Ewe doing better? Yes, thanks.

Adot and black lamb who is really getting into her dinner

The white lamb

Adot, my ewe with mastitis who wouldn't eat, is doing a lot better.  She is back to eating and acting normal, and I even saw the lambs nurse once today.  She had been avoiding them, and I was beginning to think they were giving up trying to suck.   I have been supplementing them with bowls of milk replacer, and milking Adot.   Both my sheep guru and vet agreed that if the lambs weren't nursing she should be milked twice a day to help with the mastitis, in addition to getting massive penicillin shots.  She wasn't too bad to milk at first; she was pretty listless and would just stand there.   Now she's got her energy back and milking has turned into "chase the dancing sheep udder"  as she leaps around.   I tie her up in the barn (otherwise in the field all the other sheep crowd around getting in the way)  but she still manages quite a bit of jumping and wiggling.    The lambs are one month old now and not ready to wean, so I was dancing myself to see them latched on and tails a wiggling out in the yard this afternoon.  

I have been putting her out with the other sheep during the day, which means Hank has the challenge at night of sorting just her and her lambs off and bringing them into the barn.   He did a great job doing a shed out in the open tonight and just bringing the one ewe- on the second try.  On the first try we got all the sheep in the barn.   Of course the lambs follow along with their mom.   Tonight I gave her some grain, and that made her stand still for a short while anyway.    And as a bonus I got nuzzled by a milky whiskered lamb.  

We had a good day to be outside, and it's supposed to be even nicer tomorrow.   Here are Tessa and Sally hanging out on the deck. 

Deck dogs

I worked Pepper and Sprite out in the big field.  Sprite got a small group of three who just wanted to graze and not move, except for Spazzy ewe, who has a name but the descriptor suits her better.   It was a bit of a challenge keeping two pokey sheep moving and keeping one Spazzy sheep from running off, so she had to work.      Pepper got the big group which made them all hang together better, even if they were all stopping to eat every few steps.    We did some driving and some fetching.   Most of  Pepper's flanks have gotten really nice, even on the fence she was going round and quietly.   Only when she slips out of drive mode into "oh my God, they're getting away!!" and runs to head them off does she slice really badly.