Broken Legs on Sheep and Goats

We have had our share of broken legs on the farm.  In the past two years, we have had five animals with broken legs.

Our first happened with a doeling that lost its mama and was being bottle raised at the house.  My husband was moving a vehicle and did not realize the doeling was under the SUV.  She broke the bottom half of her leg in half as well as shattered part of the hock.  I was faced with a very difficult decision:  The vet recommended putting her down....my son assuring me she could live.  I decided to go with my son since the doeling was only three months old and I knew if we could get it set, as she was still growing, she would mend.  We tended to her day and night for several days...and then weeks.  My son was right, she healed just fine.  It was not easy and we could not have been successful if the vet had not done a EXCELLENT job setting the leg and showing us how to rebandage her leg.  The doe has just turned two and we will breed her next year.

The next break was also by a car, but this was out on the road.  My lovely doe Olive escaped through the gate and was evidently hit by a car.  The person did not stop to tell us so we really did not know when it happened.  I just noticed her at the next feeding limping.  Her leg was broken at the femur.  I was back at the vet with the same scenario and the same son.  The doe was eating and functioning well, but with a broken femur.  Our vet called another vet who could put a pin in her leg.  The starting price was $600.00.  I did not have the money.  This time, I listened to the vet.  She was put down.  I cried and I still sometimes wonder if she could have pulled through...but then I realize...it was a bad break....the femur...she was full grown.  Setting the leg and wrapping it would not have worked this time. I'm glad she did not suffer through our attempts to save her and that instead, we put her down.

I was out of town this past January.  Okay, I was out of state by many states but I left that same son who will try to save every animal at home to tend to the flock.  He called one morning in tears.  One of his ewe twin lambs had a broken leg.  We have no idea how it happened, but it did.  I told him to call the vet and speak with her.  Yes, of course it was on the weekend!  He asked me to call her and I assured him that she would not mind him calling on the weekend and that she knew I was out of town.  He called.  She answered.  He explained what happened and she gave him instructions.  He did good.  He listened and even though he had some problems keeping the cast on the leg, it worked until I could get home a couple of days later.  I was able to put the cast on where it would not come off.  The ewe lamb healed completely and keeps up with her sister with no problems.  And I found out later that when my son called the vet that she was working on a horse's eye.  When the vet saw the caller ID, she stopped working on the eye and answered the call.  She knew I was out of town and the only call from my farm would be a true emergency.  I'm blessed and grateful.  And I learned it really is wise to let the vet know when you are out of town!  Remember this the next time you go out of town.  Give your vet a heads up and let him/her know who will be caring for the animals.

The last story is a current story.  It is a ewe that is 10 months old.  All we can figure is she was caught in a stampede of horses.  Either way, her leg is broken below the hock.  The question is this:  Do we put her down or hope that she has enough growing left to mend well?  We decided to splint the leg and hope for the best.  Again, it took two tries to get the splint to stay on but as of now, it has been on for 18 days.  We check it every so often but I can tell it is not ready to be removed.  I think we will actually splint her for six weeks.  We have not done that with the others, but this case is different.  She is using the leg so I am hopeful that she is healing, but really, only time will tell.

I will keep you posted as to her progress and tomorrow I will show you how we splint a leg.

Sheep Identification

We started our flock of  Gulf Coast Sheep with just two ewes and one ram.  They were all only six months old when we brought them home and it was easy to tell them apart.  That was 2006.  Now we have three rams and 22 ewes and it is 2011.  I really thought I would never need to tag an ear or tattoo an ear as "I" would "always" know my sheep:  WRONG! 

I can assure you that as your flock grows, you will NOT be able to tell one young white ewe lamb from another; especially when you have 10 to 15 running and jumping around!  So, what to do....that really is the question.

Tattoos work if you can actually read them later.  Ear tags work if they don't get torn out.  And collars work if you don't have a horned ram.  So what do we use?  All three methods.

We let the first letter denote the year the animal was born.  To keep this straight, we just use the ADGA letter.  This is well documented and easy to find.  For 2011 it is the letter B.  So for any lambs born in 2011, the first letter of their identification is B.

Next comes the ram.  We have three rams:  Dodge, Blue and Joseph.  Dodge is denoted as 1, Blue as 2 and Joseph as 3.  So if a lamb is born in 2011 and Blue is the sire, then the identification starts with B2.

We have a record of our ewes in a special book.  Our first ewe on the place was Sunshine and so her letter is A.  So if we have a lamb born to Sunshine in 2011 and the sire was Blue, then the lambs identification is B2A.

The last variable that must be answered is what happens if there are twins or triplets born.  Since I don't like to do very many letters if we don't have too, if a single is born, then we just stop with the three letter designations.  However, if there is more than one, then we add a fourth letter.  1 is for the first born, 2 is for the second born, 3 is for the third born and so on. 

I like to tattoo this information in the ear of the baby that will not have a tag in it.  In other words, tattoo the ear that will not carry the tag.  This will help you retrieve the information in the future.  If we are tagging the lamb with this information, then we write this on the back of the tag and on the front of the tag we write the lamb's name.  The tag will either go in the ear or on a collar. 

Please remember, if you have horned sheep, do not use collars as they can strangle each other!  And remember to always identify your sheep because over time, you will lose track of who is who!