A Tsunami of death.
Well, it was Anthony Cole , who told me , “If you are in sheep long enough, everything happens.” Well, I guess this could be my ‘everything” year. It started in the beginning of lambing when I found a dead baby lamb in the pasture with the amniotic sac still over the poor baby’s nose. That would happen within 5 minutes after birth, if the baby lamb didn’t shake its head strong enough to break the sac, or if the mother sheep already had a first lamb and didn’t lick away the sac from the second lamb’s nose.
Then a baby lamb got caught under the log cabin. Then, it was one night when Cameron and Julianne were helping me and we all heard a baby lamb crying behind the barn and a mama going crazy. Well, I saw that the mama still had her placenta string still hanging out of her , but the baby’s umbilical cord had already dried up, telling me, the baby wasn’t a brand new lamb. Anyway, Cameron and julianne looked with a flashlight ALL OVER THE entire pastures, and found a second lamb that still had the sac around his nose. Cameron was very sweet, asking if anything could be done. I sadly said no, not at this point.
Then two moms just weren’t looking good AT ALL. I texted our vet and she was overbooked but asked if I could give them Calcium. Off to Tractor supply, at 4;30 to buy Calcium Glucanate. An injection of 60 cc that would be given under the skin to give an extra boost of calcium quickly. I had never had this needed before in all the years of lambing season. First time for everything. It’s funny, while I was leaving tractor Supply, I remember distinctly asking myself was there anything else I should buy. Little did I know I would be driving back at 8:30 that night. To get propelyne Glycol. A solution that is needed to treat toxemia.
I get back home and inject the two sick moms with calcium gluconate, and antibiotic too because one of the ewes look like she still had her placenta.
One mom seemed to get better and the other was iffy. When I got to check on everything that afternoon, Tuesday around 4pm, one of the black mom’s baby’s had died. The baby lamb probably didn’t get any milk.. Well, it was the next night that one of those moms was just looking really, really bad. I gave her another dose of everything, I realized that her baby that was still alive, wasn’t going to make it if I didn’t get milk replacer. I called Debbie and Dudley to go buy some milk replacer at Tractor supply before tractor Supply closed. Then Julianne and Cameron went to Dudley’s house, got the milk replacer, and came back to farm. I fixed the bottle and took the baby lamb with me to bed. It fell asleep on my stomach and during the night, I got up and fed as much as she would swallow. I had a difficult time going to the barn the next morning, dreading was I would see and I saw what I feared, the mama sheep was not alive in the morning.
Well, as I was leaving to CA, of course, I had all kind of feelings and emotions running through my head…
Oh dear Jesus, how can I cope? What do I accept? How do I understand that it is not one’s fault? That it is more patience on my part? That the lies and lies and lies are so much a part of what I despise? Help me as you always do. Change my attitude, let me accept the things I can not change. Let me understand that the weaknesses that are thrown into my path.
Lead me God, in what to do…. Not talk, Talk, dk talk,