Kat’s Recovery

In the beginning of our sheep days, we struggled with predators. And I mean STRUGGLED. While we had an LGD (lLivestock Guardian Dog), he was a stray who just happened to be running with our original flock. Since he wasn’t raised in a farming environment, Alpha required a lot of training and honestly still struggles sometimes. Before he understood that this territory is his to protect, we had a rough coyote attack and a number of dog attacks.

Daniel & I are firm believers that it is our responsibility to “put in the work” and do as much for our sheep as we have the power to do. It is also our job to trust that God will handle the rest. And so, we faithfully doctored too many sheep and did our best to teach Alpha. As He always does, God blessed us with abundant protection.

We did, however, experience our first dog attack in years just before Christmas. Clearly, big guy below does better at seeing coyotes as a threat than the neighbor’s friendly pup.

Last year we decided to dip into the world of registered sheep. While the majority of our flock are commercial Katahdins that are raised and sold for meat, we purchased some registered ewes and a registered ram to produce breeding stock. It’s a different world for us, but it was a move towards diversity.

The entire group of registered sheep have a similar disposition: curious, sweet, and calm. There were two particular speckled tan girls that stood out. They were the youngest of the group and had to be held back before breeding. The time they spent away from the main flock gave us the opportunity to bond with them. While they certainly weren’t begging for scratches yet, they recognized us as sources of food and were always excited to see us.

Unfortunately, I imagine that it was her timid demeanor (and, of course, the fact that she was one of our more expensive sheep… *eye roll*) that made Number 21 a prime target for a dog.

While we obviously pray that coyotes stay far far away from our farm, I can at least appreciate that when a coyote attacks livestock, they are killing to eat. Dogs, however, typically attack for fun. They enjoy chasing, scratching, and biting. That makes a fluffy, flighty sheep super tempting. And it often leaves us with a sheep near death that we have to nurse back to health. Sometimes we are successful, and sometimes we are not so lucky.

Number 21, as she was originally called, was one of the lucky ones. When we found her, though, we weren’t quite so sure she would be.

After ending the chase by becoming too tired to run, she had fallen over and was unable to get back up. We thankfully found her before she died from this state. Daniel held her in the bed of the truck as we drove to the house. She immediately took up residence in our shop and continued to crash with us for a couple of weeks.

For the most part, her wounds were superficial. Most of her cuts weren’t especially deep, but she did have deep-tissue wounds on her shoulder and hip, which caused difficulty in putting weight on two of her legs. If you check out the (sorry!) graphic image below, you can see the amount of pink on her back, all of which was bare skin where her hair had been ripped out and she had been scratched. Like many things in life, a number of small problems can add up to create a big problem. Her pain was significant, she was stressed from being separated from the flock, and she was utterly exhausted.

We worried because she stood too long and wouldn’t lay down. Then we worried when she finally laid down and wouldn’t get back up. It was like being newborn parents again, and hilariously, Daniel was the helicopter parent.

In terms of treatment, we started by pouring on hydrogen peroxide to kill any bacteria. We tried to remove loose hair, dirt, and grass during this wash. We then covered her with Blu Kote, which is an antibiotic ointment spray. (Seriously though, does anybody know why they call it Blu Kote when it’s actually purple? I ask this question literally every time we use it.) We gave her a shot of long-acting antibiotic, and we focused on getting her to eat and drink to restore her energy. Her surface scratches started responding immediately, which was EXTREMELY encouraging considering the sad state in which we found her. We reapplied Blu Kote every few days, which helped ensure a speedy (ish) recovery.

She looked pitifully silly. Green from the hydrogen peroxide and purple from the Blu Kote.

There are only a few sheep that have stolen Daniel’s heart, and she is one of them. It’s always the sweetness that gets him, and he enjoyed her making laps around the shop and laying by him while he worked. He named her Katerina, “because she reminded him of the main girl from the movie Sleepy Hollow.” And, yes, I’m as confused about that explanation as you are.

We wanted Katarina to build her energy before rejoining the flock, so we created her own little pasture out of woven-wire electric fence in the back yard. We realized super super quickly that being a sheep with no hair in a Kentucky winter was NOT going to work.

So we embraced the idea of having a diva sheep. Although these blankets are fairly common for show sheep, we haven’t ever used one before. She kicked and tugged for a while, but she eventually accepted her extra layer of warmth. As you can see, it makes sun bathing enjoyable for her again.

Then it got colder. And Daniel took it a step further.

We are in the middle of lambing, so we are currently not using our creep feeder. Therefore, Daniel repurposed it into a “hot box” for Katarina. Her new home includes a heat lamp for those freezing nights and free-choice feed, a luxury not afforded to the rest of our flock. It is also right outside our front door, so we’re able to keep an eye on her, and Daniel’s been able to keep his friend around.

This set up has worked out really well for lambing, as we are able to utilize the “hot box” for any struggling lambs or those born in unfavorable conditions. This fact also means that Katarina always has company, which is incredibly important for sheep. These prey animals are reliant upon their flock, meaning that isolation can be very stressful for them. Katarina currently has two lambs and two mommas in her mini-pasture.

Longterm, we were afraid that Katarina’s hair would not grow back.

I prepped this blog post last night, stating that “We are praying that she has a full recovery. We trust that either way, God will take care of her and her position on the farm.” Before posting this, we took off Katarina’s blanket/coat to give her skin some breathing time. We discovered that she had grown a quarter inch of hair in the places where she had previously been bald!

From confidence comes blessings. We must be ever confident in His ability to “do the rest”.

Lord,

Bless those who have stumbled upon this piece. May they find comfort in the care you afford to even the low - especially the low.

What a blessing it is to know that you are guiding, leading, and lifting us all. Even in the moments of uncertainty, grant them the ability to have faith that you are in control. Let them be thankful for that fact.

Be with us all, and help us to cling to the assurance that comes from your presence. Keep up our confidence. We couldn’t do any of it without you.

Amen.