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Monday, March 31, 2014

What's the Buzz!

  Everyone keeps asking us, "How's Buzz?" "How's that poor little sheep who got stuck in the fence?" I've been meaning to update everyone on the "little" guy, so here's the buzz with Buzz...





  He and his momma, Bonnie, were getting sick and tired of living in that pen. After a couple weeks of  bandage changes daily, then every other, then every third day, the wounds on his legs were finally healed enough to go uncovered.

  Here is what was left of the wounds on the day we finally decided to let them out. His left foot still wasn't function normally, but we were seeing improvement every day. We decided the best thing for him would to get back out with the flock and start really using that leg again.

  He and his mother shared a final meal of corn and sweet feed before I opened the pen door.

  Living cooped up for so long, it took them a few minutes to realize that they were free. I fully expected Bonnie to take off out of that pen and lead her son right back to the flock, but Buzz had other ideas....

  That little so and so bee-lined it straight for Thea and tried to nurse from her! She was having none of that and gave the little upstart a good headbutting for his efforts! Thea is perfectly happy to let anyone nurse while she has a face full of grain, but out in the open, ain't no one getting near her udder!

  Not to be thwarted, Buzz ran across the goat yard and into the milk room where he jumped up on the stand and waited very patiently for someone to bring him a goat to nurse from! At this point, I swear I saw Bonnie roll her eyes at his foolishness. With no goat forthcoming, she finally convinced him to head out to the pasture and the rest of the flock.

  But not before he made one more appeal to Thea for a quick drink. She was still having none of it.

  Finally free after weeks of confinement with only his mother for company, the little guy kicked up his heels with joy!

 Then nearly knocked over his mother for a drink!


  The rest of the flock gathered around to greet the newcomers while the goats and the dogs were drawn over by all the commotion.


  Obviously, those injuries weren't slowing Buzz down in the least. He was dancing and prancing and hopping all over the place.

  Apparently, Buzz must have heard us talking about his someday being a herd sire and decided to get a head start by humping anything that would hold still long enough for him to mount!

  We couldn't be more thrilled with the outcome of this story. It made me so happy to see this little guy out there acting like a normal sheep again!

  All of these pictures were taken a couple weeks ago. Since then the wounds have healed up completely and the hair is starting to grow back on almost all of his legs.

  He still has one area that I think will always be indented where the fence was the tightest. We will continue to watch this area closely as he grows to make sure the scar tissue doesn't strangulate the foot again. Otherwise Buzz is growing up to be a strapping young ram who we hope will have a bright future here on the farm!


Here is the album with all of the pictures from Buzz's saga. Be warned that some of the wound pictures are rather gory.

1 comment:

  1. What a perfect name for him "Buzz" getting caught in the "electric" fence... Wonderful story AS USUAL... THANKS !!!

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