It Worked!

We took Nhu's homemade fly mask off and discovered good healing happening.  No more open wounds!  She still has some puffiness around her one eye.  And there is a large area of bare skin on the bridge of her nose.  But all in all, very good results! 

We applied aloe healing cream to her nose and created a new fly mask for her out of the other sleeve.  This time I cut away fabric from both eyes so she has full vision now.  She doesn't seem to mind the mask a bit.   I'm very happy with my little experiment.  :)

Injury-Please Advise!

About a week ago we noticed Nhu had terrible gashes on her face.  Every summer she is the one sheep that is terribly bitten up by flies...almost as if her skin is thinner than it should be.  The gashes across the bridge of her nose and from the front corner of her left eye forward seemed to be from her scratching at her face with her hind foot.

Of course our main concern was fly strike... But our favorite topical for that problem - SWAT - was out of stock at the feed store.  So we bought some aloe healing cream and a different (runny) anti-fly med.  Because the wounds were so open we opted for the aloe cream first to get a scab going. 

front veiw of mask

Nhu, however, continued to scratch and keep the wounds open.  Nothing was healing up at all.  So last night I created a fly-mask out of a sleeve cut off a long-john shirt.  I figured if horses could wear them...why not sheep?  My design is certainly not perfect.  But Nhu is able to eat, chew, and see out of the one eye.  My goal is to keep the wounds free of flies long enough for them to heal up some.  Then I will start using the 'pesticide' topical.  Hopefully by then the store will have more SWAT in stock.  It is a much thicker product that stays put longer.

wet spot is from aloe cream applied before mask

Anyway, the mask is not ideal.  Nhu's wounded eye is completely covered, which could eventually cause irritation to the eye.  But I'm less worried about that, at the moment, than fly strike.  The mask was still in place this morning.  But I have noticed Nhu scratching her wounded areas against trees.  And blood has soaked through the fabric across her nose...so she continues to keep the wounds open.

 I slit the fabric under the chin to keep it from being too tight on throat



Does ANYONE have any ideas for how to keep her from scratching?  Or should I just keep the area moist witht the aloe cream and hope for the best?  Please comment with your advice if you have any.  Thank you!

Ramling Update

As promised in the comments section of this recent post, I managed to catch all of my ram lambs this morning to inspect their "masculine equipment."  And I have very good news to report: 

I was mistaken about Tucker having two testicles with the one being only partially descended!  He definitely has two, fully-descended testicles, of equal size.  I checked twice and I am absolutely certain about this.

I also inspected Sextant again and I am very certain that he only has one descended testicle.

The wonderful point here is that there is NO indication that the cryptorchid comes from any particular line because there is only this SINGLE instance here on my farm.  It does mean that LRO January and S'more Courante produced a cryptorchid/monorchid.  But that is the only incriminating fact in the matter.  Those two sheep will not be paired again, and I will also carefully monitor all future ram lambs for the same problem and publish any faults I come across in my breeding.  It would be easier to not talk about it...simply send cryptorchids to butcher...but no one will learn anything from that.  And I would like to think of my efforts as being helpful to the breed as a whole.

The other bit of good news is that my other three ram lambs, Trans Am, Gwilym, and Ian, all have proper equipment.  I am so glad of that.

Question...

LittleRedOak January with her great big ram lamb, Sextant.

While I was handling Sextant to deal with his broken scur, I gave him a "once-over" and realized that only one of his testicles had descended.  I grabbed Tucker and gave him the same inspection to find that one of his was completely descended and the other was only partially so.  These two rams are completely unrelated... out of unrelated ewes and two, separate, unrelated rams.  Sextant was scheduled to leave in a week to become flock sire at another farm. 

So... is the 11 week old mark the normal time for testicles to start descending in ram lambs, or do I have a couple of cryptorchids?  (I haven't had a chance to inspect the three other ramlings in the flock yet)  I DON'T want to sell a flawed ram lamb to anyone.  But is it worth it to give the lamb more time to descend or is that hopeless? 

Any thoughts or info on the matter would be appreciated.

Shearing

Byron Johnson sheared our flock last Friday, April 8.  It was wet and soggy all week, and then the sun shined bright on Friday morning and shearing went off without a hitch.  I feel infinitely lucky to have it over with before lambing begins.  Lambing could begin this Saturday, April 16.

Sian, 5 year old black, once again shows some iset on her hips.  But it took three years to develop that iset, and so far, her ribs and shoulders are still black.  Maybe some more experienced breeders could tell me whether she is a non-fading black with ordinary age graying, or if she is iset.  I've had other black Shetlands that were frosty with iset from head to tail by their first shear.  Just curious to hear opinions on how other breeders would categorize her.

Little Red Oak January and her black kat daughter, Esyllt.  I was pleased to see that all the ewes, bred and open, had good flesh under their fleeces.  They were fed grass hay all winter.  I did start a whole corn/oats/molasses blend feeding at 6pm each night about 2 weeks ago.

River Oaks Hannah is the biggest girl out there.  She looks like she is carrying triplets compared to the others.  But I'm truthfully just wishing for nice twins out of her.  I was happily surprised with her soft fleece this spring.

The shearer had a hard time with River Oaks Lana's fleece.  He couldn't get the clippers underneath the rise all along her back and hips.  And her belly had completely rooed.  She is skittish of me so I don't know if I'll get her cleaned up later on or not.  Lana does have the lighter flash marks along her hips now.  They are not as dramatic as some gulmogets I've seen.  Some breeders prefer solid sided gulmogets.  I can't say I have an opinion either way.  I am just so pleased to have Lana in my flock.

Here is little Carys, unbred yearling.  I think she looks like a little dolly. 

And finally, some hind shots.  White Lyneth is the girl that didn't take last year.  Her kat twin in the background gave me twins for her first pregnancy.  I think Lyneth might just be really fat again this year.  If that is the case I will decide her future based on her micron results.  Excellent numbers may persuade me to offer her as a fiber pet.  I had wanted lambs from Lyneth especially because of the deep depressions in her skull.  I figured she has the polled gene for sure.
The shearer thought she looked bred.  Ah well, we shall see.
Let the waiting for lambs begin.

Checking Off the List

Leil & Lana

Clancy and I gave CD&T shots to all the ewes last night.  And I also snipped off wool samples from every girl to send out for micron testing. 
Here's hoping the results come back very soon!

Having the girls on their backsides for a minute gave me a good look at which ones are bagging up.  None of them are due till April 16th or later.  But it looks like a couple will come in quite close to that date. 

In order of biggest bag to smallest, with ewe color and ram mate in parenthesis.

Courante = scurred black katmoget.   Ash = polled moorit.

Hannah  (moorit x Courante)

Leil  (gray x Ash)

January  (moorit kat x Courante)

Nhu  (black kat x Courante)

Sian  (black x Ash)

Vianne  (white x Ash)

Lana  (black gulmoget x Ash)

Lyneth  (white x Courante)

Unfortunately, Lyneth and Lana are not showing any signs of being bred yet.  Lyneth didn't take last year so I'm starting to doubt her ability to breed.  I am hoping my dear little gully girl took, though.  The ewes were with rams for an extra long time this season.  I suppose both girls could be bred and just not showing yet.  Please, please, pretty please!

Lyneth & Hannah

Codon 171 Test Results

I took advantage of an offer from USDA to have my rams genetically tested for scrapie resistance at Codon 171.  An official USDA veterinarian collected blood samples from the five rams I have on my property on 9/9/10.  The results came in the mail 9/24/10. 

Helpful information supplied by Gene Check, Inc:

"Codon 171 is the most commonly tested codon.  It is used to test for susceptibility to Strain C scrapie (the most common form of scrapie in the U.S.)  Result possibilities are QQ, QR, or RR.

QR and RR sheep are resistant to strain C scrapie.

Codon 136 is used to test for susceptibility to Strain A scrapie (recently discovered in the U.S.)  Result possibilities are VV, AV, AA.

Codon 136 [testing] is necessary only on QR and QQ animals.  It is not necessary to test RR animals as they are automatically AA at Codon 136.

Only AA sheep are resistant to Strain A scrapie.

Testing at Codon 154 is generally used only for research purposes."

My flock results

Little Red Oak Ash      QQ

S'more Courante          QR

Boston Lake Clennam  QR

Boston Lake Tecwyn    RR

Boston Lake Beck        RR

I have listed this info with each sheep on the Flock and Sale pages.  Using this information, and that from Kimberwood Kavan's results in 2006 (171: QR  136: AA), I was able to add some knowns to offspring of these rams.  Therefore, some of my ewes also have some partial information.