Wish you were closer Michael. I have a litter of livestock guardian dog puppies being raised with bottle baby lambs right now. The puppies were born April 15th and the lambs are recent. All one happy family.
Glad to hear the goats are coming around! Mark Wintermute Subject: Re: [Blackbelly] Coyote fence ideas Coyote attack update: My two surviving Pygmy goats ended up needing vet attention. Lucy, especially, had her tongue hanging half out her mouth, 50% of the time, and was actually trying to eat around her tongue hanging out the side of her mouth. Sometimes the poor thing would foam up and make me worried she had the word's fastest-acting case of rabies. The vet had not seen anything quite like this-- without it simply being a broken jaw or worse. I am posting this to the sheep forum in case it helps you folks with survivors of attack. Both Lucy and Lucas were, apparently, saved from the jaws of death by me coming out to investigate that night. The vet and I shaved their necks and they both had tooth punctures and lacerations. Lucy had a bad swelling under her tongue as well as a good sized puncture right under it that might be infected. She was treated with banamine and penicillin (I am still injecting both goats with penicillin for another few days), and she looked much better as short as only 6 hours later. The next day, almost no tongue hanging out at all. Today, even better. It appears the swelling might have been pressing on a nerve for her tongue, but she may also have some permanent nerve damage there. Now, to keep an eye on her for weight loss, and also, cough caused by aspirating liquid. As for my anti-coyote plan going forward: Sheila, my dog is in there 100% of the time, now. And at night I am penning up the goats, and the willing sheep. This way, Sheila does not contend with an acre's worth of fenced pasture with 10 animals splitting up and running all over the place. She simply guards three gates for paddocks (See my lamb pictures for an idea of the size) I have a good lead on a young, possibly bred female llama. But, I am thinking more seriously about a LDG pup to put in with Sheila. BTW: Sheila is not an LGD, she is an Aussie that was rescued and has never been taught to herd. In fact, I've had to discourage her from herding in order to get her to co-exist with the ewes and goats and guard the property in general. But she loves having a job. Sheila is a good dog in that she only barks when there's really a problem. Living only 30-40 feet from the house, that is important to us. I'd like to at least try to get the pup to learn from that example. Also, she's more than half through her life, so some new blood would be a good idea. The llama thing, from reading everyone's posts, seems a bit hit and miss. Dogs seem to be everyone's last and best line of defense, from what I am reading. Improved fencing would be next. Electric at the bottom and maybe prison-style angled, barbwire fencing at the top, to prevent them from getting over the top. -Michael, Perino Ranch Blackbellies. San Martin, CA. _______________________________________________ This message is from the Blackbelly mailing list Visit the list's homepage at %http://www.blackbellysheep.info
