Squeaky the Lamb

I don’t often do this but this week I felt like I really should do a follow up on last week’s column. I ended up last week saying that sometimes you win one and sometimes you lose one and often in the same day. Well, I guess sometimes you lose the whole shooting match and never should have gotten out of bed. In retrospect, that was the day I might have been better off pulling the covers over my head and trying to forget I had any responsibilities. In the end, it would have turned out the same and I would have gotten more sleep.

The cow who was down appeared to be making progress and even gave us hope that she would stand up. Then one morning we found her dead. I never like losing any animal and certainly one that I have put that much time and effort into. However, it all goes back to the fact that there are circumstances where there is nothing you can do and all you can take comfort in is knowing that you did everything you could. This was certainly one of those cases.

The twin lambs that I had thought were in good shape and had counted on as a win also did not have a happy ending. Once the smoke had cleared from that morning and I could spend a little more time with them I noticed that something just wasn’t right about them. It is hard to describe but something was off about their appearance, they were a bit frailer than normal and somewhat weaker. One of the twins even had what appeared to be hair instead of wool.

I consulted with my vet, whom I seem to have on speed dial this winter and have even joked that maybe it would be cheaper to just make a weekly retainer payment too. His thought was that the lambs had genetic defect. The problem was easy to take care of, the ram that was the father of the lambs had been culled this fall. However, we still had the lambs to deal with.

The weaker of the two lambs, the one I had found outside and had warmed up, died during the night. It had never really recovered from being cold and coupled with the genetic defect made it’s passing not much of a surprise. The other lamb, the one with the hair coat started off slow and weak, we bottle fed it four times a day. Slowly it seemed to build up strength and soon it was nursing its mother. The early bottle feeding did form a bond with the lamb and when we would pass by the pen he would run up and bawl at us.

Whatever his condition was made him make the oddest sound. Instead of normal lamb sounds he made more of a squeak. Therefore, we named him Squeaky. We kept reminding ourselves that no matter what we did Squeaky would probably not survive, but that did not keep us from getting somewhat attached to him. He was the oddest, goofiest looking lamb I have ever seen, hair instead of wool, long, gangly, knobby legs and eyes that seemed to bug out of his head. He continued to get stronger, grow and fill out. He would run and play with the other lambs and seemed to be progressing toward normal. Still we reminded ourselves that his life was probably not going to be long.

I suppose there are sheep producers out there who would have put Squeaky down right away and you might even be able to make the case that would be the best solution. I have a terrible time giving up hope and putting animals down, especially if they do not seem to be suffering. Squeaky certainly did not seem to be suffering. We pushed on, full steam ahead with Squeaky, each day added more hope that maybe he would beat the odds and live. The ewe he was out of was a first-time mother and she was very protective and very motherly.

Then this morning. I went out early to check and found Squeaky, he seemed to be weak and stiff. I immediately treated him even though in the back of my head I knew it was not good and there was probably nothing I could do. When I returned from the rest of my chores Squeaky was down and near death. Soon after Squeaky died.

Again, any animal I lose hurts. They are put in my care and I agonize after each one that I lose. We knew Squeaky did not have a very good chance of surviving but our whole family took great pride in him. In a way he was an example of how we care for our animals. Each day, no matter what the conditions, no matter what is going on we attend to our animals to the best of our abilities to make sure they are taken care of and that they are comfortable. Yes, sometimes in the world of animal agriculture you win and sometimes you lose. Then there are cases like Squeaky, where even loses are fulfilling.