Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Yesterday was a challenging day

Yesterday morning started with seeing a sheep in the paddock behind us (or rather not the one directly behind us, but he one behind that) on her side and kicking with her legs.  On the weekend the farmer asked if we could just keep an eye on the sheep and if we saw one on its side to help her up and see if they can keep moving.  Right now they are all pregnant and so soon there will be little lambs :-).  The guy next to us is also helping the farmer looking after them, but I think we have a clearer view of them. 

So I walked to the sheep and I tried to roll it back onto its tummy and oh my word!  She is heavy.  But I sort of got her onto her tummy and she was sitting like that with her head up. 

I came home called the rental agent (because I don't have anybody else's numbers) and asked her to ask the farmer if there is anything else I need to do, I can't physically lift her, she's too heavy. 

Later on I saw the guy next door looking at her and working on getting her up and I got some water which the sheep drank.  But no matter how hard we tried, she just won't actually stand up.  And as he said - she has to want to stand up.

So we faced her uphill to make it easier than downhill in case she does try to stand by herself, made sure she wasn't actually lying on her feet and I promised I would get back after 3 with some more water.

So later on came back with water and I had to sort of walk right around the other sheep who by now were at the top of that paddock.  She was still in same position as we left her, but not interested in any water.  As I sat there trying to get the sheep to drink water I noticed how all these other sheep started looking at me and baa-ing.  And it felt freaky.  Almost like any moment now they were going to start chasing me or something.  Ridiculous I know since they are more wary of me than I am of them, but this is thanks to the movie "Black Sheep" Terence once watched where I saw snippets. 

This morning?  It looks like she's on her way out :-(.  Not fun.  I guess this is the not so fun part of being a farmer.  I phoned the guy next door, not sure what if anything I could / should do and I don't want to stay there and cause further distress so now I'm waiting for him to call me back.  But I'm guessing he is going to say there is nothing more we can do :-(.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh no! Can't someone call a vet?
Bridget

Lea White said...

I don't know sheep at all Bridget, but I sent message to the guy who is helping the farmer and I'm sure they'll handle it. I understood it is something to do with the weight of the pregnancy and the wool, etc. Maybe even that there are other complications. I don't know. I don't know if the guy was there after I was there yesterday afternoon because the sheep is currently out of sight from our house.

Marcelle said...

Shame I feel for you having to deal with all that emotionally.