive so we are not sure how this is possible.  The only thing we can think of is that we decided to leave the ‘mossy bandage’ in place (originally we were going to remove it after a few months), perhaps this is helping transport sap up the trunk?

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Cud transfaunation for Witchy

trimming Witchy’s bottom wool

You can tell a lot about the health of an animal by what comes out the back end.  One of our woolly teddy bears, Witchy, has always produced dung more on the squishy side.  It sticks to the wool around her tail and is a magnet for flies.  During the summer we give her bottom plenty of haircuts to keep her feeling clean and fresh and prevent flystrike.

From what we’ve observed as smallholders, if young animals don’t get a good start in life, health problems will pop up down the line.  We’re certain that Witchy’s bottom problems are down to an imbalance of gut bacteria due to a period of stress she suffered as a lamb, (click here to read Witchy’s story).  We made a lot of mistakes when we started out ten years ago and unfortunately Witchy’s wobbly first couple of days was down to our inexperience as novice smallholders.

Witchy

Fast forward to now and Witchy is a fully grown sheep and seven years young.  She’s the sweetest thing and we feel very lucky to have her in our flock.  She seems happy and content, but her digestive issues have always been a background worry.

Over the years we’ve tried her on probiotics and kaolin powder, but nothing has helped.  Witchy’s bottom has just carried on doing its thing and we’ve carried on trimming her and keeping her clean.

Now that she is getting older, we’ve noticed she doesn’t do as well in the winter.  Last year she lost condition and her lower eyelids were a bit pale suggesting a nutrient absorption issue.

This year, as winter approaches I thought I would try something different.  I had recently read about something called ‘cud transfaunation’, an old shepherding technique to help ruminants with digestive problems.  Just like us, sheep need a healthy gut microbiome in order to work properly.  Cud transfaunation basically means to take the cud and accompanying microbes from the mouth of a healthy sheep and pop it into the mouth of the sheep needing help.  (Obviously making sure it is swallowed).

Yaar and WItchy

I was pretty excited to do this I can tell you!  On Monday I brought Witchy into a pen along with Yaar and Yogi (the two doners).  My plan was to  swill the doners’ mouths out with warm water using a large syringe, capture the swill (and hopefully lots of microbes) in a bucket and then transfer it over to Witchy.  The reason I decided to have two doners was purely to increase my chances of capturing microbes.

Yogi

From what I’ve read you can do either the ‘swill method’, or the ‘cud grabbing method’.  If you manage to grab a nice handful of cud there’s probably more chance of capturing lots of microbes however scooping out cud comes with risk of losing a  finger so I decided to go with plan A.  If plan A doesn’t work, then I’ll enlist the help of Adrian and try getting hold of some cud.  You put the cud in a bucket with a little warm water, break it up with a fork so it resembles sloppy soup and then give it to the sheep before it cools down.

The most important thing I had to remember was to make sure everything was sterile, and to keep the swilled out water at sheep temperature so the microbes didn’t die off before I got them into Witchy.

my equipment

I lined up my equipment on a nearby wall so I had everything within reach.  I had with me:  a thermos flask filled with sheep-temperature water (38.3 – 39.9’c) to do the mouth swilling, a sterile bucket to capture the swill and a large syringe to draw up the swill from the bucket and transfer into Witchy’s mouth.

I didn’t get much swill but hopefully enough.  It looked slightly green and had a bit of a slimy look to it.  I’m hoping it contained plenty of bacteria.  Giving it to Witchy was easy, I popped it into her mouth using a large syringe and she swallowed it straight away, phew!

swill on its way to Witchy’s mouth

The trickiest part was to make sure I kept Yaar and Yogi’s heads down as I swilled their mouths out to stop them from swallowing the warm water.  It was also quite hard keeping the bucket under their chins whilst I was doing this.  They were very keen to stick their noses in the bucket, they love buckets, especially green calf buckets.

Hopefully I captured enough microbes and they’re setting up home in Witchy’s gut and she’ll have an easier winter.  However the proof will be in the poop … I will keep you updated with how she goes.

 

 

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Shovelling sheep manure

before the big clean up

Every so often it’s time to do some dung shifting here on the smallholding.  Despite having a relatively small flock of 19, our woolly lawn mowers produce an impressive amount of manure.

sheep at hay feeders
eating hay during the winter

During the winter when the grass isn’t very tasty, the teddy bears spend a lot of time in the paddock where we have a couple of hay feeders set up.  Here is where the action happens, our woolly friends get busy converting hay into dung from November through to April.

squelch

The amount of dung around the feeders quickly builds up, so every autumn we roll back our sleeves and get to work removing the dung carpet.  This is hefty work and often involves getting on our hands and knees and peeling it up from the ground.  Embedded in the dung are layers of hay which hold things together to form a sort of cake.  It’s very satisfying work peeling back large clods.  Sometimes we get a big one that is too heavy to lift.  We heft the clods into the trailer and then tow it to the muck heap where we shovel it out.  Then back we go to the paddock for more.

taking the dung away
after the clean up

After a week or so of peeling, shovelling and dumping, our dung heap is vastly bigger and the ground around the hay feeders looks lovely again; back to its original state, a good deal lower and much less squelchy.

During the winter we’ll use this dung to mulch our veggie patch.  I dropped some off at our neighbours for their flowerbeds and Adrian left me a big present for the polytunnel.  All in all, a good week’s work!

 

a present from hubs

 

 

 

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“A diary update” – by Elliot – Anatolian Shepherd rescue dog from Turkey

The last time I wrote in my diary was over a year ago.  You can read my last story here.

I’ve lived in my new home for a long time now.  My new house is far away from where I used to live in Turkey.  I live with George and my two humans.  I have more friends but they live outside.   I spend time with my outside friends when George and I go on patrol.

Early this morning I was lolling in my dog bed thinking about my next activity when my girl human appeared.  I knew we would soon be going outside on patrol.  This is one of my favourite activities so I decided to nibble George’s head while I waited.

myself and George on morning patrol

My girl human hopped around putting on her green feet.  Then she called us to the door and out we went.  We followed her through the garden towards the fields where the sheep live.  First I checked out the compost heap as I like to do.  The girl human and George were already by the gate so I ran as fast as I could to catch up.  Luckily my legs are very long and very good at running!

myself in the woods being stealthy

We went to the woods as we usually do.  I like the woods.  George and I are very busy in the woods because there is so much to do.  Sometimes we don’t know what to do first so we stand at the entrance thinking.  Today we decided to be stealthy and follow a fox trail.  George isn’t as good at being stealthy as I am, George always barks and gives the game away.

myself and my pals looking

After a while we came out of the woods and walked up a hill.  Trudge, trudge, trudge we went until we came to the top.  The sheep were sitting at the top of the hill moving their mouths around.  George and I decided to do some looking.  We enjoy looking around, it’s one of our favourite things.  After a while the girl human called us and we went to the house to have our breakfast.

myself having a siesta

In between breakfast and my next activity I decided to have a siesta on the doorstep.

myself waiting to run with the quad

Then my boy human called me.  I was enjoying my snooze a lot and decided not to hear him.  But then I heard the sound of the quad bike.  It makes a sound like a very loud growl.  My brain didn’t know what to do because running with the quad bike is one of my favourite things.  As I was working this out my legs started to get up.  Suddenly I found myself at the quad bike with my boy human and George.

George and I found ourselves very busy running, then we came back to the garden and felt a snooze coming on so we did this while we waited for the next activity.

myself in the hen run

The girl human came over and called us into the hen run.  I love going into the hen run, it’s full of interesting smells.  George and I watched the hens going peck, peck peck.  The girl human left us to it while she had a clean up.

myself and George playing

After a while we came out of the hen run.  George and I felt a play coming on so we did zoomies up and down the track.  I love zoomies, they are one of my favourite things.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Drystane dyke repair

This is not the the first story about drystane dykes and probably won’t be the last. Most of the ground here is soft and so, over time, the dykes subside. Given a dry stone dyke is essentially two walls leaning against each other, if one side sinks faster than the other, then all those stones that started out level start to tip. Over time, it becomes more unstable until the merest puff of wind can blow it over.

In this case, though, I have only myself to blame. In an effort to keep the hens out of the garden, we erected some netting to stop them flying onto the wall. It was held up by long stobs. All fine, you might have thought, but the wind caused the net and stobs to sway and tap, tap, tap they went on the wall. Eventually, it was one tap too many and down it went. Strangely, although in plain view, the only animal to take advantage was Elliot who trundled through to check out the paddocks for intruders.

drystane dyke repair
sorting the stones

Working full time now, I had only the weekends to repair this. As ever, first thing was to sort out the mess of stones. It’s always a good idea to keep the top stones (coping stones) and through stones to one side. The coping stones that were there before the collapse can be identified by the way the moss has grown on them. It’s also a good idea to keep a passage clear either side of the dyke, though I have to admit I tend to leave some of the heavier beasties (my terminology for big stones) close by. Of course, these badly placed stones did try to catch me out and I nearly went flying a couple of times. Nearly!

drystane dyke repair
foundations

Stones sorted, next step is to sort out the foundations. The original wall was not really high enough so I took the opportunity to build wider foundations. These should be half the height of the wall. These were tapered as one end was 4 feet high and the other 4 feet 6 inches. Hard to use metric measures with walls, given their age.

Of course, wider and taller meant more stones, lots more stones. Fortunately, there were some lying on the ground nearby I could use.

As you can see from the photos, I erected an ‘A-frame’ with string so as to get a straight wall. Also, the keen eyed amongst you might see some metal poles protruding. These will form the supports for the new hen netting. Built into the wall, they will be discrete. The netting itself will only be a few inches high, it’s all it needs really.

rebuild underway

From then on, it’s just effort combined with an eye for which stone will best go where. Although hard work, I enjoy building drystane dykes, they are almost works of art. It is immensely satisfying to see them grow, particularly when you get to the top.

half way there

For this rebuild, I was blessed with a few decent days of dry weather combined with a long weekend I’d booked as holiday, so I made good progress.

In the midst of this was our tenth wedding anniversary and I’d bought a sneaky bottle of champagne which went down a treat. I added the bottle (empty of course) into the wall as a feature. You can see it in the picture to the bottom right.

I was pretty tired when I finished it because, as is my way, is I got closer, I just kept going, stopping only for a brief cup of tea and a quick lunch. Luckily the sun was out so I collapsed into a chair with another cuppa and a book. The day was nicely rounded off off with a bottle of cava and a pizza.

finished
finished
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Flystrike prevention

Yssi coming over

This summer’s been a bit funny weatherwise, after a hot and dry May and June (so dry that we ran out of water at one point), the heavens opened and it’s been dreich ever since.  One thing is certain though, rain or shine there are always plenty of flies buzzing around.

This part of Galloway is mostly grazed by livestock and there’s very little crop spraying going on.  As a result the insects are thriving and the swallows who come here to nest every summer have plenty to feed on.  So a healthy population of flies isn’t a bad thing.  However, having sheep, we do have to be on the lookout for flystrike.

Elliot helping me set up

Flystrike is a potentially fatal condition which can occur when a female blowfly (green bottle) decides to lay her eggs on a sheep.  The eggs result in maggots which on hatching, wriggle around and start to feed on the sheep. Death occurs within a few days unless the condition is spotted.  The blowfly is usually attracted to soiled areas around the bottom, but she’s not particularly fussy and often lays her eggs between the shoulder blades or in any convenient nook or cranny.

Most sheep are protected from blowfly attacks through the use of sprays which work as a deterrent.  Our little flock however is organic so this means we don’t spray them, instead we bring them in to check regularly and are always on the lookout for ‘the signs’.  ‘The signs’ meaning how the sheep behaves when she’s been struck by a blowfly.  These start off very subtle and can be easily missed, it’s usually a slight change in demeanour, a look in the eye, an odd sitting position.  It then progresses as the irritation builds and the sheep will try to scratch the affected area.  She’ll not usually be able to reach and this will cause her distress.  As the days pass she’ll show signs of depression, hang her head, stand in a corner, lie down and eventually give up.

Yssi haltered up

We’re continually on the lookout for the signs, and three of our little lot are particularly prone so they get more checks than usual.  Today the three musketeers were due their fortnightly check ups.

I set off after breakfast with my bucket containing: shears, maggot oil, cotton wool pads, Protego powder spray, nitrile gloves, halter and sheep nuts.  The dogs came with me as they like to hang around with the flock whilst clicking into guard mode.  George and Elliot are both Sheep Guardian dogs, George is a Hellenic Shepherd and Elliot is a Turkish Anatolian and they love nothing better than to mooch around with the flock whilst keeping a watchful eye out for bears and wolves, (the Scottish equivalent of).

I found the sheep half way up a hill so  I parked up and set up ‘camp’.  I dragged some hurdles over and built my treatment pen, I laid out my equipment on the back of the quadbike.  Then off I went to get my first sheep.

Something I’ve learned to do since having sheep is teach them their names and have them come over to me when called, individually.  This isn’t just a fancy party trick, it means I can do sheep work quickly and with minimum running around.  Unfortunately this convenient little trick is only possible when I’m on my own with the gang with no one else is present, especially not the vet.

damp wool below tail needing a trim

So I brought in Ynca, then Yssi, then Yogi.  All three have a funny condition on their bottoms where the wool stays damp in the area just below the tail.  This can cause little patches of bacteria to form under the wool which unless I trim regularly, can lead to small infections occurring.  This can then create puss, which would be a magnet to the blowfly so it’s important to keep them clean and trimmed.

Yogi inspecting my equipment bucket

Ynca, Yssi and Yogi are very tame, but they draw the line at having their bottoms trimmed so I halter them up and tether them so they can’t run around.  I then straddle them so I’m looking down at their bottoms, and off I go with my trimming shears.  Once I’ve trimmed the wool down to a ‘number 1’, I spray it with a powder spray which dries everything out and smells lovely too.  (Protego powder spray is totally brilliant!)

After and hour or so, I finished bottom trimming and was ready for a cup of tea, scones, clotted cream and strawberry jam.  The three girls went back to join their pals while I whizzed down the hill followed by the dogs.  Adrian was conveniently between meetings at work and had already put the kettle on ready for a welcome brew.

Yogi with trimmed bottom and powder spray

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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A health check for Vi

A couple of weeks ago as I was cleaning out the field shelter, the sheep milling about me ‘helping’, I happened to notice Vi had some discharge around her nose.

A clear nasal discharge is usually nothing to worry about, but Vi’s was definitely on the green side.  Oh, I immediately thought, Pneumonia?  Botfly?  An awful disease that I don’t know about?  Sheep are good at disguising when they’re not well.  As sheep parents we’re always on the lookout for subtle changes in behaviour and signs that something might be amiss.  However this discharge was definitely not subtle.

sheep health sheet

I wiped Vi’s nose with a tissue and sat on a rock to ponder.  Vi seemed her usual happy self, especially after I gave a her a foot rub which she particularly enjoys.   After my initial catastrophising I decided to monitor her for a few days and phone the vet if anything changed for the worse.

selfie with Vi

A week went by and Vi’s nose was still showing a greenish discharge, albeit less as the week progressed.  I nevertheless decided to call the vet anyway just to be sure.   Before calling, I thought it might be helpful to be armed with some more information.  I didn’t want to waste the vet’s time if all she needed was a shot of antibiotic.   So off I went in search of a thermometer so I could take her temperature.

After much rummaging in the cupboard I found four thermometers, all in working order (amazingly!)  I grabbed one and also a halter and some sheep nuts for all eventualities.  At the last minute I also stuffed into my rucksack my ‘sheep health fact sheet’ and a pen.

Vi in pen

The flock were relaxing, chewing cud in one of the lower fields.  As luck would have it they were mooching near a small pen I had set up when I sheared Vera last month.  I called Vi over and popped her in.

The first thing I noticed was that Vi had no more green discharge.  I hoped this meant that she was OK now but decided to take her temperature anyway.  Vi is very tame and friendly so I stupidly thought she’d be happy with me popping a thermometer into her bottom.  Needless to say she was not …  I was glad I’d brought a halter with me and a few minutes later Vi was tied up and giving me a look.  I inserted the thermometer again and waited 30 seconds.

Vi’s temperature turned out to be absolutely normal, as did the other checks I did, respiration rate and rumination rate, she passed with flying colours.

rucksack snuffling opportunity

I released her and she took the opportunity to inspect my rucksack before heading off to join her pals.

I’ll continue to keep an eye on her, but so far she appears to be over her little bout of whatever it was.