if you had a rent-a-sheep operation, you could also throw in a llama to watch over the sheep.

This is such a good idea, llamas are already becoming the new sheepdogs, Wordwind.

http://www.ida.net/users/SRLlamas/sheep.htm

Is a new word on the cusp of emerging?

"Sheepllama"?

Sheep llamas have problems too. One of my wife's friends
got a very painful kick from one. In MA, stray dogs are not very common now. But coyotes are. One of our ewes stupidly lambed way down in back field. A coyote ate half of the lamb.The ewe did not have a mark on her, but never stood up again, and would not drink nor eat. The vet could do nothing, but I got a bill for twice what the ewe was worth.
And what was worse, he could not tell me why. I wondered if there had been a vascular injury to her adrenals.
.

The ewe did not have a mark on her, but never stood up again, and would not drink nor eat. The vet could do nothing

I had a little trouble following your ewe story at first, wwh.

I take it a lamb is a baby sheep and the ewe in the story is its mother. It take it the ewe went in search of her baby lamb and found it dead [half-eaten].

Is it possible the ewe died of a broken heart?

Dogs are known to grieve for their deceased owners. I have heard stories, possibly apocryphal, that some mother animals will grieve for a dead offspring.

Is this possible with sheep?

Evidently, your vet didn't think so or he wouldn't have charged you so much for doing nothing. [I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt, of course.]

Ewe!, how ever did you make it to journeyman, with out not knowing ram, ewe, and lamb!

it is a semi secret, but everyone on this board has a sheepish tendencies.. (you do know what 'faldage' is don't you?--have you ever looked up the word?)

and many here could easily wear the silly sweat shirts that proclaim Ewes not fat, ewes fluffy!(me for sure!)
and many, many, many of us have 'sculpted' sheep (a small knick knack sort of thing)--all most all of them are different breeds-- its a secret little fetish we all have somehow 'acquired'.

we have had threads on Merino sheep and alcoholic sheep, (who were bottle fed, and before they were fully weaned, they discovered bottled beer, and never wanted to be weaned!)

yes, rams are adult males, ewes are adult females, lambs are young sheep under a year of age, and wethers are neutered males.. (as in a bellwether).

we are a sheepish bunch.. (as the boys from oz say about the kiwi's, (and vis a versa) and everyone says about the scots)

but we are a rare breed of sheep-- like the kind of sheep that were found on episodes of Monty Python.. wicked sheep, flying sheep, trecherous sheep.. We are very sheepish!-so watch out!

Ewe!, how ever did you make it to journeyman, with out not knowing ram, ewe, and lamb!

Sorry, of Troy. I never got past "Ba Ba black sheep".

Re: We are very sheepish!-so watch out!

Thank you for your shepherdly interest.

With you at my side, I will never have to watch out for a wolf in sheep's clothing.

Still, my question was sincere. I wonder if an ewe can die of a broken heart.

Dear Grapho: with regard to that ewe that had coyote eat half of the newborn lamb, she went into shock. "Shock" is a medical term for vascular collapse, which is so complicated I had a hundred page book just on the one topic. When a lion
trips and kills a wildebeest, the prey becomes unable to struggle almost immediately, well before having any important structured damaged. It makes them suffer less.
Wofahulicodoc could tell us more about this.

I take it a lamb is a baby sheep and the ewe in the story is its mother. It take it the ewe went in search of her baby lamb and found it dead [half-eaten].


rather, i think, as Dr bill said, the ewe had gone down to a back pasture (as many animals, she sought out a private place) and either while she was birthing, or very soon afterwards, they were attacked, and newborn lamb was eaten..

it might have interupted the birth, (did she pass the placenta? did the coyote eat that too with the lamb?) hard to tell, but the shock of the attack -while giving birth, or so soon following it could have been more than she could bear.

ewe's that have stillborn lamb 'act, appear' sad- it partly hormomal-- even human mothers 'feel better' right after birth if they nurse.. a ewe that doesn't have a lamb doesn't have a lamb to suckle--and unless one is found for the ewe to suckle, the ewe doesn't fare well. (they don't usually die)

(and they are easily fooled by taking the skin of the dead newborn lamb, and putting the skin over a lamb that is motherless (sometimes a ewe will reject a lamb, or sometimes a ewe will birth twins, and only 'recognize' one..and sometimes lamb die birthing, too.)

ewes are sensitive mothers..

they are easily fooled by taking the skin of the dead newborn lamb, and putting the skin over a lamb that is motherless

Yes, I saw a demonstration of that on tv very recently.

You certainly know more about ewes than I do [he confessed, sheepishly].

[I was going to recognize your erewedition, but that could have unintended ramifications. So I'll take it on the lamb, instead. Adewe.]

I was going to recognize your erewedition

oh, you can, you can, i have earned my sheepskin!

[I was going to recognize your erewedition, but that could have unintended ramifications. So I'll take it on the lamb, instead. Adewe.]

someone should horn in on this one before grapho gets all the good ones. or maybe I don't know mutton...

Dear etaoin: let none of us have carnal knowledge of mutton.

someone should horn in on this one before grapho gets all the good ones. or maybe I don't know mutton...


well, shofar, so good--what else have you got, eta.

"Shock" is a medical term for vascular collapse, which is so complicated I had a hundred page book just on the one topic.

The trouble is, it's not a well-defined phenomenon.

In the ICU it refers to something like "drop in blood pressure accompanied by impaired flow of blood to the peripheral and even the vital organs with resulting multi-system failure; death ensues unless the process can be interrupted and reversed," which is more a description than an explanation.

This means we can't say much about exactly what caused it in any given case (if indeed there is "a" cause), or precisely where the lesion is. We do recognize it when we see it, and we know a bunch of things to try, and then we see if the patient responds or not.

I don't imagine it's too different in veterinary medicine.

Dear wofahulicodoc: the thing that baffled me was that the
ewe lived five days after the event, and seemed to die more from dehydration that anything else.

let none of us have carnal knowledge of mutton

It's better to get nuthin than mutton, wwh.

I think I've written about this phenomenon on this board before, but since we're discussing the ewe in shock and dying perhaps of the broken heart that grapho suggested, I'll mention the phenomenon again:

It has been observed that when a sheep is depressed--loses a lamb, is injured, and so on--the sheep friend to which the ewe passes most time will weep with it. Yes, sheep shed tears. They are unusually sensitive animals.