Everyone Helped and We Got'er Done
We wormed all the sheep and the llamas yesterday. We trimmed hooves. And we tagged the lambs!
After I lured the sheep into a holding pen, the "fun" began. My husband and our oldest son caught each sheep. I measured it with a weight tape. Our youngest child wrote down the weight. Then we backed the sheep up into the "sheep chair". Our oldest son held the sheep's horns to make sure it stayed in the chair. My husband got to work trimming hooves. I inspected the sheep's teeth, and teats. Our youngest child wrote down my comments. I measured out the worming medicine and squirted it in the sheep's mouth. By about that time my husband had the hooves trimmed. We tipped the chair forward and the the sheep rejoined the flock. If the sheep was a lamb, our middle child mounted an ear tag in the applicator, painted in with antiseptic, and handed it to his father. He inserted the tag in the lamb's ear. Our youngest child recorded the tag number. With our family working together the process went more quickly and each animal was restrained for a shorter period of time. I'm thankful for my helpful family!
After I lured the sheep into a holding pen, the "fun" began. My husband and our oldest son caught each sheep. I measured it with a weight tape. Our youngest child wrote down the weight. Then we backed the sheep up into the "sheep chair". Our oldest son held the sheep's horns to make sure it stayed in the chair. My husband got to work trimming hooves. I inspected the sheep's teeth, and teats. Our youngest child wrote down my comments. I measured out the worming medicine and squirted it in the sheep's mouth. By about that time my husband had the hooves trimmed. We tipped the chair forward and the the sheep rejoined the flock. If the sheep was a lamb, our middle child mounted an ear tag in the applicator, painted in with antiseptic, and handed it to his father. He inserted the tag in the lamb's ear. Our youngest child recorded the tag number. With our family working together the process went more quickly and each animal was restrained for a shorter period of time. I'm thankful for my helpful family!
