Tag: Sheep

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Vaccination day part 2

We have just finished trimming hooves and giving booster vaccinations to the woolies. Often this is stressful as one of our sheep, scratchy is quite crazy. She has almost killed Izzy as a newborn, she has knocked me down at least twice, and has tried to get through very tiny spaces. She lives her life terrified by people. This upsets us as she never seems to be content and always in flight mode. After speaking with a couple of people who are long time shepherds and the famous Temple Grandin we had come to the conclusion to have her put down. We didn't even want to send her to the butcher on her own as we would end up with sub-standard meat, and she may have gone through the windshield on her way there. So Kate, our wonderful vet would have come over and put her out of her fear. So today we decided to vaccinate and trim her hooves anyway. JUST in case anything had changed. Well I am happy to report that Scratchy was surprisingly good to catch and to deal with. She was still terrified, but not enough to go through a wall or window, which she has tried in the past. This means Scratchy has bought herself another month of being here. Maybe she will improve yet!

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Happy New Year

Another new year has started and I am happy to say I have  made it through the old one. It always feels like a fresh start when the New Year is rung in. January is not a slow month for us here though. Although the animals and gardens are not doing much other parts of our little farm are in full swing. The 29-30 of this month means the Guelph Organic Conference is here. This is probably the biggest organic event in the country. My other life as a designer means I am connected in various ways to the organic world.  I am very busy in front of the computer busily trying to get stuff done for the conference. January also means that the seed catalogues have come in and it is time to look at all the gardening and farming goodies. New animals idea have come up which also means a fair bit of research to see if it would all fit. The nicest time of this year though is the chance to observe things that I don't often get to see, at least not alive. The other day when putting the woolies away I saw a very unusual visitor to the paddock. The sheep were quite scared, but curious at the same time. In the middle of the paddock, at 4:30pm, sat a large opossum. The gender of the animals I don't know and really didn't want to find out. I did know that it was scared and the woolies were scared and I had to do something. It looked fine and I saw no injuries nor blood on it or the snow around it. Luckily I had a box in the barn for the potential, yet failed barn cat. So I pulled iut out, along with a bucket and trapsed out to the paddock. Izzy and Mr. Tufts were running around the poor opossum. It hissed back but wouldn't move. So I went over to it, put a bucket over it and slowly guided it into the box. I scooped up the box and proceeded out to the back field. Earlier I checked to see where the animal had come from. I followed the tracks from the neighbours bush, around the back and in our yard through a hole in the fence. Not knowing what it was doing, and not wanting to get it too lost just before dark I put the box down  just outside the fence line on the path the opossum had come. It was really only 50 feet away, but the animal was at least out of the way of the woolies and able to continue it's journey. I quite like opossums even though they look like large white rats. The are cute and North America only marsupial. Most of the time I see them dead at the side of the road. I feel very honoured that this creature decided to grace our yard. I just hope it was okay.

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Castration Update: Mr. Tufts testicles

Wonderful news! Mr. Tufts has lost his tufticles. I had checked them on the 18th of June. They were still there and hanging by a "thread" so to speak. I could no longer see the band and it was an open wound. Both of us were really worried. I had read and heard that it would take about a month for them to drop off. At that point it was about six weeks. My first reaction was to call the vet right away and get really worried. I then thought I would wait another few days as Mr. Tufts did not seem to be in any pain. So we waited. Another ten days and they were gone. By June 26th there wa no sign of them what so ever. I actually think they dropped off a couple of days earlier a I remember seeing a ball of wool that was being checked out by Beauty our dog (pasture oysters?) I am happy to report that the wound has healed beautifully and it looks great.! What a learning experience this has been. If the tufticles hadn't dropped off we would have had to have the vet in, which would of meant a fair bit of money. To make a long story short we would have had lamb for Christmas. I am glad we aren't as I like Mr. Tufts and had planned on keeping him. which we now are. Must call the vet for vaccinations and some de-wormer. We don't need 1litre of wormer for $100.