The new year has not begun well here at sheep dreams. This morning one of the Romeldale ram lambs (the one on the left--the moorit) I purchased back in the summer died. We don't know the cause yet, but will be waiting anxiously for the necropsy report to come back. He seemed fine on Saturday evening when I moved the boys into their night-time lot, but Sunday morning was standing listlessly by the fence. We brought him inside the barn, and since he had no obvious symptoms, treated him with several all purpose medicines and hoped for the best. Since I first brought him home, my husband (the veterinarian) has consistently observed that he thought there was something just not right about this ram. We did have some real problems with him in the beginning. He had several episodes of scouring and seemed not as energetic as the other ram lambs. Lately though, he had been full of energy---even to the point of chasing the alpaca boys and romping with the other rams. So, hopefully we'll get some answers when the final report comes from the diagnostic laboratory.
And this...........this is what it looks like when a mouse decides to die inside the wall of our house. Part of our house is quite old, nearly 100 years old actually. The parts of the house that we added when we moved here have secure foundations and no easy way for mice to get into the walls, but the old part is apparently not quite so mouse proof. It took my husband that many attempts to find the little stinker (and I mean that quite literally!). Yuck, yuck and more yuck. So now, to start the new year off, the entrance hall will get a fresh coat of paint.I hesitated to write this post because it is nothing but bad news, but in the interest of presenting an honest portrait of our life on the farm, I decided to tell it like it is. Lots of good things happen here every day, week in and week out. Sometimes sad things happen. To live our lives here, connected with nature and interacting with our animals, we need to have the good outweigh the bad...............and mostly it does.
I feel so bad about your ram. How sad.
ReplyDeleteAnd what a nasty bit of business to have a dead mouse trapped in between the walls!
Dianne, is your husband really a vet? Mine is, too, and sometimes it can be so frustrating to have a problem he can't figure out or solve. I've got one of those (actually, MORE than one problem) going on in one of my ewe lambs. I'm so sorry you lost that ram lamb; he certainly was a beauty!
ReplyDeleteMichelle-Yes, he's really a vet and sometimes it feels like that saying about the shoemaker's children around here! I hate that we weren't able to save the ram lamb. I wanted to breed that moorit gene into my flock, but Mike thought we shouldn't use him until we were sure he was going to be healthy. Too late now.
ReplyDeleteOh yeah, I quote that saying a lot, especially when people (usually horse people, since he does mainly equine) say, "Oh, you're so LUCKY your husband is a vet!"
ReplyDeleteDianne.....sometimes it's good to just tell it like it is. I'm so sorry you lost your ram...and I would be pretty shakey if there were a dead mouse in my wall. We have had a problem in our attic, but have not seem one sign of an animal in there. Spooky, huh? Here's looking forward to a better week :)
ReplyDeleteLove,
Amy
So sorry about your Ram. Hope you get word soon on the cause.
ReplyDeleteIsn't it amazing how one little mouse can smell so horribly? You would think they would just dry up...
I'm so sorry to hear about your ram lamb. It's such a bad feeling to lose one.
ReplyDeleteso sorry to hear of your loss - that is never easy. Hope the lab was able to give you an explanation.
ReplyDelete