Life at HighTail Farms

In case there was any question that our animals are free range....

Birds everywhere doing their birdy thing. The goats and the sheep are out there somewhere too.

Even the baby rabbits get plenty of time outside with their feet on the ground and all the greenery they can nibble.

Ms. Ruby has been doing well, getting her bottle with probiotics once or twice a day. She still gets the occasional gas bubble, but we keep a close eye on her and give her lots of rumen massages when necessary.

 Some days, I feel a lot like Dr. Doolittle or the Poultry Pied Piper.

 I have to admit it's not a bad feeling being the most popular girl in the barnyard even if they only love me for the food I scoop out every evening.

Even though 90% of our animals get free access to pasture all day, they are all tucked safely away in pens with a scoop or two of good quality feed at night. It's amazing that most of the birds know where they live and will start making their way to their pens as evening sets in. Any stragglers are scooted in the right direction with the help of our 3 herding Shelties.

We were very fortunate to find a place that was set up to raise poultry with these wonderful indoor/outdoor completely enclosed (even on top!) pens. This has allowed us to raise a large number and variety of birds in a wonderful environment where they can learn to be real animals and not just feathered meats.

Battling Bloat

A few weeks ago, we lost one of our momma sheep, Rose. I was away for the day, sitting with my grandmother in the hospital, but from what BigOnion told me and what I saw when I got home, it looked like bloat. Bloat can happen in sheep for a lot of different reasons, and I think we lost Rose due to a combination of things including parasites and the antibiotics we were using to try and clear her persistent case of hoof rot.

Well, when we got home from work one day this week and found Ruby with a slightly distended belly, we started worrying that we had another bloat case on our hands. Bloat is very, very common in bottle fed lambs. I went ahead and gave her her evening bottle and went back inside for dinner. After dinner, I went to check on her again, and she looked even worse. Her belly felt tight like a balloon, and she didn't call out to me or try to follow me.

I knew something was seriously wrong, so I scooped her up and carried her back to the house (25lbs of wriggling sheep gets HEAVY after a while) and set her up on the lanai (screened in porch).

I tried giving her a good mouthful of a bloat remedy I found online that was oil, baking soda and water. She was less than thrilled with the idea. She also wasn't interested in her bottle - a very bad sign.

I decided I would be spending the night with her. Bloat can turn deadly very quickly, and there was no way I was gonna lose this sweet baby if I could help it. What followed was a long night of giving her oil and probiotics, massaging her huge belly while listening intently for burps and farts, and walking up and down the back yard. I set my alarm to wake me every hour so I could make sure she was ok.

About 3:30 in the morning, she came over and nose poked me awake. Her stomach was finally going down a little, and she was finally ready to take her bottle! Not long after, she started passing nasty, liquid, oily, gassy poops. I never thought I'd be so happy to see sheep crap in my life!

By morning, she was feeling so much better. Her stomach had much more give. She was talking to me and following me around. She got one more bottle with milk, a little more oil, and probiotics. I walked her back out to the flock and left for work. By far the longest work day I have every spent.

She seemed fine when we got home and has been ok since. I make sure to add probiotics to every bottle she gets now and that seems to make the difference.

Sheep Milking:Take 2

Thanks to some great advice from our favorite dog trainer/sheltie breeder/sheep farmer, we were finally able to get some milk from our sheep mommas! Her advice was to separate moms and babies for a day before trying to milk and that really did the trick.

Though, I have to say even though both our lambs who still have mothers around are more than old enough to fend for themselves, they were none too pleased with being separated from their constant milk supply. It was a very noisy day for us with mommas calling and babies crying. The lambs ended up joining up with the newest adolescent group and forming a band of wild lamblings led by none other than our bottle lamb, Ruby. They then took over one of the turkey pens Lord of the Flies style.

I waited for the Big Onion to get home before attempting another milking. We got Patch up on the stand, and he did the dirty work while I tossed sweet feed into the bucket and kept the rest of the flock at bay with my stock stick. Well, the forced separation worked! We got sheep milk! Not much, but enough for Ms. Ruby to make a meal. The amount we got was not really worth all the stress to the flock though. I think Ruby's going to have to settle for pasteurized goat milk and formula in the future. Luckily, she is old enough that she shouldn't need a bottle for much longer anyway.