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.
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.
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