Lamb Update…

We got the little lamb back around 5:30 last night. He had gone off his food again, and once I had looked him over realized his mouth had gone cold, a sign hypothermia had set in once again. Randy and I took his temperature, 97.4 degrees. His temperature should have been 100-103 degrees. I quickly got a warm water bottle on his belly; a shot of dextrose warmed and administered, and used the blow dryer to warm him up. We got his temperature up, used a feeding tube to get 4 ounces of milk replacer down him, and tucked him into a bed of towels and hot water bottles. We were up at 11:00 pm to tube him and change out his water bottles. His breathing was very labored, and we could hear the rattle in his chest from fluid building up. We gave him excenel for the pneumonia setting in and went back to bed praying for the best. At 4:00 am we got up, tubed him, changed out his bedding and water bottles and left for work.

Randy planned to call Dan, the owner, to have him head over to our house around 11:00 am to change out his water bottles and possibly have Dad go tube feed him if needed. Dan never answered Randy’s many phone calls this morning, so I called up my brother at the last minute to have him run down and change them out before they turned cold and froze the little guy to death.

It was too late. The little lamb we were caring for had died. My brother was so good to take care of him for us. We tried so hard, but he was just too malnourished and had been too cold for too long.  It’s always so heartbreaking though.