Our old ewe Mama is not doing so well lately. I am treating her for a magnesium/calcium deficiency. Which is weird in the middle of summer. And she is not lactating and has a mineral block in her field but there you are, she has been hit by a deficiency. 
She has what I would call’ the staggers’. Difficulty standing up and when she does her legs go all knock kneed. This started on Thursday and of course she got worse over the weekend. It is possibly the result of pasture growing too fast in watery conditions shedding its minerals, or a fungus that grows on rye grass after a rain- making it toxic. But honestly there are a number of ways to contract this I am more interested in beating it. No-one is in the rye grass field. And only Mama is affected. Though she is bright, and eating and drinking yesterday she could not get up at all.
The vet said he had seen a bit of Tetany around lately with these very wet conditions. He gave me a bottle of a treatment that is magnesium, potassium, calcium and dextrose. Usually delivered intravenously I am able to pour 100 mls of that down her throat once a day, I am also pouring Gatorade laced with cider vinegar down her throat twice a day as a tonic. I do all the pouring with a large capacity syringe kept specially for Mama. She literally sucks on it like a bottle. Like I said: we have done this before.
In fact, you and me, and she and I have gone through this routine before. She is no spring chicken and has had her fair share of set-backs but yesterday she bit my finger which I took as a good sign. Her eyes really are bright and she is very alert and calm. Mama and I have a very strange connection, she has given birth to quads every year since I rescued her, often trying to clean me at the same time as she cleaned her lambs and she always pulls through.
This time the hardest thing is getting her to stay upright for any length of time. So once John got home we held her upright so she could pee. I had the tractor in her field for her shade, so I took my hammock chair and slid it under her belly then attached the ends to the tractor bucket, creating a sling and while I hauled her upright, John very slowly lifted the bucket. Suspended in her hammock with her legs straight down, she peed, then began to graze – still in her sling. If her legs would work she would be a perfectly normal sheep. 
Her head is always up, not once has she laid down on her side. So I think if I can get her standing upright as much as possible and keep getting the minerals into her she might pull through.
I am working on it. But she is an old sheep, I am not even sure how old. But I am not giving up until she does. 
I hope you have a lovely day.
Your friend on the farmy,
celi
The Kitchen's Garden 
39 responses to “Mama”
Come on Mama, feel better soon!
Poor Mama, I hope she recovers soon. Everyone else looks so happy and healthy. Do take care, Celi.
Oh, Ci. Poor Mama. Your instincts are right about keeping her up and using a sling. We did that with cows – propped them up with bales of hay, too. Their insides need to hang in the normal position to work. Her eyes sound good – just watch them, she’ll let you know – she trusts you….
(I can see it now. An odd dream. Mama a viral video as some bright engineering/AG student creates a sling contraption with wheels so she happily can roll around the pasture……)
Never give up, Mama. Nor you, miss c.
I’m no farmer, but I have heard that tics can cause paralysis in an animal. Even if it was, how would you ever find it in all that wool?
Awww, c’mon Mama. You can do it. You can. You can!
Aww C…and poor Mama…but you always do whatever you can and more when one of your animals are in distress. This time is no different and she Knows you are helping her all you can. C.mon Mama…we’re all pulling for you! Thinking of both of you and sending healing good wishes and love.
In California, grass tetany can be a problem in a really wet, foggy winter when the grass grows really high and provides no nourishment. My stepfather used to throw his cows bags of the lime like they use to make lines on football fields. Other cattlemen would sometimes lose lots of cows to grass tetany, and he never lost a single one. I didn’t know sheep were susceptible to it.
Hope she pulls through x
This is a terrible worry for you. Getting a large animal up is a major achievement –I recall your having to get Daisy up too. If anyone can cure Mama it is you, Celi, with your extraordinary care and wisdom.
I have been worried about your milk cow getting grass tetany, but never gave your sheep a thought about it. One year our sheep were full of keds because we had not wormed them and they are such bloodsuckers. Like you said, since Mama is not lactating, it is confusing as to what is happening. Your other sheep are not affected, are they? Maybe a selenium deficiency? Seems like it is always something with animals. It is a terrible year for hay around here. Too dry and no moisture in the ground because of lack of winter snow. Our neighbor only got 200 bales from a field that usually yields 500. We mowed our field yesterday and, of course, and we are supposed to have a thunderstorm this afternoon. Your plonkers are surely enjoying their mud wallow.
You’ve both been through so much together, am crossing everything for you all x
Hang In there Mama and celi!
Mama is in good hands, as well as the treatment she has care, and trust 🙂 Everyone else appears to be enjoying the season, and rightly; it looks lovely from here.
I have everything crossed for Mama.
She knows she is surrounded by love.
XO