Baaah

[altivo]

No weaving done today. Went into Chicago with Gary to go shopping for his mom, shovel her snow, have Chinese takeout food for lunch with her. Then he did animal care while I went for our own groceries, and we had dinner and went for assorted cheaper items at the evil W place.

We have a sick sheep. Shaun, our original ram, is getting old and has been slowing down for a while. I've been attributing his slow movement in cold weather to arthritis and the temperature, but it seems there may be more. Today he was down and would not get up. Seems alert enough, and eats if you bring the food to him, but even if we pull him to his feet, he doesn't seem able to stand.

We got a towel under him and lifted him to make him walk to the lambing pen, where he is still able to see and hear the other sheep but they can't trample him or take all the food away from him. He shifts positions, and moves around the pen, but we still haven't seen him actually get up. Gary turned the heat lamps on at one end so he should be more comfortable for a while at least, but I've got a feeling we can't save him unless he gets up again.

I knew this was coming, and can accept it, but Gary's having a hard time with it. I had no idea he was so attached to this old sheepie, but he is, almost like with a dog.

Comments

[felder.livejournal.com]

Awww, I'm really sorry to hear about your sheepie hon. *hugs tight* I hope he does get to feeling better, but how old is he?

*snuggles*

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Shaun's about nine years old. He's a miniature breed, and just as with dogs and horses, I imagine the miniature sheep are more prone to systemic problems.

He still has an appetite, and stuff goes through normally, but in spite of our best efforts, we can't get him very interested in standing and walking. I'm afraid he won't last long at this rate.

It's all part of life and nature of course, and we can only intervene up to a point. My mate is taking it hard, though. He's a friendly sheep and likes people because he was bottle fed as a lamb. That makes it easier to see him as an individual, unlike most of the others we have who are just part of the flock.

[farhoug.livejournal.com]

Hopefully he'll get a second wind, it's sad to see such a nice sheep in that condition...

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Unlikely, but there's a slight chance of a recovery if the weather improves. I was told in my animal husbandry classes that "a sick sheep is a dead sheep" and that usually seems to be the case. They lose their will to live, quit eating, and just die. Diagnostic methods are rudimentary, beyond identifying parasites and infectious diseases like hoof and mouth. There are no symptoms of anything like that. I think it's either old age with possible kidney failure or else an injury of some sort, probably to the spine.

[saythename.livejournal.com]

I commented on teh sheepy in another of your posts.

I like how Gary takes care of his mom.

I like how his mom wants take out Chinese. XD

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Heh. She was telling us how she associates Chinese restaurant food with her Aunt Val (short for Valentia, but pronounced "Wall") who died years ago but I did know her a little which makes the story that much more believable.

When Gary's mom was a young teen, Aunt Val used to take her to downtown Chicago to the movies. That would have been late 30s or early 40s, when movies were still big productions shown on a huge screen in giant movie palaces with pipe organs and stage acts at intermission. Chicago had a whole string of those around State and Lake Streets, The Oriental, The Chicago, The Woods, and several more. (All but two of them have been completely torn down now.) They'd take the elevated train, have lunch at a Chinese place, go to an afternoon show, have dinner at another Chinese place, and go to an early evening show before heading back home. I can easily imagine what a big event that would have been coming out of the Depression, before there was television and all that.

[cabcat.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry to hear about your Ram, it's like any creature you're close to, when the reality hits home that their health is failing and there's nothing you can really do it does affect you.