Chunky Monkey gang

Billy having a 'bad hair day'

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Bad day all round. Tried to treat a lame ewe. Unfortunately shes not one thats been handled so wild as wild can be. Tied her to the gate in the field. She throws herself up in the air, at the gate multiple times trying to break her legs. Because she threw herself around the halter unbeknown to me got tighter and tighter under her chin. She stood so i proceeded to foot dip her back leg. Next thing shes collapsing her back end onto the floor. I look at her front end and realised she was now hanging. I quickly untied the lead, released the tension under the throat. She literally drops her head down into my lap. I really thought she was dead. Im massaging her throat, neck and chest, she throws her head up in the air, gasping. Her tongue was blue as blue. In all my years ive never had one that close to death. Its why i hate trying to do anything with unhandled sheep on my own. Eventually she recovered enough. Suddenly jumped up, and bolted across the field. Her lameness can wait till i can enlist some more help. Im not attempting to treat that nut job again on my own.
In trying to deal with her i somehow also winded myself. I ended up lying in the field till the pain in my side subsided.

Then to top my day off, Roger the ram has fly strike. I had to call a friend to come and help me. We had fun trying to catch him. No chance. In the end we walked them right up to the top of the field. Pinned all the boys in the corner between the fence and hayrack. As soon as i got close and got hold of Rogers horn and he was very docile. Looked at his head and apart from wet and some scaring round the base of the ear couldnt see a single thing. But i knew something was seriously wrong as he'd been laying away from the other boys. I applied some fly treatment on his head and suddenly it came alive. Hundreds of maggots started crawling out the hair on the top of his head. They had clearly burrowed into the skin. We were literally scraping them off.
The fly treatment should kill all the maggots but i supect his hair is going to fall out. They were all treated with fly prevention 6 weeks ago but its on its limits for lasting effectiveness. It just shows what mild weather we are having. Wouldnt normally need to retreat at this time of year.
 
It’s so gross when maggots do that, yuk! Glad the ewe was ok! Bet she won’t fight the halter next time!
I bet she will. Shes an 18 month old teenager. So not lambed, so no maternal or mature brain cells. Other than to die!!!!!!!!! It really did frighten me yesterday. I never realised how easy it was to kill a sheep. Another 10 seconds i think she would have been gone.

One one of the down sides to not giving them feed everyday. They are quieter when feed.
Ive tried this year to do the sheep off grass instead of buying in food. Its so expensive now. Ive token feed everyday for 20 years. Ive cut back on sheep numbers to allow for more grass and hope its enough. I make such a loss on the sheep its not worth the effort. With spiralling feed costs and all the other overheads i have to find a way to be more self sufficient. So ive decided to try doing off grass where possible. They will get hard feed when the weather hits and at lambing time. Theres plenty of grass currently and i have plenty of hay in the barn.
Shes still alive. Bad news is the little bit of treatment she got isnt enough. Shes still lame. Not horrific so im happy to leave it a few days. My friend might have to come and help with the ram again so i will get some help with her too. Im not strong enough to put them on the floor myself. Its all in the technique supposedly. Adam Henson makes it look easy in the tv. I can only put the light weights down.

Ram still looks subdued, couldnt actually catch him this morning but got close enough to check him. The treatment he got yesterday will keep killing any new hatching maggots for several weeks. So theres not much more i can do currently. I expect hes got one hell of a sore head. It depends how far under the skin the maggots got, as to how much damage there really is.
Hes not mixing with his mates. So if he does start mixing it will indicate if hes feeling better. Its one of the reasons i realised he wasnt right. Again its the downside of not feeding. You cant get close enough to sheep. In 4 weeks hes due to go in with his ladies. So if that doesnt perk him up, nothing will.
 
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Hopefully your friend can help you get both sorted 🤞

A lot of people around here have done similar to reduce costs, putting out fodder beet is a common thing here as it’s cheap.
 
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