He's back

I went to check on Abraham this morning. Brought the bottle of Valbazen with me. And more minerals. He still has the knot under his jaw. I wonder if I am giving him enough.

Then I had to go to Tractor Supply. Found some electrolytes with vitamins and minerals. Got some. While I was standing in line, the guy behind me asked how my sheep were. It was the guy I got my 1st three ewes from. The Katahdin-Dorper ewes last June. I asked him if they were having problems with worms. He said no, that they rotate pastures. I said I did too. But am having such a hard time getting them under control.

Then it hit me. They only have hair sheep. My hair sheep are fine. The only sheep having a hard time with the worms are the Finn sheep. The wool sheep. I hadn't even thought about that til just then. It's Lucinda, the black ewe, and Darla, who is Abraham's mother. She is half Finn and half Suffolk. And Abraham, who is mostly Finn. And I got both Darla and Lucinda from the same place. Hmmm.

So now I am wondering if I want to just use the 2 hair sheep rams to breed the ewes next. And not use Abraham at all. I don't want to pass down his bad genes. I need to go ahead and just butcher him in the fall-winter. And maybe not have any more wool sheep. Just the ones I have now. But not breed for wool, just meat.

I brought Abraham back home with me. He's in the back yard with my buck, John Henry. I mixed up a pail of electrolyte water for him. And I'll go ahead and  give hime a little more wormer tonight. He seems to do better in the mornings and nights. These wool sheep don't like this heat at all.

I have a lot to think about. But that has hit me like a ton of bricks.

Abraham #0001

                             This is Abraham when he was just a few weeks old. He was so black.

                                This is him now. All reddish and huge with the black face and legs.

And he's sick. I took the 3 ram lambs to a friend's   place to eat down her garden area. They have eaten most everything in a little over 2 weeks. So I brought them some sheep feed and sunflower seeds and alfalfa pellets. She's been giving them minerals too. But I thought they might need something else. I noticed Abraham was a little droopy and hanging back from the others. Not his usual friendly self. Then I noticed the lump under his jaw. Again. I had wormed them all before I took them there. The other 2 look fine.

So today I made a list of what all to take to them. I stopped and got penicillan since mine was way out dated. Some syringes. Some thiamine. I have Valbazen and some Ivermectin. But didn't have any Cydectin. So stopped at the feed store to get that. Plus some ACV for their water. Got there and we fed them and I got Abraham and gave him Ivermectin and Cydectin orally. Then gave him a shot of pen. and thiamine. She also made a bucket of molasses, salt and baking soda and he drank a lot of that.

I called just now to check on him and she said he was up and eating and drank a lot of the molasses water. I'm going back to town in the morning and i'll go by and check on him again. I left 2 syringes of penicillan for my friend to give him every other day. I hope he makes it.

Any of you with sheep, have you been dealing with lots of worms and mineral deficiancies? It's been abd here. And with the goats. If you have any idea of what else to do for him, please tell me. I am open to any suggestions. I just want him to be ok. And why aren't the other 2 rams doing this as well? I went ahead and wormed them too with Cydectin. So it's been a little over 2 weeks when I wormed them before. Maybe too late?

Going out for dinner

Out to the garden, that is! I picked squash, red and purple peppers, cucumbers, tomatoes, okra, peas. And that's dinner for tonight. Plus some cantaloupe from my friend's garden. It's so nice just to go outside and pick dinner. Or lunch. And so much better than store bought. I just wish everyone could go out for dinner like this.