Never a Dull Moment

Here is a little preview of my summer. Early June the lambs (all 15) come down with runny eyes & noses. After a day or two I decide to call the vet. For eighty dollars he tells me it's viral. Then we had the worm incident with the steer (blog worthy).I stated we were on top of the whole worming thing. Jinxed myself. Had several ram lambs get diarrhea. I needed to take a fecal sample to the vet. Mark was working so I attempt this myself. I straddle the lamb, so it looks like I am riding it backwards. I can only imagine what people think as they drive by. Well, the vet calls with results, guess what? they have worms. He is puzzled because we rotate pastures & I had just wormed them with a strong wormer that he was going to recommend I use. He ponders this for a minute and gives us something else, hoping it will work. Then he  tells me we are doing everything right, but worms in sheep are such a tricky problem . Four days later we run in another two fecal samples. One is clear the other still has worms, so we worm them again. Now, our heifer, Bailey gets pink eye. She is currently unhappy & bellowing in the barn. We are treating her twice a day. This is a two man (actually man & women) procedure. Mark pins her in a corner and I squirt stuff into her eye.


The biggest chore of the day is water, especially on these really hot days we have been having.I  feel like I am constantly dragging the hose all over. It gets kinked or caught on something, so I have to back track & fix it. Some places the hose doesn't reach meaning I lug water buckets. For a while the cows were far enough out that we had to haul water with the tractor. Currently, we have sheep in 4 different pastures/corrals: The ewes, the ram, the ram lambs,and the ewe lambs. The cows are with the horse, except for Bailey who is locked in the barn. Then we have MJ the calf who we bring hot water out of the house twice a day to mix with the milk replacer. Oh, and I can't forget the chickens who have a water inside & outside the coop. 


Cross your fingers & wish me luck- I am ready for only healthy animals & no more vet bills.


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