We will miss their smiling faces and their sweet baaing. Three of our four baby lambs came down with a virus this summer and over the course of the past month, slowly failed to thrive and passed away. We kept much of this saddness from all of our farm friends because we (I mostly) felt that there was enough saddness going around right now that baby lamb saddness may cause everyone heartache.
There was certainly heartache on the farm.
Sven got sick first.
You may remember some of Sven’s antics. He was the baby sheepie who was our “Go Pro” Lambie! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkUJYiUDIJU . He showed everyone his sporty side by jumping all around with a camera strapped to his back! Sven was Ella’s favorite. It was heart wrenching when he got sick. His last evening, he had such a peaceful look on his face when we were done taking care of him, which included a shot of antibiotics, drinking heavy cream with vitamins from a bottle and strengthening his legs by helping him to stand and try to take a few steps. He was so weak but it was so brave of him to try so hard to stand. After we finished caring for him that evening, we laid him down in the straw, and with a peaceful look and a little grin on his face he fell asleep right in front of us. His sister Anna, who was slightly sick at the time kept looking over at him. In the morning, he was gone. Ella was heartbroken. I cried at work when Jason texted me that he was gone.
Even though we had prepared oursevles for what would happen to Sven, and followed all the advice of the vet, we were still unprepared for loosing him and how it would make us feel.
And then we turned our attention to Anna. She took longer to take ill. But the illness demonstrated the same trajectory. We cared for her every day, helped her stand and walk, fed her special clovers, hand picked from the garden. We gave her the medicine prescribed by the vet, and we watched her wither away, like her brother. The vet came by to check on the flock on the day that she looked her worst. She convinced Ella and Jason that Anna was in pain and very sick and needed to be put to sleep. The terror that Ella sufferd that day was real. So real that we need to continually have conversations about why we do that for animals so that they don’t have to suffer. The suffering was intense for these baby sheep, and for us as well. The entire flock looked on while we tried our best to take care of our littlest most vulnerable animals on the farm.
Star became ill a few days later, was put into isolation like her brother and sister before her. GIven a strict diet of the freshest clovers, heavy cream and vitamins and of course the injection of antibiotics, we cared for her every day. She was able to stand and walk despite being so weak, so we thought she had a fighting chance. Up until almost the very last day, we were convinced that she would turn the corner. One morning, we could not get her to stand up, and the vet visited once again.
The final straw for Ella was loosing Star. We engaged her in a new crew of chicks to raise as her own flock of chickens to take her mind off of her baby sheep. She currently is the chicken whisperer, spending time with them daily in a hen house that she build with her dad, she is starting to train them to come to her and sit on her arms. Of course they try to eat her boot which makes her giggle.
Through all of this saddness, our biggest fear was that the entire flock was sick. What started out as a virus from the male sheep we added to our flock last year, turned out to be a virus that affected only these three baby sheep- unfortunately, we lost them, but fortunately, everyone else tested negative for this virus, so we all breathed a sigh of relief. Whew. The unthinkable did not have to happen. The flock could stay and Hughy still had most his family.
We enjoyed helping these lambs into the world and we are honored to have been able to assist them out of it as well. We so enjoyed our time with them, especially as COVID raged, our farm home life was sweeter with the baby lambies in it.
