New Home

  as

Ferdinand , the orphan lamb, has been moved out into the field. He has hisown bit, with a shelter if the weather is bad . And the bottle-feeding has stopped and he is now on a bucket. (Goats) milk gets added a couple of times a day and milk is taken 'ad lib'. He is also starting to graze on the grass.

And he has been  exploring his new home

moving trees

 its been a bit windy. Some cruise liner visits have been cancelled
Even though its summer.

A tree has been blown down, blown up,and blown down in the past .

Perhaps this one will be the next to go.

A brief video of the bottom of the tree whilst  it was a bit windy.

 

Still standing.Not sure for how long though.

A new road sign

 A new road sign has appeared at the roundabout  going into Kirkwall . Its quite busy, as its the main Kirkwall - Stromness road  .

On closer inspection

And the reason ?

An oystercatcher has made a nest on the roundabout and is sitting on eggs

Hopefully an update when they hatch.

and finally

The last ewe to lamb is due on the 13th, but things got going a could of days early.
We can recognise the signs of early labour , which happened  in the early afternoon, but things changed and the typical behaviour - pawing the ground and separating herself off fromt he other sheep , didnt happen.
So come the evening we  had to have a look.
it was an obstructed labour with the first lamb in an abnormal position whih needed some manual help to get it delivered
Eventually  two lambs were born
.Some video a few minutes after birth

the mother didnt start immediaitly licking them dry , so we realised something was remiss.

We brought them inside as they were wet, it was wet and the mother 'wasnt right'   and got them dried off 

And the vet came and had a look atr the mother - and diagnosed a perforated uterus - an unsurvivable  condition. 

So some colostrum was taken from the ewe and then tube-fed to the lambs 

And now we have our own cady (orphan) lamb  - so its back to bottle feeding  every 4 hours or so until  they are a bit bigger and can join the other lambs 

RIP Freddy

We thought that Freddy  initially had jointill

But  it didnt really improve as we expected, and he developed more problems 



And things got worse inspite of  the treatment (Vitamin E and Selenium) .

So the vet came and had a look at him .

The initial problem we thought was an infection of the joint, even though he was a bit old to get that.
And now the Vet thought he had meningitis - the infection has spread to the brain - or perhaps it was an incurable neurological problem.


So sadly, RIP Freddy

a bit of rain

We've had a bit of rain in the last 24 hours or so - 26mm ( an inch) according to a local weather website.
A lot of water  has come off the hill and the stream has been in full flood.

 And the little bridges  couldnt cope so  various bits have been awash with rain .

The excess water escaped through the duck run

 And it all joined up again in the burn a bit lower down .

And the road has been flooded .

one unlucky driver got a bit stuck

But its not really a problem.  There are a lot of people around with a tractor to pull you out .

So thanks go to Davey.

update

he spends alot of time standing like this .
Head down, not moving , unsteady on  legs

And is still falling over

We still tihnk its Seleneium deficiency. He has had the treatment. So we have to wait it out and see if he improves .

its not jointill

We did have a lamb with a limp . And it got a course of antibiotics and got a bit better.  But then it got worse.
And its not limping - its  tripping over its front legs as they give way . The lamb  hasnt got a temperature  and the joints arent swollen so we dont think its anopther episode of infection.
 It could be White muscle disease Due to selenium deficiency . 

this lamb ticks many of the boxes for Selenium deficiency

• average annaul  precipitation is 948mm /yr
• weve certainly got lush pasture at the moment 
• the lamb is growing rapidly 

So its had an injection of Selenium an Vitamin E . It may improve, or it may not . We shall see 

hiding

Whilst out cutting the grass  ( you do a lot of that at this time of the year) , I spotted a hen, sitting suspiciously. And on closer insepction there was an egg.

And when i turfed her off the eggs , there were a load  of eggs. 15 in this batch , and another 3 a short distance away   

So she has been laying egges here for 3 weeks , and then started to sit on them. 

As we arent so far  planning to hatch any chicks of our own, we put her back in with the others. 

But this is 3 boxes of eggs we could have sold !