Vet called & sad realisation that old rams get unreversible health issues
Channel: Zwartbles Ireland Suzanna Crampton
Date: 21/04/2020

Both Alfie & Buster are getting very old so they’ve acquired health issues of the elderly. Smudge is much the same. Large sheep like large dogs don’t have long lives. We have a week of antibiotics ahead of us for Buster at the end of which a reassessment will be had, if it was just an abscess or a nasty melanoma. Alfie will have to think about what happens next as there is no way to improve arthritis other than feed him painkillers every day and there in lies the rub. How do you feed 1 sheep painkillers. Or do the sensible thing and make an end of life decision. He is such an excellent ram with such good offspring on the ground. I would love one more breeding season out of him. 

Zwartbles Ireland is a small company run from a farm in County Kilkenny in Ireland. We sell, Zwartbles sheep, Zwartbles blankets and yarn made from the sheep, and calendars featuring the Cats Shepherd Bodacious and Inca the World's Smallest Sheepdog.