This is our darling "Grace," she was the second lamb born on our ranch if you count the first set of twins as one! Her mama is a Suffolk, her daddy a beautiful Jacob ram named "Patch." "Grace" has his gorgeous blaze down her nose but the hump on her back???? Neither her mama nor daddy have this congenital "thing."
"Grace" was born on March 13, 07 at 12 a.m. She weighed 8 pounds. When I found her she was under a feeder curled up in her lambing jug almost smilin'. Her mama was standing near-by. As I gathered my lambing kit from inside the ol' homestead (all the while excited we had our first ewe lamb!), I mentioned to "the man," "we have a new lamb get up!" When we both walked back out to the barn together, and entered the lambing jug, we realized something was terribly wrong with this little girl. When I knelt to gather her up in my arms to inspect her she couldn't stand, she was shivering (even though mama had cleaned her real well), her little legs would just collapse under her weight, they also looked somewhat deformed. After taking her temperature we knew she was in the stages of hypothermia, a life threatening disorder. We pulled her from her mother(which is very, very stressful for a ewe) and took her inside the ol' homestead to warm her up.
Dealing with a hypothermic lamb is a long, arduous task. First and foremost you must warm the lamb by putting them in a sink or tub of warm water, then we give our lambs an enema, this is an important step in dealing with hypothermia. The enema removes any meconium not yet evacuated from the gut of the lamb. Failing to remove the meconium causes dehydration and a spiralling downward of the lamb's temperature. The enema also helps to warm the lamb from the inside out. The next step is what we call Dextrose Therapy, preceded by a SQ (subcutaneous) injection of Vitamin B Complex, the Cal-Dextro we use is loaded with calcium, phosphorus, and magnesium. We had to inject the little thing with 2 cc per 1 pound of her body weight. Injecting many shots into a newborn is very difficult, but as a shepherd, you have to overlook the "youngness/cuteness" and go into the "saving" mode. This is not for everyone, shepherds are a special breed of people.
Our next step in this process is Vitamin Therapy, we give the lamb Vitamin A&D, Vitamin E, Procaine Penicillin and of course the B vitamins. Once we can start to see the little lamb responding to our efforts, we see if she can take warm colostrum milked from the ewe, placed in a bottle. Everyone knows how critical colostrum is to a human baby, it's the same in the animal kingdom, it's the best for them.
"MG" our Miraculous Grace, did indeed turn around and start responding, it took "the man" and myself nearly ten hours to pull her around..............but she did it, she had a will like no lamb I've seen since. However, she still could not stand on her own, her legs were "mufflefunked!" It was very frustrating for us, how was she going to go back out to her mother if she couldn't stand and nurse? How was she going to keep up with the others? There was only one thing I could do, I would have to keep her indoors in a crib, by the wood stove, and get up every few hours to let her nurse off her mother. "Grace" would cry (like any baby in the nighttime), I would get up, dress, take her out to the barn, tether the mama, and hold her on tit until she was full. After four days of this intense nurturing, she began to bare weight on two of her four legs. Eventually, she would put weight on one front leg but ever so lightly. It was then that I made the decision to put her out with her mama. I knew she would thrive better with her own than with us.
So..........I put our crippled baby out in the barn for good, it was one of the hardest things I've had to do. She had to hop everywhere mama went because naturally she followed. She hopped to nurse, she hopped when she'd first stand, she'd hop to lie down. It was also very hard for her to lie down with those two front legs crippled up, but she did it. After about a month our little "MG" started walking on all fours, mind you, you could still tell something was wrong with her legs, but she did it.
I can not tell you as a shepherdess how much joy and sadness raising sheep brings to a human. I naturally bonded deeply with this little lamb, she was my everything for a long time. I was her surrogate mother. To leave her in the hands of her own mother, GOD, and nature was hard but I did it.
"Grace" is still not a "normal" little ewe, she "Baas" differently than the others, she's small for her breed, she's shy and non-confrontational with the others, she's had to learn to look out for herself and she's done so very well. BUT, she's also a lil' outlaw which brings me back to my story.
Lately "Grace" has definitely decided that the "grass is greener on the other side." Every evening when I head out to the barn to feed I fill my cart with the BEST alfalfa I can find (which is a real challenge at times). I open the iron gate into the covered portion of the barn, fight off all the young lambs from this years crop, mamas, the Nubian goat,"Blue," and turn around to close the gate just in time to see "her heinous" stroll right out the gate into the big, free, yonder. I commence with the chore and let her go.
"Grace" has always come to her name, although she's not overly fond of lovies and hugs, and rightly so. She's afraid I'm going to give her a shot, an enema, a shearing or something "not so fun," but she comes to me. So when she's done having her little jaunt out in the BIG world I call her, she comes and loads right back into the barn. It's her special little treat and I allow it.
Now I've had a lot of people tell me I should just "put her down." I won't, I can't and I'm ever so thankful that "the man" knows this. It's a special bond the lamb and I share, we love each other, we respect each other, and I can't say you can get that in many relationships anymore.
"MG" will have a pasture, fresh food, fresh water, vitamins, shearings, the wild, for as long as she lives. She adds much to my life, they all do in one way or another, but she is one of my favorites.
The Shepherd's Lament
Now I lay me down to sleep
Exhausted by those doggone sheep;
My only wish is that I might
Cause them not to lamb at night.
I wouldn't mind the occasional ewe,
But lately it's more than just a few:
Back into bed, then up again,
At two o'clock and four a.m.....
They grunt and groan with noses high,
And in between a mournful sigh,
We stand there watching nature work,
Hoping there won't be a quirk:
A leg turned back, or even worse,
A lamb that's coming in reverse.
But once they've lambed we're glad to see
That their efforts didn't end in tragedy.
There's no emotion so sublime
As a ewe and lamb that's doing fine.
I'm often asked why I raise sheep,
With all the work and loss of sleep;
The gratification gained at three a.m.,
From the birth of another baby lamb-
How can you explain, or even show?
'Cause only a shepherd will ever know!
