On the importance of sheep vaccinations

We lost our sweet ewe lamb two weeks ago.  We found her in the woods, barely alive.  We tried to get her back on her feet for two days to no avail.  In the end, after we went through every possible sheep disease, we figure out she had enterotoxemia.  Essentially, she had such a rich diet of milk (the ewes are all on our lush clover pasture) that the bacteria in her gut multiplied so rapidly that it overwhelmed her kidneys and she died of organ failure.  Once an animal gets this, there is no cure.

HOWEVER, had we given her mother a very inexpensive shot the month before the lamb was born, we could have prevented this from happening.  We feel horrific about the loss of this animal and hope that if you raise sheep, you never go through what we went through.  Now we know to give this shot during the spring shearing, right before lambing time and also two months after the lambs are born.  We learn hard lessons on this farm, and this will be a mistake that we hope to never repeat.

Good-bye sweet Leaf Dawn, we hope your body nourishes the grass and returns you to the circle of life on our farm.