Another dog attack on my sheep. Update

chunky monkey

Well-Known Member
May 2, 2007
8,816
6,704
113
Popped down to feed the lambs. Unfortunately is was already dark by the time i got to them. But i always count them to make sure i have the right number. Tonight of all nights i only count 18 not 19. So i get my phone flashlight out and wander round the field. Over in the trees i spot a lamb. I could see the lamb was only stood on 3 legs blood down the outside of the leg. I ring home to get someone to come with transport and help me to get the lame back to home. I managed to catch the lame and had to drag the poor thing 3 legs or not out from under the trees where it hd gone for shelter. It laid down so i just held it till help arrived. My brother had to carry the lamb right across the field nearly 150 metres. Its a good job hes fairly strong she must weigh nearly 40 kgs. He had to keep having a breather. As he was carrying her i realised shed got a massive open hole under her vulva. He ran out of steam so we had to try and walk her the last bit. We loaded her on the back of the truck and i laid her down and pinned my leg over and held her horn so she couldnt get up and jump out as brother drove home.
We get her back home and put her in our sheep trailer with some straw to lay on, whilst we decide what to do.
Further examination she has punture wound on the outside of her front leg. Her front leg is also at least 3 times the size it should be on the inside. I can also see further punture wounds on the inside as well. We spoken to the vet and have administered an antibiotic for tonight. I then look further round the back end and realise she has not one but two massive holes in the skin under the vulva. There not bleeding so whilst its not good to leave open it should stop any fluid building up.

Shes layed down and seems comfortable in the trailer and is best left to quietly relax and de stress from her ordeal for tonight. Being confined she can balance against the walls for support if she stands up. Dont want her moving around too much. Hope it will help the swelling to go down a bit but if she still cant stand on her foot im afraid the outlook is very bleak.
We are going to monitor her overnight and speak further with the vet in the morning who will have to come out but the fact that shes not weight bearing on the bottom of her leg is not looking good. I suspect it could be broken. The swelling is so large on the inside of her front leg that i dont hold out hope on that. Will have a better look in the daylight, it not easy trying to look at wounds under torchlight.

Will also have to go and check the rest of the lambs tomorrow morning to make no others have open wounds on them.
Im so annoyed i have notices on both the styles into the field and on the gate telling people there are sheep in the field and asking them to control there dog. Clearly someone did not take any notice.
 
  • Angry
Reactions: Jessey and Huggy
Popped down to feed the lambs. Unfortunately is was already dark by the time i got to them. But i always count them to make sure i have the right number. Tonight of all nights i only count 18 not 19. So i get my phone flashlight out and wander round the field. Over in the trees i spot a lamb. I could see the lamb was only stood on 3 legs blood down the outside of the leg. I ring home to get someone to come with transport and help me to get the lame back to home. I managed to catch the lame and had to drag the poor thing 3 legs or not out from under the trees where it hd gone for shelter. It laid down so i just held it till help arrived. My brother had to carry the lamb right across the field nearly 150 metres. Its a good job hes fairly strong she must weigh nearly 40 kgs. He had to keep having a breather. As he was carrying her i realised shed got a massive open hole under her vulva. He ran out of steam so we had to try and walk her the last bit. We loaded her on the back of the truck and i laid her down and pinned my leg over and held her horn so she couldnt get up and jump out as brother drove home.
We get her back home and put her in our sheep trailer with some straw to lay on, whilst we decide what to do.
Further examination she has punture wound on the outside of her front leg. Her front leg is also at least 3 times the size it should be on the inside. I can also see further punture wounds on the inside as well. We spoken to the vet and have administered an antibiotic for tonight. I then look further round the back end and realise she has not one but two massive holes in the skin under the vulva. There not bleeding so whilst its not good to leave open it should stop any fluid building up.

Shes layed down and seems comfortable in the trailer and is best left to quietly relax and de stress from her ordeal for tonight. Being confined she can balance against the walls for support if she stands up. Dont want her moving around too much. Hope it will help the swelling to go down a bit but if she still cant stand on her foot im afraid the outlook is very bleak.
We are going to monitor her overnight and speak further with the vet in the morning who will have to come out but the fact that shes not weight bearing on the bottom of her leg is not looking good. I suspect it could be broken. The swelling is so large on the inside of her front leg that i dont hold out hope on that. Will have a better look in the daylight, it not easy trying to look at wounds under torchlight.

Will also have to go and check the rest of the lambs tomorrow morning to make no others have open wounds on them.
Im so annoyed i have notices on both the styles into the field and on the gate telling people there are sheep in the field and asking them to control there dog. Clearly someone did not take any notice.
Oh that's just awful - damn whoever's dog it was! Hope she recovers well, poor wee thing.
 
Shes just got herself up and eaten a little breakfast but still cant tell if the leg is broken. Leg is massive. Shes soaked this morning down her back end where shes wet herself.
Just waiting for the vets to open but in all honesty with the leg the size it is its not looking good.
 
  • Sad
Reactions: Jessey
Only just posted my other comment as i got interupted by the vets ringing whilst writing it.

I went and checked the other sheep first thing and put a note on the gate asking the person responsible to own up.

Been some development too. Mum rang the neighbour who we rent the field off to ask if they knew of any commotion yesterday and it would appear there was. The person whos dog went after the sheep did go across to my neighbour who was actually picking blackberries in the field, but as he was the other side of the field and bushes didnt actually see what happened. He did get the guys number and said he would check them and let him know. He went round the field on his quad and counted 18 sheep, he didnt realise there was 19. She must have run for the trees and he didnt spot her.

He text the guy last night to say that all looked ok. So hes going to let the guy know this morning that all is not well after all. Gentleman did say yesterday that he would pay the bill. So we will see what happens.

Im off to the vets shortly with her. Its a 3/4 hour drive over there.
 
Poor lamby. I hope she can be saved, although from your description, @chunky monkey , it's not sounding good ?

Let's hope the dog owner comes to apologise and takes responsibility for what he's let happen!!
 
  • Like
Reactions: Huggy
Been a long day. Got over to the vets this morning and then had to sit and wait for 1/2 hour as the vet had gone out on call. Then rushed back to go to work, although i had to cancel my morning job, and back home to ride billy, as hes supposed to be on bute trial for a week.

Vet decided not to stitch the holes on her back end. Although large they think its best left open to drain any fluid off. She did clip the wool off and flushed all the wound through to clean it. The skin may well die off, but weve just got to hope it all knits itself back together.
She clipped the front leg as well inside and out so she could see how many holes there were. She cleaned the wounds and dry blood off. Weve sprayed all the wounds with blue spray. Looks like two holes on the outside and one deep one on the inside. Unfortunately there was too much sideways movement in the leg at the elbow joint so it looks as though the teeth sunk in deep enough to sever the tendon, which is also why the wrist joint is completely colapsed. She cant rule out a fracture in the leg, but until the inflammation goes down, and the tendon starts to repair we cant tell. She says the tendon will take 6-8 weeks to heel. That means stuck in the shed on box rest for the next two months. Poor girl.

We gave her a strong dose of anti inflammatory under her skin. Shes still in the sheep trailer which is parked right outside my back door so i can keep popping out to check on her. Ive move the partiition to give her more space to move, and shes got water hay and food in there.
I got in with her just now to give her another antibiotics injection. The anti inflammatory must be working as she jumped up really quickly to try to evade me. I swear shes also straightening the leg more than this morning, although still not putting weight on it. Occasionally she tries to take the weight off her other front leg so puts the weight on her bad leg momentarily, but it just falls over on the wrist. Ive got to give her a week of anti inflammatory and antibiotics and see how she goes.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Jessey
How awful. Poor, poor sheep.

Bastard dog man person. (sorry, I could not imagine how anyone could let their dog chase sheep - make that bill enormous, please).
It can happen very easily. My friend had her dog killed, she was loading it into the car at a country park where she had just walked it, a deer ran past and the two dogs jumped out the car before she could secure them and ran after the deer. She managed to find out what happened to them. They didn't attack sheep but the farmer hog tied one with barbed wire and thrown into the back of the vehicle and the other one was run over and dragged along the road behind the vehicle and thrown into the midden. She got them both back, and took them to the vet. Neither had any blood in their mouths or on their coat - other than their own in the case of the one that had almost every bone in its body broken and skin flayed off. The one she got back alive had lots of wounds from the barbed wire and never fully recovered and was traumatised for the rest of its life. None of the sheep were injured though of course the dogs being there alone is enough for them to be shot (not run over and dragged though) and she accepted full responsibility for the dogs being out of control. She was prosecuted and fined, and never got over what happened to her dogs. Just a dreadful accident that could happen to anyone. I hope your sheep recovers and has no lasting damage.
 
I think when identifiable teeth marks are found in a sheep, the owner should safely assume that the dogs had chased, attacked and bitten sheep.

every case is different and this one is unforgivable.
of course this is, when our poodle went off after a deer in woodland - no sheep anywhere nearby - my worst fear was that he would get lost, stray into sheep fields trying to find his way back and be killed. He no longer is off the lead in woodland and only in very very safe places. My own sheep chase HIM.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Huggy
The farmer should have shot them if tjey were worrying the sheep, yes. I hope he rots in hell for what he did.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Frances144
It horrifies me how many people can't or won't control their dogs. Out riding it seems they fall into two definite groups, the ones who call their well trained dogs back and often pop them on a lead too, and the ones with no recall who instead can get nasty with the rider - after all if we weren't there then their dog wouldn't be able to chase us and snap. I get that dogs aren't robots, but if they don't have reliable recall then for everyone's safety they should be kept on a lead.
 
Making slow progress. She's definately feeling more energetic.
Slow progress on the front leg. Still very hot and swollen, although its gone down a bit. Shes also rested it straight a couple of times. But still not able to walk or weight bare on it. Cant risk a support bandage yet on the foot as its still far too much swelling.
Back end looks a bit gunky. Sprayed again with blue spray.
She on antiinflames now every other day till tuesday.
Weve taken her down to the farmyard tonight and put her in a small shed. So shes got more movement than being in the trailer.
 
It horrifies me how many people can't or won't control their dogs. Out riding it seems they fall into two definite groups, the ones who call their well trained dogs back and often pop them on a lead too, and the ones with no recall who instead can get nasty with the rider - after all if we weren't there then their dog wouldn't be able to chase us and snap. I get that dogs aren't robots, but if they don't have reliable recall then for everyone's safety they should be kept on a lead.
I've been pretty fortunate, I suppose because the local's dogs are all used to there being cows, ponies and donkeys, that they're not usually a problem. A few people bung their dogs straight on the lead if they see a rider, because some dogs never get used to ridden horses, for some reason.
 
Don't get me wrong, some are lovely. After Little Un got chased and bitten by a small dog he was quite jumpy for a while and one day coming across a couple of small dogs on a lead he got very agitated when one started barking. The gentleman was very apologetic and I said to him it wasn't his fault it was just he'd been bitten by a small dogs a couple of weeks ago and hadn't got over it yet and I was sorry if his prancing and snorting was winding his dogs up. Bless him, the next day when he saw us he tied up the noisy one and picked up the other and brought over so Little Un could have a look safely and be calm about it, then when he was ok put her down but kept her close to heel and just stood chatting. It really helped, and was so very kind of him - we still chat and Little Un now is oblivious to the yappy bouncy dog :)
 
  • Love
  • Like
Reactions: Jessey and Huggy
Just a little update, to say all is looking good. Lamb is making good progress. Holes in the back end are almost closed up. Still weeping a bit though.
Front leg is now bearing weight. Still some swelling, but you almost can't see the lameness.
She's eating well, but has lost weight being in.
Couple of days of wet weather forecast but hoping after that I can turn her back out in the field with her friends.
 
Just a little update, to say all is looking good. Lamb is making good progress. Holes in the back end are almost closed up. Still weeping a bit though.
Front leg is now bearing weight. Still some swelling, but you almost can't see the lameness.
She's eating well, but has lost weight being in.
Couple of days of wet weather forecast but hoping after that I can turn her back out in the field with her friends.
good news, it always takes a long time for wounds to heal
 
newrider.com