Sheep Chat Thread

[chooks4life]

Nice pics, RavenChance. Welcome to BYC.

 

[RavenChance]

Nice pics, RavenChance. Welcome to BYC.

Thank you!

 

[Penny Hen]

Lol, you're not rude for asking. He did bury them but moved the pile. According to him, they were not being looked after, even by his standards, and they all died suddenly. Recently he moved that pile so now they're exposed. They've only been dead long enough to lose the flesh, but that's no guarantee all pathogens are gone. I've seen some seriously ill stock around here and this land's definitely sick.

It's a very small acreage property, most of it unusable. He keeps it so mowed it looks like a golf course, lol. He's one of those who is of the opinion that animals can eat anything, and if they won't, it's because they're overfed. With this belief, he feeds them poisonous and chemically sprayed things, and underfeeds them the foods they need, and never supplements their diets or checks their weight or monitors for disease. In fact I strongly doubt he'd recognize a diseased animal if he saw one. There's many potential reasons why they could have died.

I forget what part of the country this is in. If it is the Southeast and you treat a herd/flock like that I can almost guarantee that they died of coccidia or barberpole worm or a combo of both. That would be your results in TN where I am.

 

[Penny Hen]

It's lambing season!
Almost all of them had triplets or twins. One had quads!
Two of my girls had large singles.

I went around and took some pics when we had the nice weather:


This kinda gives you an idea of how small he is when standing next to another lamb.
They are only two (2) days apart in age.



This is Abby; she had twins and rejected one.
She LOVES this guy! They are joined at the hip; never leaving each other's side.




I like his color and markings.




This is Mary and her triplets. She keeps them all to herself.
They are one of those families where the kids are over protected and are not allowed to go outside to intermingle with those 'other' kids.






This is Dottie (I also call her Melanoma sometimes).




Some friends she just met.

Being a baby is hard work. Much rest is needed!





Little scrawny is just so cute.
Maybe he'll grow up to be a big boy one day.

Ha hahahah! Since my flock was based out of Shetlands (+ Finn, Dorsets, and now some milk sheep) a 4lb. lamb doesn't seem so super tiny. That is about what my trips have weighted. With the addition of the milk sheep though it has been about 4 years since I have had a 4 pounder.

 

[chooks4life]

I forget what part of the country this is in. If it is the Southeast and you treat a herd/flock like that I can almost guarantee that they died of coccidia or barberpole worm or a combo of both. That would be your results in TN where I am.

The part of the country I'm in is in Australia.

Barberpole worm is my guess, since it appears epidemic in sheep around here. Liver fluke too. My sheep's never had a problem with worms, but for some reason every sheep I've seen around here is totally infested. Drug resistance in the parasites I'd guess. I've been dealing with bottlejaw in the ram lamb I bought recently.

Everyone around here scoffs at natural animal keeping methods and think I spoil my animals (ok, maybe I do a little, but I'm aware of the health detriment in actual spoiling as opposed to enabling them to be healthier than absolutely necessary for survival...) but the difference in health between their animals and mine is enough of a reason for me to keep doing it the way I have been, lol.

With a scouring, bloated-bellied, emaciated animal of theirs standing right beside them, they will lecture me on what I'm feeding my animal, which is exhibiting no such health issues. The chasms between philosophies, eh? Whatever works, I say, but it should actually work before you espouse it as the way to go and try to persuade others to do the same. Those who know the least and who have the worst track record seem to have the loudest and firmest opinions on how it should be done.

/Rant over... I can talk, can't I? lol. I know I've got a lot to learn myself. But I dislike it when those who don't have healthy animals lecture me on how to keep mine, and I've been taking a gutful of that lately. >.> They assume the animals being labelled as 'pets' means I don't know anything about keeping the species.

 

[Penny Hen]

The part of the country I'm in is in Australia.

Barberpole worm is my guess, since it appears epidemic in sheep around here. Liver fluke too. My sheep's never had a problem with worms, but for some reason every sheep I've seen around here is totally infested. Drug resistance in the parasites I'd guess. I've been dealing with bottlejaw in the ram lamb I bought recently.

Everyone around here scoffs at natural animal keeping methods and think I spoil my animals (ok, maybe I do a little, but I'm aware of the health detriment in actual spoiling as opposed to enabling them to be healthier than absolutely necessary for survival...) but the difference in health between their animals and mine is enough of a reason for me to keep doing it the way I have been, lol.

With a scouring, bloated-bellied, emaciated animal of theirs standing right beside them, they will lecture me on what I'm feeding my animal, which is exhibiting no such health issues. The chasms between philosophies, eh? Whatever works, I say, but it should actually work before you espouse it as the way to go and try to persuade others to do the same. Those who know the least and who have the worst track record seem to have the loudest and firmest opinions on how it should be done.

/Rant over... I can talk, can't I? lol. I know I've got a lot to learn myself. But I dislike it when those who don't have healthy animals lecture me on how to keep mine, and I've been taking a gutful of that lately. >.> They assume the animals being labelled as 'pets' means I don't know anything about keeping the species.

If you ever want to talk to sane shepherds (besides here of course) look up the bulletin community called Sheep-L. It is managed out of Denmark but has a world wide English speaking audience. John Salmon is a man from your neck of the woods who only just retired about a year ago from a life of professional shepherd. He still posts though and lends his expertise to other shepherds. He had a run in about 10 years ago with drug dealers owning an adjacent property and doing things like eating/poaching his sheep and leaving paddocks open. They were burning him in effigy because he wasn't being a doormat about it. He gave us daily updates and let us know if he failed to update they had probably killed him. The local authorities were not giving him any back up. Members of the list started e-bombing the Australian Embassies in outrage and concern that their friend was in danger for his life from this drug gang and no one was willing to help him. Within a week a task force moved in on them and took the drug gang out. I keep telling him he needs to write this into a book. It would make a great movie too.


The power of the Internet is an awesome thing when it is used right. It is this ability to unify people on a planetary level that makes the politicians of all countries itch to control it for they prefer to have us isolated and scared so we are easier to manipulate.

 

[chooks4life]

Thanks for that Penny Hen, sounds like he'd have some really relevant information for me, and more country specific too which always helps, often I end up learning from European shepherding or that of other countries which is not totally relevant to these conditions; UK shepherds in particular seemed to mention at least one, often around 5, different drugs in every single post no matter what the issue was, and even if there wasn't one, LOL! The site sounds very useful too, will check it out.

 

[Penny Hen]

Thanks for that Penny Hen, sounds like he'd have some really relevant information for me, and more country specific too which always helps, often I end up learning from European shepherding or that of other countries which is not totally relevant to these conditions; UK shepherds in particular seemed to mention at least one, often around 5, different drugs in every single post no matter what the issue was, and even if there wasn't one, LOL! The site sounds very useful too, will check it out.

The first year I had sheep, they got pink eye (conjuntivitis). One of the guys on Sheep-L told me the Basque shepherd's remedy is burghandy wine. Put it in a spray bottle and spray eyes. Knocked it out in about 3 days then I marinated steaks with the rest of the wine!

 

[PrettyHorsez]

i have one sheep but i dont think i have any pictures of her.

 

[kuntrygirl]

2014 Babies (so far)

Twins

Single. I'm having to bottle feed this one. 1st time mom rejected him.

Single