Well we got Skerry in first thing, just!!! She was VERY keen not to come in and really hung back from the rest of the sheep – all of whom came galloping when they heard the feed bucket! Poor Skerry could not gallop anyway and was also obviously very wary about coming near us. And as Jack wrote in a recent article, sheep may flock naturally and therefore be easy to round up but you cannot ‘herd’ a single animal. Jack hid out of sight ready to close the gate behind Skerry when she came through and David hung back hoping she would walk through the gateway towards the sound of the others. At one point she looked like she was going to double back on us but David closed in a little and she realised going forward was her best option!!! It was tense because her limp was (is) quite bad and we did not want her to run away and potentially make it worse. The ground is also VERY wet so the chances of slipping over are high - for both limping animals AND humans!!.
Once in, we had a good look at Skerry’s foot. There was ZERO sign of any scald, no heat, no injury, no swelling!! We concluded it was a sprain and gave her some Metacam and agreed that staying inside where she cannot run around was the best thing for her. She is due to lamb in a week and so we do need her fit by then. It won’t be easy for the lambs to suckle her if she cannot stand up properly!!
Talking of lambs, no sign yet from our first three contenders...