Lamb Stories and FFA and 4H Projects
Candy is an expert dog groomer and has raised and shown dogs most of her life. But she’s not so hot with lambs. Her daughter Brooklyn just took delivery on her FFA lamb. They brought her home in a large plastic dog crate in the back of a pickup. Husband Gary and two kids – Brooklyn and Joseph – stood watching while Candy opened the kennel.
“Lambo” came charging out of the kennel, knocked Candy over backwards, then ran up her belly and chest and as she jumped over Candy’s face, Candy managed to grab her hind legs and was lying on her back, arms over her head, hanging on while Lambo struggled to pull free. It was then that Lambo cut loose with a sort of lamb version of “water-boarding.”
Though they pale into insignificance, there are other problems with FFA and 4H project lambs, steers and pigs. Dr. Jessica Bell who works for the Rustebakke Veterinary Service in Clarkston gave me a short summary of things to be aware of.
Parasites, mainly intestinal worms, are common. The symptoms are diarrhea and poor weight gain. An examination under a microscope of a sample of the animal’s stool will usually make the diagnosis. It is important to use the best medication for the particular parasites found.
When a project animal is brought into a new environment and new food, indigestion often results, and that can lead to bloat. Bloat, especially in a steer, is an emergency and a veterinarian should be called even if it’s Sunday morning. The best way to avoid bloat is to make diet changes gradually, and carefully follow the advice of the FFA or 4H leader, or your veterinarian.
Steers also get warts and ringworm. A veterinarian can remove the warts surgically and administer a vaccine for prevention. Ringworm can be treated with medicated bathing.
Bladder stones are more common in sheep fed high mineral diets, and alfalfa hay. The first symptom is difficulty in urinating. (Which Lambo did not have.) Difficulty in urination can often look like constipation to an inexperienced owner. If treated early enough a minor surgical procedure may fix the problem. By the time the lamb’s belly swells up, it is too late.
Dr. Bell and Dr. Rustebakke, like most veterinarians, offer educational presentations to FFA and 4H classes and other groups. Now is the time to take advantage of this so that problems can be prevented.
Coincidently, the evening before I wrote this column, a friend told me a lamb story about her daughter, Lisa. Many years ago, Lisa and her husband bought a couple of lambs to keep the weeds down. The lambs, a male and a female, were born on Martin Luther King’s birthday, so they named them “Martin” and “Coretta.” As the lambs grew, Martin became larger and stronger, and somewhat aggressive. In fact he butted Lisa in the field one day, and later, cornered their 4 year old daughter Annie in the pasture.
They decided Martin had to go, and, with the help of a Middle Eastern friend, shot and butchered Martin in the field. They viewed it as an opportunity to teach Annie about where some of our food comes from.
The following year, on the 21st of January, Annie’s teacher told the class it was Martin Luther King’s birthday and asked if they knew about Martin Luther King.
“I do.” Said Annie. “There was Martin and Coretta.”
“That’s right.” Said the teacher.
“And Martin got shot.”
“That’s right too. Very good, Annie!” Said the Teacher.
“And we ate him.” Said Annie.