The Resilience of Sheep

purplequeenvt

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This is Marimba. She was mauled by a dog, who ate most of her shoulder blade as well as the surrounding muscle, on October 2nd 2015.



Unfortunately, I was too concerned about getting her patched up to take a picture of the injury before taking her to the vet. I only have pictures of it after getting patched up and during the healing.

This is after her vet visit. The vet just closed the skin covering the missing bone and muscle. Not much else she could do.



She spent the first couple weeks sleeping in a crate in the house and out in a pen on the lawn during the day.



Despite the daily high-power antibiotics, she got bad inflammation and some infection. The skin around the sutures died and the skin split open. This is about 3 weeks post attack.



Still, her spirits were excellent and her appetite was good. I had decided at the beginning that I would keep working on her as long as she was working too. If she gave up, then so would I.




The process was slow. For several weeks, I changed her dressing every day. After a while, I was able stretch out the dressing changes to once a week.

This is what she looked like 3 weeks ago.



Still draining fluid and not completely closed.

This is today. No drainage and almost completely closed. The bandages are off for good.




She remains otherwise healthy and full of spunk. She pushes her way into the larger sheep to get her share of the food and likes to boss the Pyr puppies around. She will always have a limp and a funky shaped shoulder, but should be able to function like a normal sheep for the rest of her life.

I am amazed at how well she has come through this. A lot of other animals (and even other breeds of sheep) wouldn't have made it past the attack.
 
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Mike CHS

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That is an awesome story about a sheep with a super will to live. It had to be tempting to put her down but a good ending to a sad story.
 

Goatgirl47

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Awww! Thanks for sharing! She sure is a tough little ewe (and pretty too). Good job! :thumbsup
Just curious, but what happened to that dog? :smack
 

Latestarter

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:yuckyuck Sorry, but I had the same nagging question. Glad you were able to save her. It would have been much easier to just put her down.
 

Roving Jacobs

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You did such an awesome job taking care of her! I would have done anything I could for that sweet face too.
 

norseofcourse

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Wow that's just amazing - great job taking care of her, and she did great, too!
 

secuono

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They are hardy little things!
Glad she's doing well.

The other year, dog chewed off the tail of a young and pregnant ewe, chewed off some muscle and skinned her rump as well. Ripped wool and skin off in tandom spots, too.
I washed it and kept her in a small pen for a couple days. She soon demanded to be let free to be with the others.
Healed over perfectly and she lambed without any issues.
 
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