(2/28/16) Hooves, Baas, La-La-La

February 28th, 2016

I'm apparently channeling my inner child today - as I was considering a title for this post, and thinking about the topic for said post, I suddenly remembered the delightful Sandra Boynton book, Moo, Baa, La La La:

When my children were little, we were HUGE fans of the Sandra Boynton board books, and I have to admit that my husband and I can still recite about 90% of The Going To Bed Book! Thank you to Sandra Boynton for years of awesome stories!!  But I digress...as I'm sure you're used to by now!

For the last few weeks, I had noticed something odd about Panda Bear's gait - she wasn't limping exactly, but it was like her front hooves were taking little mincing steps. I kept a close eye on her to make sure it didn't worsen - it didn't, but it never improved either. So I thought about calling the vet, but then wondered if it couldn't wait until April's shearing, when her hooves would be trimmed up. But then something else changed and this couldn't wait - she lost her voice.  No kidding - she went from being the loudest sheep to barely being able to croak out a baa. That same day my daughter heard her cough, and I went into full-blown panic mode. It wasn't like a cud-chewing cough - it was different. So I wasted no time in calling our vet's office to see when they could come out - and that very afternoon, Dr. Smith and her vet tech assistant came out to check on our girl.

I think I've sung the praises of our farm vet in previous blog posts, but I can't express my gratitude to her enough. I've heard and read so many stories from shepherds who don't have a vet close by to help them - or if they do, their local large-animal vet is only really familiar with cows and horses. So to have this resource right here in town is just miraculous! Dr. Smith knows how new I am to shepherding, and she takes the time to explain everything she is doing. She spent a great deal of time listening to Panda Bear breathe - listening to her digestive tract work - and then actually taking a big sniff inside PB's mouth to smell for "death" - I kid you not. She was smelling for necrotic laryngitis, which is BAD, and fortunately, she did not smell death. But PB did cough while she was there, so she knew that something was up - it could have been the start of pneumonia, or she could have swallowed something that hurt her throat.

She then moved onto the hooves - the back hooves looked great, but both of the front hooves had mud packed into the hoof wall, and one of them was pretty overgrown - which could definitely cause that funny little mincing step she had developed. I was actually a bit worried about foot rot as somebody in the Icelandic sheep owners group on Facebook had recently mentioned this - but Dr. Smith trimmed back, dug out the mud, and couldn't find any infection - thank goodness!!

So once all of this was finished, we talked about treatment options for the coughing/sore throat situation. Dr. Smith recommended LA 200, which is a great broad-spectrum antibiotic for livestock. Poor Panda Bear - temperature taken, mouth opened, hooves messed with, then shots to boot! She was quite happy to be let out of the barn once we were finished, and her siblings were relieved to see her as well. During the examination, we could hear Black Velvet nibbling on the barn, right on the other side of the wall from where Panda Bear was pinned, and Mikey was playing with the latch on the gate - they were VERY curious and concerned as to why their sister was locked up away from them!

The next day we noticed a difference in her walking - much less mincing and more of a normal gait. But the big news was when she talked to me - with a big loud BAAAAAAAAAA!! In fact, as I sat here writing this post, my daughter went to the kitchen, looked out the window at the three wooly faces, and I heard Panda Bear, loud and clear - BAAAAAAAAAA! It's a good day at Blaine Fleece and Fiber - the sheep are healthy, spring is coming, and Panda Bear's got her baa back!

If you haven't done so yet, be sure to check out Blaine Fleece and Fiber on Ravelry, and come join us for March Madness - a celebration of the Trio all turning 8 this year!  I hope you're having a wonderful day - thanks so much for reading!