Mar 6
Getting there……
Lilka continues to try to eat, but she just isn’t consistently eating enough roughage. It is a difficult in-between time; she is too well to tolerate spending the day in her pen when the others are outside. Besides fretting and stressing herself, she is strong enough now to jump out and has tried almost successfully. I am still giving her thiamine and B-vitamins, and feeding her twice a day, helping her get enough hay into her mouth. I am also still giving her gruel made with oatmeal and the rumen/bloat remedy recipe  that Linda Doane gave me years ago. In case it will be useful to someone else with an ill sheep, I will put the recipe at the end of this post.
I am also giving her huge amounts of probiotics before she goes out in the morning and after she comes in and at bedtime, but I feel that there isn’t enough roughage going in all day to support the bacteria. Our USDA vet (who always is interested in talking sheep physiology with me) told me once that the 1/2 life of the rumen bacteria without nutritional support is 30 minutes! (just to be clear….every thirty minutes 1/2 of the bacterial culture dies if there isn’t enough material in the rumen for it to thrive on.)
This was a big ah-ha moment for me to say the least…I began to see the sheep as a walking bacterial culture. The rumen bacteria are not only necessary to break down their feed into useable nutrients, but to synthesize many of the vitamins (most particularly thiamine) that the sheep absolutely must have in order to survive. If the rumen is unhealthy, and it isn’t attended to, the sheep will die.
So I have developed a working relationship with Lilka’s rumen….and believe that I can stubbornly sustain her life until it finally kicks in. Please let today be the day that she keeps her mouth full just like this!
PS: Three hours later, now 10:00 AM….Lilka is lying in the sun chewing her cud!!!!
Rumen/Bloat Remedy…thanks to Linda Doane.
1 qt. warm water
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 cup Karo syrup
1/2 cup corn oil
1 raw egg
1/2 cup yogurt (or more)
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Stay strong, Lois! You and Lilka are in my prayers!
Bless both your hearts. With your intensive support, I know Lilka should pull through just fine. The worst thing is that it’s time that is needed – and when one of your charges is hurting or ill, we shepherds wish for instant cures.
You all will be in my thoughts and prayers today.
Humm, can kefir take the place of yogurt?
I hope she is getting better each day. She really is a gorgeous girl!