Intensive care again

Each day we bring ewes and lambs down from the hill to better pasture. Basically you treat them like dairy cows for a couple of weeks, good grass and some concentrates to support milk production, especially if they have two lambs. There is a drawback because there is more natural shelter in the hill park. 

Dormouse bringing ewe and lambs down from the hill

It doesn't take them long to get used to waitress service     

 When I went round the ewes and lambs yesterday morning  one lamb was missing, the one on the right in the image above. My first thought was it had fallen in the burn then that a fox had taken it. I eventually found it curled up in a hollow very cold and wet from the frost. It had the same therapy as the last one, glucose then warmth, then milk via stomach tube and eventually milk from the bottle. But ewes don't have brilliant memories and after a while they can forget about the one that has been in care so we set up a pen in the byre, the lamb is back with Mum and protected from wind and rain until its stronger. However, being closer to a wild animal than a farm animal Blackface ewes rarely cooperate. This one had to be caught and steered to the byre using its handlebars.  She hadn't forgotten so a happy ending in that I don't have to bottle feed it for the next eight weeks.

Unfortunately the Editor of the Kilchoan Diary was passing at the time.