Going back and forth

[Deleted]

Some of you may remember the trouble Nomo had when kidding out this past March. Unknown to us, she had contracted meningeal worm, and was unable to move for the last three weeks of her pregnancy, and two weeks post-partum. We finally got her up and moving, and while she will never be the same, she is a heckuva lot better now, and has good quality of life.

That said, she will never be able to be bred again, and I don't even know if she'll make it through the Winter. We keep going back and forth between putting her down and keeping her on to see if she improves.

<sigh>

[Bear Foot Farm]

If she's a "pet" make her as comfortable as possible and see how long she lasts.

If you bought her to provide milk or meat, cut your losses and replace her with a healthy animal before she starts to suffer

[shellymay]

Had a ewe and went through the same exact thing, my ewe was preggo when she caught Meningeal worm, we
treated her with clear wormers (white wormers will cause abortions) I treated her with many doses of clear wormer
to try to kill off the M worm, like yours she was unable to get up or walk, but over time she learned to get back
up, soooooooooo many falls learning to walk again, (was sure babies wouldn't be born alive as she fell on her
sides numerous amount of times) But she did lamb and gave birth to a pair of healthy twins, of course she couldn't
nurse them as they would knock her off balance and down she would go, so we bottle raised babies.......


BUT, winter was real tough on her as when the ground would freeze she would trip on the frozen tractor tire marks, you
know how it is thaw freeze thaw freeze, also when the lce would come on the wet snows would freeze, she again
would slide and slip and FALL, so this was inhumane to make her live like this, so we gave her to my DH's brother and
he slaughtered her for burger....My heart just couldn't watch her suffer when weather was bad

NOW here is something I don't read much about on this forum, there are a lot of hungry people out there, some just
not as fortunate as others, but would love some meat for there freezer for the winter months, so you could reach out
and offer her to someone that would appreciate the meat/food more then you will ever know and the end of her life
would be valued so much by someone else.....also not sure if you need meat for your freezer, burger would be best
for an older ewe......

BUT, if you wanted to keep her around she would need to be on dry ground and out of snow and ice or she will just have
a hard time of it, getting to hay in winter and trying to fight off the others to get her share at hay feeder is rough on
them, so hay and water would have to be something she would need her own area for......

Sorry about your girl and I wish I was able to give you an answer that she will heal up fine and be good to go but once
they have damage done they rarely go back to being more then 60-75% normal, I am thankful that mine was able to
feed a family, and that I don't cry when I see her not being able to fight for her food and losing.

[Deleted]

Update on Nomo:

She's actually looking pretty good. A couple of times, I was ready to write her off, but Nick just wanted to keep trying. Here we are, a month later, and I cannot believe the difference in her! Her coat is slick and shiny, and she rarely stumbles.

We didn't breed her this year - still don't think she could stand, and not sure she would make it through the Winter pregnant - but darned if I don't have hold out the same hope as Nick. He thinks we may be able to breed her next year.

Of course, by that time, she will be as firmly ensconced as a pet as her mother, so... :roll eyes: There are worse things than pets on the farm.

[shellymay]

Right on you are about the pet comment   We have six retired sheep at the home site, all they do
is mow grass and are big pets...lol (well this year I am going to bring one out of retirement and breed
her, long story).

Glad to hear your girl is still around and doing so much better  

[manygoatsnmore]

That's wonderful, @pony. Maybe she can just earn her keep cleaning up brush or something?

[here to stay]

It's so good to hear shexs doing so well. I hope she has an easy winter.