Tag: flock health

Tending the Flock

Sheeps & Peeps5 Comments

Over the weekend, we brought the ewes and lambs from the paddock near the knoll back to the barn for CD+T vaccinations and FAMACHA checks.  We brought them through a moving lane on the outside of the perimiter fence as that was the easiest and shortest route.  We had one lamb escapee, but it ran alongside and found its way back in before we got everyone in to the barn.  All the lambs had full bellies, and they and the ewes were ‘all present and accounted for’.  We only had to treat one lamb (which may have been stress from getting its head stuck in a wire panel) and one ewe; praying that the rest of the summer goes as well!  

When we finished, we made the return trip back to the knoll paddock where we had oats and corn waiting in the feeders and vinegar in the watering trough.  By the way, we bought our first shepherd’s crook this spring, and we honestly don’t know how we ever got along without it.  We bought a fiberglass one since it would be lighter; such a great investment!

We also moved Belladonna to the large adjoining paddock.  She is very excited and happy to be right next to her charges, and she has a very large space to patrol.  There are squirrels to tree, and all kinds of new things to explore.
Samson continues to guard the barn paddock where we hope to encourage Mr. Foxey Loxey to develop new stalking grounds.  He is also guarding the yearlings and the triplets but more about that tomorrow.

It’s Here!

Sheeps & Peeps7 Comments

Well, according to that ticker up there at the top of the blog – IT’S HERE!  Lambing season officially begins, and after watching that ticker move ever so slowly over the past month, it honestly feels as if there should be some kind of bells and whistles or maybe even fireworks!  Barn and field checks are now more frequent, and the first things that are noticed are the bulging bellies and swelling udders.  Yes, lambing time is here.  Don’t be too disappointed if the lambs do not begin hitting the ground immediately.  Sometimes it takes our girls a few days to get into the swing of things.

Following our post mentioning the addition of raw apple cider vinegar to the watering trough, Dori had some questions which we will attempt to answer here.  We usually add a 32 oz bottle to the 50 gallon watering trough which we fill to about the 3/4 mark or about an ounce or so to a 5 gallon bucket.  We try to use unpasturized, unfiltered vinegar such as this, but sometimes have a hard time finding it.  We use it to promote general health, to combat heat stress, and we also use it as a drench to combat diarreah.  We rarely use it during the winter unless someone looks like they need a little ‘pick-me-up’.
There are many different resources that promote the use of vinegar:
Laurie Ball-Gisch wrote an excellent article on heat stress for ‘sheep!’ magazine.  She also shares her ‘vinegar miracle’ on her wonderful website, Lavender Fleece, and has a lot of information about her experiences with vinegar including a study done in New Zealand.   Pectin and enzymes are among the things mentioned as the reason that raw ACV seems to help many different conditions. 
More information can be found in “Natural Sheep Care” by Pat Coleby.  I think it is also mentioned in “The Complete Herbal Handbook for Farm and Stable” by Juliete de Bairacli Levi but I cannot put my hands on either of the two copies we have, at the moment.
(Please remember, that this something that works for us, but may not work in your particular situation.)