[Jacob-list] starving ewe.

[dave & katrina]

Now that would be a sight!  The hole isn't big, looks like she has a cigar in her mouth, but the piles of cud are.  I can't believe how much is out there.  The thought behind grain is that the nutrients do not need to be broken down as much by the rumen so more are absorbed before they are brought back up as cud.  More concentrated form so she needs to eat less.
Katrina
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Betty Berlenbach 
  To: dave & katrina 
  Sent: Friday, February 15, 2002 9:09 PM
  Subject: Re: [Jacob-list] starving ewe.


  hmmm...a shepherd friend got gashed by a horn in the head and the ER said, "This is a job for superglue", and meant it.  Perhaps you could manufacture an artificial flap for the missing piece out of a piece of rubber tennis ball or something,and superglue it to her skin above the missing piece?  Feeding her grain shouldn't make a difference, should it? She'll cud that up, too, and it will leak out.  You don't say how big the gap is...is it likely she's losing a lot of food, or just a bit?  I know it sounds weird, but the superglue thing just might work, if whatever you superglue on there is not rottable material!
    ----- Original Message ----- 
    From: dave & katrina 
    To: jacob-list 
    Sent: Friday, February 15, 2002 8:25 PM
    Subject: [Jacob-list] starving ewe.


    Any advice for a sad situation?
    A week or two ago a yearling ewe (due late march)appeared to have been hit with something right in the side of her mouth... our only guess was she was hit by the end of one of the ram's 4 horns...good-natured ram and haven't noticed any aggression a feeding time, but can think of no other explaination.  Her upper lip (on the side) had been cut with the force and a strip was dangling down. One tooth might have broken, but the rest seem ok.  No broken bones. She still had an appetite and while she looked in pain, semed healthy.  We had no choice but to cut off the dangling, damaged skin, gave penecillin and watched her for a while.  She is seeming to heal ok, although now has a gap on the side of her mouth.  Here's the problem.  The gap is causing her cud to leak out in large amounts.  She has a constant green cud dribble down the corner of her mouth and we can see large piles of grassy cud all around the pasture where the sheep lay down.  

    It seems the gap in her lips may slowly starve her to death.  Sad.  We are open to putting her down since it seems she will always have eating problems, but we thought about trying save her lamb, which certainly is not getting the nutrition it needs.  Any thoughts?  What would you do?  We have a strictly pasture/hay based system here and we have thought about isolating her and putting her on a grain diet until her lamb is born.  Is it worth trying?  Our shearing is tomorrow and our shearer is full of sheep wisdom.  Maybe he will have a few thoughts.

    Katrina Lefever, Chicory Lane Farm
    http://wwwfac.wmdc.edu/HTMLpages/Graduate/TI/pages/lefever/chicory.htm where we are starting to post lamb pics.  
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