Okay, so this morning it’s -3 on the back porch, which probably means -6 on the meadow. But there’s no wind so feeding the sheep wasn’t difficult, except…Octavia didn’t get up and run for grain. Oh, no, what’s with her? She’s about 250 pounds, which means not an easy chore to take a temperature…so I didn’t. I wormed her, though she showed no signs of needing worming…(Some worms don’t show signs.) I gave her 30 cc’s of baking soda and water mixed, in case she has a tummy ache.(Hard to see a distended rumen with 8 inches of fleece all over her. Couldn’t feel it, but…). And I gave her some LA200, an antibiotic whose allure is that you only have to give it every other day. THe only thing I didn’t give her was propylene glycol, but it seems way too early for her to have pregnancy toxemia, it being only the third month of pregnancy. The only other possibility I can think of is that a fetus died in her womb and she’s about to abort…which I really hope is not the case. I will check her again in a couple of hours and see how she’s doing. The big question, of course, is if she dies, how do I move her? John is away this morning, hopefully back by noon, but…ah, I have a big low to the ground red plastic toboggan which ought to do the trick. I’ll bet you think I”m heartless thinking about such things. But the reality is that on a farm, you deal with dead animals. I don’t want her to die. I don’t want her to be sick. I especially don’t want her to abort and hope that if that is the situation, it is an instance, not the beginning of an epidemic. She is, in fact, my favorite coopworth. I’m hoping she filled up with hay early this morning, left over from last night, and is cold, and just having a bad day, and by noon, will be up and around. If not, I’ll just have to deal with whatever happens.
When I got up this morning, the fire had burned down, with almost no cinders. It was interesting getting the fire back at full force, but finally I got it. Twigs are marvelous things! So are logs. So are woodstoves. It is now nice and toasty in here.
I didn’t sleep well last night, so instead of heading to church this morning, I will take a little nap and then goi check on Octavia again, hoping all will be well.
