Recent content by ThoughtfulFox

Oh goodness, this is a whole other lifetime ago, for me. I managed a sheep farm for a couple in my home town for about five years. When the man passed away his widow couldn't keep the livestock on just her own pension so she sold off the sheep. I've had *counts in his head* four other jobs...

Thank you ever so much for the quick reply. We have a (literal) ton of corn. I have no way of knowing how much is infested without opening all of the bags, but 1/4 of the bags are made of a more plasticized material and well-sealed. I have hope for those. The other 3/4 are made from...

Hello again. The ever-frustrated fox has returned with yet another problem. This time it's maize weevils. Of course I know little-to-nothing about weevils so hopefully some of you have dealt with this situation before. Last month my bosses heard that corn was doing horribly all over the US and...

Well, I can't get my boss to listen to any advice that comes from a source other than her friends, so we've only had moderate success. One ewe has nearly dried off, one has slowed down significantly, and the last has doubled her usual milk production compared to the rest of the season. o_o And...

You may have been correct about their voices. They were indeed a bit sick, but their voices still haven't gone back to what they were before the illness.

Cricket, bjjohns, CochinBrahmaLover, Thank you all for your advice. We've been butting heads here as to what method to use, but somehow in all the indecisiveness the sheep seem to be drying up pretty well. I've been withholding their usual alfalfa pellets from them for about a week, now. For...

Guess I might as well update this thread. After speaking with a vet about their temperatures, hoarse vocalizations, runny noses, weakness, etc. it was determined that our rams have respiratory infections. For three days we gave subcutaneous injections of LA200 (oxytetracycline). They seemed to...

There must be a hundred different sites on the web explaining precisely how to begin your milking season, what equipment to have on hand, ideal methods and schedules and feeds.....but very few discuss how to go about ending your milking season. We're currently coming to the end of our milking...

I don't see them drinking nearly as often as I'd like to, but it's not for lack of clean water access. They have two large water buckets that I empty and refill with fresh water twice a day. When the first ram began seeming sick I cleaned both of them thoroughly. The one ram in this particular...

Thank you, kfacres. That does put my mind quite a bit more at ease. As a follow-up on the abscesses: We spoke with a couple of veterinarians about the situation. They immediately asked if we had given them injections of covexin 8. That was indeed one of the medications we gave them. It seems...

Earlier in the week I took note of one of our young rams sounding very hoarse when he tried to vocalize (baa). Brought up the issue with the farm owner. She seemed to think that it wasn't a major issue. In the past day another of the three rams has begun vocalizing hoarsely as well. The first...

That's pretty much what I was expecting, but wanted to hear from more experienced shepherds before ignoring the anomalies. Thank you. So any thoughts on injection-site abcesses? One of my girls is clearly disturbed by a spot on her side. (we last gave injections three weeks ago. I think these...

*sheepish grin* Sorry. I wanted to get some new eyes on my questions. A good title seemed the way to do it. For those I haven't met: New shepherd, dairy flock, East Frisian, Northwest Georgia. It's getting hot here but we're still milking our three ewes, by hand. And by 'We' I mean I'm doing...

Sorry for not responding for a few days. Thank you for the replies. A couple days ago the ewe's temperature was checked and she was a little on the cold side. (101 F / 38.3 C). She was given a couple of injections, I do not know precisely what, but her appetite seems to have picked up, as well...

Pardon the pun, but I've got a serious problem. For those who haven't met me yet; Hi, name's Fox, new shepherd, don't know what the hell I'm doing most times. I've been tending to a flock for the past few months, and lately I've been milking three ewes day and night. (as close to 7:30 as...