A Tale of Two Wethers....

Here we have the two dollar and fifty cent wether....

and then there is his brother, the seventy five dollar wether.....

But I'm worth it right? You betcha little feller, you sure are.

By now, those that read my blog have figured out I'm not the 'sensible' everything has to pay it's own way around here type hobby farmer. When I started out in sheep nine years ago, I got plenty of advice from my commercial sheep breeder friends. I also got 'made fun of' quite a bit, because of some of the decisions I made. For awhile it bothered me, but then I came to several conclusions. 1) It's my sheep, sheep farm, my decisions. End of discussion. If I want to raise them for their wool and place my wethers in pet/fiber homes that was okay. 2) I would not be able to keep wethers as pets, or every ewe that hit the ground either. Some of them would have to be sold. 3) I would try my hardest to find homes for them that would treat them humanely and give them a decent life.

Over the years I've been told many things---one being that it was better for wethers to be slaughtered or sold to slaughter than to go into pet/fiber homes, because they could end up neglected. I chose not to follow that advice and have placed many wethers in fiber homes where they live out their lives happily. Realizing early on that they didn't have to be wethers to suffer abuse or neglect I try very very hard to place my sheep with consideration and forethought. Offering followup advice and help has always been my motto as far as sales go. After all, if someone doesn't know that a sheep needs shearing once a year or foot trims or vaccinations and inadvertently neglects... then isn't that the sellers fault as well?

Not keeping every sweet wether that comes along has been difficult at times, because invariably the friendliest lambs are the little wethers. I've done really well on this one over the years, making exceptions to keep one wether each for the rams to have companions. One year I folded and kept sweet little Ringo, but he died suddenly that fall. This year, I am making exceptions. I plan on keeping a couple of wethers. Spotted wethers. I have reasons. Firstly my ewes refuse to give me any spotted ewe lambs, which I think is pretty selfish, and secondly I plan not to breed the ewes this fall. 2011 will be the first year without lambs since Spring 2002. Since I will be skipping a year without lambs, and I have several elderly flock members, I think I can squeeze in a couple of wethers.

So, what does this have to do with this post? Not much really, except there would have been a day when I might have felt foolish to spend 75.00 to have a lamb wethered, but that day is long past. I do about 99 percent of my own sheep vet work, but if I think there is a chance in you know where that the vet can save a life or offer positive treatment, then I will certainly go that route if I can and it is a viable option.

Which brings me to this cute little pair of twins..both, you guessed it wethers! These little boys were slightly preemie, and I realized early on we might have a problem with the little black fellow. He only had one testicle descended. Never a good thing. The problem in a nutshell, uh, so to speak, is that if you were to wether him by removing the one descended testicle it still leaves the one lurking somewhere in his body. This can cause lots of problems down the road. The main one being that the wether would still think he was a ram, and while the chances of being fertile are about nil, he would still exhibit aggressive ram behavior. The compounded problem for this little guy is that he was born friendly. Friendly little rams can become very dangerous and obnoxious adult rams. So he wouldn't be a ram, but he would be.

I let them grow out to about six weeks before I loaded him and his brother up to go to the vet's to see if there could be a miracle. This vet has pulled off some good things, but this time even he couldn't locate the missing piece. Meanwhile the little grey twin was castrated in less than five minutes and stowed back in the crate. After consulting his books and discussing options the vet was game to try and wether the black lamb. This would be under general anesthesia (similar to a dog neuter), which can be difficult on sheep sometimes. There was a good chance the little lamb wouldn't pull out of it. An appointment was made for the next week. However before I left, the vet lowered his voice and said...you know I'll have to charge allot more for this one, don't you? Oh yeah, I knew that.

The day of the operation it was typical for taking any 'pet' in to be neutered. No food or water for 12 hours prior. Have you ever thought about the logistics for keeping a lamb off food/water and mommy for 12 hours? The night before I stuffed him and his twin into a big plastic dog crate with a sheet to lay on at one end. There was much mourning in the night and by the next morning the crate was filthy. The lamb was dropped off at the vet's at 8:30 a.m. I was able to bring him home at 3:00 p.m. after he woke up completely from the anesthesia. It was a long day. While the surgery went well, it was intensive as the missing part was hard to locate. When I went to pick him up, the receptionist went out to get him. The next thing I knew he came walking out on the end of a leash looking all bright eyed and interested, like he regularly took walks on a leash. His recovery time consisted of one evening in a stall with his mom and brother. Two weeks later he seems fine. And still very friendly despite all he has been through.

And to one of those tough decisions--yes he and his brother are for-sale. They would love to go to the same home as they 'stick like glue' to each other. The little black lamb is super friendly and will follow you anywhere. His brother is more shy and relies on his brother to lead the way. He is not wild though, and will soon warm up to being a fiber pet. If you are interested let me know. Only a special sweet home for these little boys, please! If they don't get placed, I'm not sweating it. Frankly I'm not sweating about too much of anything this year, except the hot weather. That's wEATHER not wETHER. ;-)