Buckwheat is a fantastic ram.  He is affectionate with humans (because he loves food so much) and yet protects his ladies.  He is pretty greedy with the feed, and so is a bit on the chubby side but that is also because they've been confined in a stall since we've been uncertain about their health issues (and how it could impact the alpacas).  But he really is the sweetest.
Today the vet called, and Buckwheat has tested positive for Maedi Visna virus.  This is a terminal illness that in Buckwheat will manifest itself as pneumonia.  There is no cure and it will eventually kill him.  And worse, it can infect the whole flock.  Thankfully it doesn't transmit to alpacas.  But the vet will have to come and check the ewes and Elsie. 

Elsie has been making such progress.  She is stronger and is eating more.  Her legs seem to be straightening out, also.  If she has the virus it will be devastating.   

The new lambs are supposed to be coming in a couple of weeks, also.  We can't risk their health, so we've postponed picking them up until we figure all of this out.

This is a happy photo of Elsie meeting Cinder, who is a very senior Jack Russell.  

Today we started on physical development for Elsie.  She hasn't been walking enough so her legs aren't strengthening and her tendons seem all out of control.  So she only gets her bottle after she walks a bit.  If the weather is nice she will walk outside, and if it's raining she'll do laps in the barn.  She looks a bit awkward and she moves slowly, but we expect it won't be long before she's jumping.

Dr. Sherry came today to give a herd health checkup.  The sheep and alpacas were all vaccinated, except for Elsie.  She also took a swab from Apricot, to see if there was some kind of medical reason for Elsie's poor birth condition (and, I guess, apply that reason to the other 2 lost lambs).
We had mentioned that Buckwheat, the ram, had been coughing.  Originally we thought it was just the hay tickling his throat, but it's been going on now for a bit.  Dr. Sherry took a blood sample from him - she worries that there might be Q Fever in our barn.  That is a fatal virus that can also be transmitted to humans.  We notified the previous owners of the sheep and he came over to talk to her, too.  It's not something you hear a lot about, although she has done a lot of research into it.  She also warned us it could be Ovine Progressive Pneumonia.  It's all a bit overwhelming.  How could we just be starting this flock and then stand to lose them all?
On a positive note, Elsie seems to be getting bit stronger, being bottle fed.  It's quite the ordeal, trying to hold Apricot and nurse her, but adding the colostrum to the milk replacer seems important.  And Elsie does try to nurse when I've got Apricot held still.  Maybe she'll get strong enough to be able to stand up for her right to nurse.  I think that Apricot is just so flighty that the smallest thing spooks her and Elsie isn't strong enough to stand up to her.  So the bottle seems a good compromise.  It can take her 20 minutes to finish her 1/2 cup milk - I doubt Apricot has that much patience.

Poor little Elsie hasn't been progressing well.  She has a round goiter on her neck and she is raspy when she nurses.  We had the vet do a farm visit on Saturday... he suggested a mineral deficiency might be the cause.  He gave her a shot of antibiotic and another dose for us to administer Sunday.
We continued to help her nurse and to encourage her to stand.  She seems to want to sleep alot. 
On Sunday she got her 2nd antibiotic shot. She didn't get better but she wasn't getting worse either.
Today we ended up taking her to the vet clinic.  We saw Dr. Sherry, who is the sheep and alpaca vet. The prognosis wasn't good - Dr. Sherry worries that it might be Q Fever, which is a communicable, terminal illness.  She also saw infection behind Elsie's eyes, and possibly in her lungs.  She was very sweet when she told us that there was no way to predict if Elsie will make it, that we would have to do the best we could in supporting her.  I asked her about switching Elsie to a milk replacer since Dr. Bob had thought it could be some kind of mineral deficiency and Dr. Sherry thought it wouldn't hurt.  So we started her today on milk replacer with colostrum from Apricot plus corn syrup.  Fingers crossed.  It would be devastating to lose another lamb.
On a positive note, Beatrice's chicks hatched - 2 tiny tiny chicks.  I worry they might fall though a crack in the stall and get lost!  But they stick close to mom and dad.  Since we moved the laying chicks and the ducks into the stall with Beatrice and Hudson (divided by chicken wire) its a very active stall now.  A happy place to take our mind off of Elsie.

The sheep were absolutely freaked out by the arrival of the alpacas.  They were running back and forth and slip sliding.  We still had a pregnant ewe, whom we didn't want getting too worked up.  So we locked the 4 sheep up in a stall together.
Around 8 pm I heard a plaintive cry and looked in on the sheep and amazingly enough, there was a little lamb.  Apricot had literally given birth in 45 minutes without any prior warning.  
We decided on Elsie as the name and were happy to see that she looked fully formed and sturdy.  We took the ram and 2 other ewes and put them in their own stall and sat back to enjoy mom and baby.  But after 45 minutes Elsie still hadn't  stood up.  So we helped her to nurse, which was an experience - catching and holding Apricot while keeping Elsie out of harm's way, then holding Elsie up to Apricot to nurse.
She seemed weaker than she should have been and we were afraid that we'd have another lost lamb.   We started to help her nurse every couple of hours, to make sure that her skittish mom didn't completely deny her nourishment.  And prayed she'd make it through the night.