Farm Doctor

As I’ve been thinking about this posting, I told Peg I would need some time and “separation” before putting it up. I think I’m ready.

Back on the morning of November 9^th, while giving the sheep their grain breakfast, we noticed that Calvin seemed to be limping a little. Hmmm. Something to keep our eyes on. Later that day, I travelled to Chicago and Milwaukee and would be gone til Sunday afternoon. This would be the first time Peg has been on the farm alone.

Sunday morning, Peg sent me this text, “calvin’s foot it (sic) worse”, to which I replied, “Darn. Maybe we can fix him tonight.”

I got home to find Calvin really was favoring his front hooves. He would lie down A LOT. We checked his hooves for scent gland problems, foot rot, but couldn’t really find anything.  After no improvement Monday morning, Peg called the vet. She said she’d be by sometime around 2 pm. Oh, and on top of this, Danny was limping, too. By coincidence, both were definitely favoring their front right hooves.

The vet diagnosed that Calvin had an abscess that needed to drain (probably a puncture wound that had gotten plugged up and infected) and Danny had dermatitis. Prescription – soak each hoof in warm water and betadine or iodine (add epsom salts for Calvin) for 10-15 minutes twice a day. AND give each 1 cc of penicillin by injection into a muscle. For a week. Oh, and the vet said the soaking is a two-person job.

Oh to have a camera to capture the look on Peg’s face when she heard all this.  She was about two hours away from heading to LA for the week. Whatever – we’d figure something out.

We immediately set out to give the first injections.  I held each guy down while Peg did the honors – that was her first time injecting our flock. Then she had to jump on a conference call. Later, I said, “OK, let’s go try the foot soaking.” To which she replied something like, “I have another conference call, and then I have to hit the road for Boston.” No problem, since I was going to be on my own for the week anyway, might as well figure it out from the start.

Those first soakings were very difficult.  Basically I would kneel on the barn floor with my arms around one of the boys, and hold his right foot in the pail of water. I would try to make sure I knew what time it was when we started, and then basically prayed to get to 10 minutes. The injections weren’t all that hard. I quickly learned how to get my arms around all four legs and then just kind of push them over on their sides. They stay pretty calm in that position (with me on top of them). I take a syringe out of my jacket pocket, pop off the protective top, and let them have it in the rear leg (morning – left, evening – right).

The morning/evening ritual started with me trying to get Calvin in the left side of the barn and close the small door and Danny in the right side and close the large door. The first few times took more than a few tries.

By about the third soaking, I started to figure things out and they got easier.  Instead of wrestling with the sheep, I penned them in a corner of the barn, lifted the right foot into the bucket, and leaned against the critter to kind of prevent them from taking the foot out. I started using the stop watch feature on my wristwatch. I would sing and talk and pet them to pass the time.

Thursday afternoon – thinking I’m really getting the hang of it – I literally lost a needle in a haystack – actually the hay that is all over the barn floor.  After injecting Calvin (I always did Calvin first – both for soaking and injections – I figured it would be less stressful if he didn’t have to watch and wait), I put the 2nd syringe in my pocket, wrestled Danny to the ground, and reached into the pocket to get NOTHING! It fell out! Now I know why they make the needle cover bright pink – it only took me about 2-3 minutes to find it, and then start all over again with Danny.

As the week wore on, each of the boys figured out things at their own pace, but getting them in the barn got easier every time. By the end of the week, Danny basically walked straight into the barn. I used a broom as my shepherd’s crook.

The last couple days, Calvin would actually walk over behind me while I was soaking Danny’s foot. Sort of like he was my assistant. Also, I was getting up to 15 minutes with him on his soaking.  At the end, once we’d reach “time”, I would step away from him.  As much as a minute would pass before he took his foot out of the bucket.

Peg came home Friday evening, and got to witness my “rounds” the next morning (see the photo gallery). On Sunday, looking at Danny’s improvement, she suggested stopping his soakings.  Monday morning, we also skipped Calvin’s last soaking, but we made sure each guy got all their shots.

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A few weeks later now, both seem to be doing well. The vet did say that Calvin might not be completely better for a month.  But both are trotting around. That being said, we try to pay particular attention to how each of our sheep are getting around. Danny seemed to be favoring his left front leg yesterday, but seemed fine today.

Todd