The Story of Sheepess

Last year we obtained two lambs, a ram and ewe. These were never supposed to be pets, they were not even to be given a name. The ram was quickly named My Little Dog. And the ewe was named Sheepess. All was well.

Around November of last year, one of our dogs, attacked Sheepess. She seemed not badly hurt and seemed to recover. However she did seem a bit less spirited. Subsequently, the same dog got loose again and went after her. She got knocked down and the dog was dragged back to his place. Physically she seemed unharmed.

Around the same time, we acquired three more sheep. One of the new arrivals was a mature ewe, with a lamb. Sheep have a social hierarchy. The new ewe, named Mama, quickly established herself as top ewe, by knocking and harassing Sheepess.

Between Christmas and New Years, Sheepess began to slow down and walk with her head low. Sheepess was obviously sick or something. During this time the vampire bats were very active and every night all the sheep would be attacked. Vampire bats are fragile little monsters who gorge themselves on a sheep's blood to the point that they can not fly away. If disturbed, they will quickly vomit the blood so they can take off and escape. They seldom attack an active animal or one that is wide awake. Sheepess was in such a condition that she was probably their preferred target.

On New Years eve, we observed Sheepess collapse while walking. She appeared to have fainted. She probably had fainted, as her inner eye lids were white. They are supposed to be red or reddish pink. Sheepess had anemia. We did not know the cause. At the time it seemed like the bats. But whatever the cause, on New Years eve, Sheepess fell down and did not get back up.


We moved her inside the house to protect her from further vampire bat attacks. There are pernicious intestinal parasites that attack sheep, so we wormed her as well. We put down a layer of white marl and covered that with straw and on that Sheepess would lay.

We would carry grass to Sheepess. This became part of our routine. Two or three times a day we would cut and collect several buckets full of grass and feed this to Sheepess. Also we would feed her mill feed.

But Sheepess was in bad shape. She could not lift her head. She lay their on the floor of my bedroom and I or my sons would feed grass into her like paper into a paper shredder.

I looked on the internet, there no information that seemed useful. Sheep do not normally receive "long term care" they are put out of their misery. I spoke with a local vet, who also had no prognosis. It seemed to be a matter of "How much bother are you willing to put up with?"

I spoke with an older man North of town who had at one point in his life raised sheep in the US. He said that if a sheep won't eat, there is really nothing you can do for her. When told this sheep had a vigorous appetite, he said that was a different matter and he had no idea if she could recover. There was a look on his face that suggested it might be better for all concerned if she was refusing food.

One issue everyone was clear on was that it is unwise to eat a sick animal unless you are very certain exactly why the animal is sick.

For about a week Sheepess was completely prostrate on the floor. We would turn her, wash her, clean her area, and feed her. Rebecca was due to leave for the US. One day I decided that since there was no improvement, I would dig a hole in the forest, carry Sheepess there and kill her as quickly and humanly as possible. The next morning, Sheepess lifted her head. She still could not walk, but she could lift her head.

Rebecca went to the US and while she was gone, I decided that if there was no progress, three days before Rebecca was to return I would carry Sheepess to the forest... On the appointed day, Sheepess pushed herself up with her front legs into almost a sitting position.

When Rebecca returned it was clear that Sheepess could not stay inside the house any longer. Rebecca is the most patient wife imaginable, but a sick sheep on the bedroom floor, for an undetermined length of time wore even on her. Besides, Sheepess had begun to craw around. She would explore under the bed, and move outside of the area prepared for her. It was becoming more difficult to keep her area clean because before we just moved her forward a foot or so throughout the day and when there was enough space behind her we would clean that. Now Sheepess would craw back over area that needed to be cleaned.

About this time I noticed that despite our best efforts of turning her, Sheepess had developed bed sores. One of these sores was on her knee and was terribly bad. We still didn't know what the original problem was, but now there was a secondary issue that seemed to threaten her ability to ever walk. Again, there was no information on the internet on how to treat pressure wounds or bed sores in sheep. I found some training information for nursing home workers and used that to guide me.



We put her outside with the other sheep. Sheep are rough, rambunctious animals. They knock and push each other both out of friendliness and hostility. I feared that Sheepess would be severely injured out with the other sheep.

For a while she made slow progress. We still carried grass and legumes to her, but sheep are social animals and she seemed to crave the presence of the other sheep. Even if they were a bit rough with her. Eventually she was actually getting up and walking short distances.



Then one morning we found her in a pool of blood. She seemed reasonably ok, except that there was a very large amount of what must have been her blood. Enough that I would have expected that she should have died. We never were able to determine where she was bleeding from, and it is possible that she had been pregnant and had a miscarriage. That is about the only way I can see for her to lose that much blood and not die. Of course she did have the symptom of anemia again.

In time she recovered from this setback. Then we found her again amongst splashes of blood. This time it looked very much like vampire bats had attacked her. Only they were attacking her knees, where the hair was gone because of the bed sores. And again she had white eye lids.



It began to seem that Sheepess would never recover to the point where she could at least feed herself. We still had no idea what the original problem had been. It could have been simple anemia caused by parasites, vampire bats, or injury sustained from the dog or Mama. But through it all there was this overriding issue, how long can a herbivore be down before they will never be able to walk again. Also, there are sheep diseases that involve nerve damage, and brain damage. Things like sheep polio, encephalitis, and a number of other diseases that could permanently cripple a sheep even if it did not kill them.

We were no longer carrying food to her. Instead we could now carry her to the food. This was a great improvement as she was able to graze in an area around her. Also she could move about and graze areas near her. Eventually she started to walk back to the side of the house when she was done eating. She would do this in a series of short jaunts, sitting down or falling down to eat a bit on the way. It seemed cruel, but she was able to eat more, and possibly eat better, as well as exercise her muscles.

Starting several weeks ago, she would get fussy when I carried her out to eat. Eventually she would gently kick at my head and face. If I did not put her down, she would kick a bit harder. Then about a week ago I went to pick her up. She promptly ran or staggered away from me, off on her own to get food. Then she stopped sitting down to eat, but would kneel down. Short distances she would craw up on her hind feet and down on her front knees, but longer distances she would walk in her own crippled way. She could not stand though. If she stopped moving she either sat or fell down.

Several days ago I looked out my window at the sheep. They were bunched up at the corner of the house marshaling up to head out into the heat and graze. I was very surprised to see among them a skinny black sheep standing with them waiting to go. For a moment I did not understand what sheep that was.





Today, Sheepess goes and comes with the flock to eat. She usually trails behind a bit, and sometimes she falls down. She eats while standing up on all four hoofs. She has not recovered completely. She may never recover completely or she may have yet another setback. Even if she recovers, she is the same size as six month old lambs, though she is a year old. I do not have great hopes for her, but perhaps I have a bit of admiration for her.



Sheepess has taught us more about sheep than anything else. We have learned to check their eye lids on a regular and frequent basis, such as anytime we get our hands on them. We learned to take any odd behavior very seriously. Several times we have noticed a sheep seem a bit slower than normal or acting a bit down. We now promptly catch that sheep, check their eyes, and give them a squirt of B vitamins down the throat. The vet has told us that this is a waste of money as their rumen provides all the B vitamins that they need. But we have seen the sheep seem to get a boost from this. And a big bottle of liquid B complex is terribly cheap. It will expire before we use even half of it. We no longer worm the sheep on a regular basis, but only worm individual sheep that show symptoms of heavy worm load. There are countless things that we have learned from Sheepess.

There is an issue of humane treatment of animals. Sheepess has suffered, and continues to suffer pain. As far as we can discern, she is happy living like a sheep with other sheep. But physically she almost certainly is often in pain. She pushes to walk farther, stand longer, and keep up with the other sheep. And I think that often her muscles and joints ache terribly. She occasionally grinds her teeth, and this is one of the few indications a sheep will give that it is in pain. Really, the humane thing would have been to kill her early on. And if ever something like this happens with any other sheep, that is what we will do.

We don't know what the future holds for Sheepess. We only know that we will do what we can, as long as we can. If it becomes necessary, we can end the story. But for now I wanted to share this unfinished story.