Begin at the beginning.
February 7th, 2009
My head is full of needles, shots, long nights and death. I have lost my Targee sheep and her triplets. After 2 weeks of prodding, poking, turning and talking to Nancy she is gone. Ketosis and preeclampsia developed in the last month of pregnancy - Bo-Se and Calcium Gluconate injections, glucose injections, vitamins, drenches, banamine injections and dexamethasone to induce labor yet out of all the technology and medicines available nothing worked. Bad things happen to good animals. She is buried in our pasture with her only surviving 3 day old lamb at her side. Just like Nancy 4 degrees (the temperature when he was born) fought until he could fight no longer. With no colostrum from mum his chances were slim but the hard delivery made things much grimmer for this little life - he spent much of it in my girls, husbands and friends laps being snuggled, petted and kissed until he passed away silently in his sleep.
Being a farmer I know to expect these things but it never makes them easier. The day I stop feeling the loss of an animal is the day I stop being a farmer.
Tamara Leclerc on February 17th 2009 in Organic Farming with Barn Cats