Comments on: Today I Hired a Gigolo

By: sandy (puddle duck)

sandy (puddle duck) — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 11:09:59 +0000

will there be live action for those of us near you mom’s? (live feed)

By: woolies

woolies — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 14:59:45 +0000

Are the girls cozying up to Aldo yet? What a stud!

By: Cindy Telisak

Cindy Telisak — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 22:48:39 +0000

This past weekend I got to take a quick, introductory class on doing fecal exams with a microscope and a flotation technique. I’m excited to continue learning and hopefully do my own fecals before too long. It will save me a mint, and could potentially give me critical information about an animal quickly, and help me give the proper treatment immediately. The horse vet charges $20/each sample and the sheep vet is a 40 minute drive away. (And whose sheep get sick during office hours?) How empowering it will be to diagnose my own parasite issues. If I could get a FAMACHA class, I’d do it in a heartbeat. I’ll keep looking around.

Prayers for Truman’s continued recovery.

By: Jan

Jan — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 21:18:18 +0000

Hi Susan,

I hope the other readers don’t mind a bit of “talking shop.” I am delighted that you found vets you like–suprisingly something like 80% of new vet school graduates are women these days and I don’t mind saying that I love it. Now about Truman, predicated on the approval of your vets (take their advice over mine, they are there and that makes a difference), you might want to get a stool sample from him and have them do a fecal flotation test. This will tells you lots of information–what parasites he has, how many and if they are responding to the wormer you are using. Some are resistant to some wormers. My Mantra is “Test, Don’t Guess.” One possibility is that he is still infected. The other is that the worms can damage the lining of the digestive tract and cause scarring. Once scarred, it is hard to absorb food and so it can be a long and difficult recovery. You had *really* tough conditions this last summer because it was so wet (so don’t kick yourself–as I know you are wont to do). Younger animals don’t have the immunity to fight the buggers off. A very good resource is this organization at http://www.scsrpc.org
Also ask your vets to teach you the FAMACHA test. (This is unfortunately less useful for me because in my location I have less problems with the Barberpole worm, which causes anemia). Hang in there with Truman.

Now, if I could only understand building a web site as well as I do sheep worms! And for me Tweeting is still what birds do. New computer technology is *so* bewildering to me. Everyone has their gifts.

By: Susan

Susan — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 22:16:42 +0000

Hey Jan! Thanks so much for the comment. I always love hearing from you. I hopre you’re right about lambs coming early- last year we had the world’s latest- and longest- lambing season, but maybe this year will go more according to plan. Fingers crossed!
We did find a local vet, thanks to our shepherd neighbors that stopped by last week. They are nearby, pretty up on sheep and TWO WOMEN, which is always cool. Truman isn’t out of the woods yet. He finally started showing signs of worms- before he was neither anemic or edemic (is that a word? you know what I mean though). We hit him with a large dose of wormer and have followed up once since then. He seems to be getting better- up, alert and prancing around- and then starts to fail again.
He was in very bad shape when we picked him up and I am frankly amazed that he’s made it this long. He is a fighter and I am hopeful.

By: Jan

Jan — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 21:54:07 +0000

Hi Susan,
Aldo is a handsome lad! He looks like the Studly-Do-Right you have been needing. I’m sure the ewe ladies will like him a lot. You should be hearing a lot of ram-burbling over the next couple days as he serenades the ladies. Interestingly, I just put my rams out with the ladies this weekend as well–Calcifer with the black-wooled ewes and Miracle with the white-wooled ewes. But you are optimistic if you think that most of your lambs are waiting until May to appear. If your girls are cycling and just waiting for a real ram to show up, something like 2/3rds should settle in the first cycle, which is the first 17 days after the ram goes in (unless you are only exposing a few at a time). So you should get a lot of the lambs in late April and then tail off into May for those who didn’t settle the first time around. So plan to be busy in April. I used to schedule my lambing to coincide with Spring Break week–then I would be around and have plenty of time to concentrate on watching for impending birthing and helping the new lambs and getting them in the jugs. How many ewes are you breeding–we should have a “lambs on the ground” race next spring. Have you found a local vet for sheep yet? I was wondering if you had any updates on what was happening with Truman.

By: Elysa W.

Elysa W. — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 20:30:57 +0000

Ooh Sheparding camp. Now I know what I want for my birthday!!!! Or even what I want to give myself for my birthday.

By: Cindy Telisak

Cindy Telisak — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 19:47:39 +0000

This answers a burning question I had: “Where’s Aldo?”

By: Shelley Noble

Shelley Noble — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 19:03:16 +0000

Hey, good looking, tsk tsk [tongue clicking sound]. Sassy dude, did that handsome fella arrive wearing gold chains I wonder? Here’s to happy lambs come spring.

By: Jenny

Jenny — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 15:24:45 +0000

Oh Aldo… You’re our own little Midnight Cowboy…