Eve appeared to be depressed and sick of it all today. It was hot, there are flies she cant get away from and she spent the majority of her day with her head testing on her food and pushed as far as she could to one side with a brick stopping her from rolling all the way over. I felt a little concerned about her demeanour until I had a look at the other resident sheep. Sunny didnt come out from under the verandah all day. When I called him all I got was a half-hearted bleh in response. The other lambs came out to see if I had food but vanished quickly before the flies carried them away. The big sheep were flat out under a tree, only moving for water and to see if a visiting vehicle had food in it. Its fair to say that it was a pretty unpleasant day for sheep, particularly with the amount of flies that have come out with all the recent rain weve had. Eve, trapped and not able to find peace from flies, has a cotton sheet over her. It cant cover her face and neck though, and theyre driving her mad. She actually went beyond mad today and just gave up, letting them crawl all over her. They were even crawling up under the sheet to walk on her skin and do what flies do on her scabs. I ended up taking her sheet away and spraying it with fly repellent before putting it back over her, as well as spraying the floor around her bed. This helped a lot and made her much more comfortable, but I couldnt change the temperature for her so she continued to look miserable until the sun went down. The good news of the day is that her pressure sore, while still really horrible, is looking somewhat better than it was a week ago. Nappies and wound drying powder are doing the trick and Im feeling much more confident about it now. She also did some of her own stretching today. I saw her curl her neck over and stretch her shoulders, pulling her chin down to her chest, and quite often she stretched her left two legs which were on top) out to the side. Her right hind leg was under her and sticking out to the left a long way too. Her hindquarters were right over to the right and she demonstrated that shes now able to get quite a bit of movement in those tight tendons unassisted. The left front leg is the one Im concerned about shortening in the tendon but she almost straightened her knee on her own today. She also keeps trying to get up. She cant, and she isnt trying to the point of hurting herself, but as Im changing her position shes been pushing up on her knees and moving her body forward over them. Just the fact that shes trying this means that shes feeling much stronger. I was remembering today what she was like during her rescue. She was completely terrified, eyes wide and breathing hard, emptying her bowel and bladder as I came closer, but she made absolutely no attempt to move her legs and try to get away. I had to move her onto a feed bag and drag her up a hill to get her to the truck because I couldnt get the truck to her. I dragged her about 100 metres and not once did she move a leg. Its slow progress, but she really has come a long way. I cant wait to get her walker and see how she goes with it. Im also really anxious, because if it doesnt work for her I dont know that theres another option. I have a feeling Ill be spending the first few days modifying the harness to make it comfortable and avoid pressure, but if thats all it takes to make it work Im happy with that. Its going to work, isnt it? Im worried over nothing. Shell take a while to steady herself and then shell start moving around, front legs doing the work, then eventually her hind legs will start to bear her weight as well. Its going to be fine. It *is* going to work.
Posted on: Sun, 25 Jan 2015 13:57:45 +0000
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