Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Lamb, cows, and a guest

The little lamb continues to improve. Yesterday he drank a total of 11 ounces of goat milk, and he started off this morning with five ounces! It took him nearly half an hour, but at least he drank it. No, he still can't hold up his head, which is why I haven't posted a picture. He looks dead just laying in the straw, but then you see his stomach move as he breathes. I do think he's overcoming his distrust of humans, or at least, me. He started to fall asleep in my lap this morning. It was hard to leave him, but cats, Patches and George, were fighting, and I felt I needed to break it up. Last time they got into it, both were walking on only three legs for a couple days.

Monday, Mike noticed Molly standing on the wrong side of the gate in the driveway. Since it's been about three weeks since the last time she got out, I'm thinking this is what she does when she's in heat, unlike Bridget, who just screams, uh, moos, bloody murder for a day or two. I just hope she hasn't figure out how to get in with the Herefords across the road and get herself pregnant. That would not be good, since they are a lot bigger than Dexters.

After getting her into the barn, I put a halter on her. We had to take their halters off a couple months ago, because they were getting too tight, and the next size up was too big. Well, this morning, I saw the halter hanging around Molly's neck. It had slipped off her nose, so apparently it is still too big. I would love to continue with the cow's halter training, but it's kind of hard to do when you can't find halters to fit. I'm getting quite the collection of unused halters.

Today, we were going to have a guest on the blog, but with the lamb taking up so much time, I completely forgot until last night, and you know how it is when company is coming. You need time to get ready and spruce up things. So I contacted her, and she kindly agreed to stop in tomorrow. I'm keeping her identity a secret for now, but I will give you a clue or two. She's an author, and if you like memoirs or goats, you'll love chatting with her. I'll have my post up bright and early Thursday morn, and you'll have the chance to visit with her through the day. And, oh yeah, we might have a couple free books to give away, as well.

5 comments:

Abiga/Karen said...

I can't wait to see who your guest will be. We would all agree here to try to save the lamb. We took our ducks to the vet and would have tried more to save them after the dog attacked them but they were to far gone with maggots. Keep us updated on the cows since we have only a few acres so to raise a smaller cow would make sense here. Blessings.

Heather said...

I know who it is! But I won't tell. :) Loved the book--had me planning an adventure of my own.

Diane@Peaceful Acres said...

I'm waiting anxiously! I'll see you tomorrow. Hope your little lambie is up and romping soon.

CONEFLOWER said...

I'm so happy LambiePi is improving. Do you have any idea what hit him? Happily it hasn't hit any of your other lambs. Are you able to keep him extra warm? So he doesn't have to expend energy just to keep warm. Blankets on him, maybe?

Poor baby.

I'll check in tomorrow again.

Deborah Niemann said...

Considering how pale his eyelids are, my best guess is that it's just a very bad case of internal parasites, a.k.a., worms. I've been thinking of putting him in the barn office where it's heated, but I haven't thought of what could keep him contained if he suddenly gets enough energy to start running around again. Although he probably won't have that much energy whenever he can start to walk or even stand. I had been thinking that he'd just be up and running around again, but now I'm realizing that it's going to be a slower recovery. In the meantime, a blanket would be a good idea. He needs every calorie for rebuilding his muscles! He only drank three ounces tonight, which was a disappointment, but he had 11 earlier in the day, so that's 14 total for the day, which is better than yesterday, although I was hoping to get him up to 16 today. A 2-month-old bottlefed lamb would be drinking 24 ounces, so he has a way to go.

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