Sunrise Haven Farm

I’ve finished! I knit this sweater from yarn that was sheared, carded and spun from my lovely California Red sheep. I carved the buttons out of horn from my goat.  Looking forward to wearing it when the weather turns chilly.

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It’s hard to work outside in the summertime! Everything here on the farm seems to think so too. The plants are all thirsty, and the sheep stay in the shade trying not to move very much.  Time to be lazy, siesta, and work on plans to do things when the air isn’t so thick.  The lambs are growing well, as is the pasture.  The pond is still at a decent level, but is dropping some.  I’ve finished knitting a sweater from the yarn made from my fleeces too! I just need to carve some buttons from horn and attach them, and it will be ready to wear.  I will post pictures as soon as I complete it.  I’ve never knitted a sweater before and I’m terribly proud of myself.

As a final Argyle note, I received results back from the lab today that say the limping and inability to stand were caused by severe arthritis in his leg. They said most of the cartiledge in that part of his leg was gone and he was probably in a great deal of pain, so euthanasia really was the best course of action we could have taken.  I still miss him of course, but I’m glad he’s no longer suffering.

Argyle is gone, we had him euthanized this morning.  There was nothing more we could do, except end his suffering as quickly and painlessly as possible. Sad.

I am pretty pissed off at the vet right now.  Argyle keeps getting worse.  I called the vet because he was starting to limp on July 3rd.  At this point, he cannot stand, even with assistance.  I am afraid he’s going to die, and that he has meningeal worms - the same thing that killed Pinnochio in February.  I have said this repeatedly to the vet and he keeps insisting that he doesn’t think that’s what is wrong. When we last spoke this vet said he’s done all he can do, and referred me to an orthopedic surgeon.  I’ve been trying to get in touch with the surgeon for a couple of days and we finally connected today.  The surgeon says he can’t do anything, and it makes no sense that I was referred to him, and he (like me), without even seeing the animal, just from my description of what has happened and how he’s acting, also thinks it is a case of meningeal worms.  He said that they are very very hard to control around here, even if you are deworming regularly. He’s calling the care coordinator at the vet’s office for me to see if he can get someone else to come look at Argyle and see if there’s more we can do for him now.  I am waiting here by the phone for the call.

To top it off, I am being charged a fortune for the farm visits the vet made.  The last time the vet’s office called to tell me he was going to stop by (Friday) I told them I just wanted to talk to him on the phone because I couldn’t afford another farm visit.  The office person said “Oh if he’s just stopping by there wont be a charge.” But no, I am getting charged anyway for the farm visit that I didn’t want.  When I questioned it and said that I was told there wouldn’t be a charge, I was told that the vet didn’t charge for the consultation part of the visit, just for the onsite call.  Gee, thanks.  Doesn’t help me a whole lot.  I specifically asked to not have him visit if there’d be a charge for it.

I’m so upset and angry and sad and worried and miserable and helpless.

Argyle isn’t doing very well.  He is still having problems with his leg(s), and has gotten worse instead of better over the past week.  He can’t stand up by himself.  When I help him to stand he’s able to stay standing on his own, and walk around OK if I help to move his bad leg for him.  However today he’s having trouble just staying standing by himself, so I didn’t try to get him to walk.  We’ve got him on a slew of medications, and I’ll continue to make him stand and exercise his legs so the muscles don’t start to atrophy.  I’m hopeful that he’s going to swing back to doing better and make a full recovery soon.

More update: the vet came by this evening to check up on Argyle and modified his treatment plan some.  Argyle was running a fever and the doc said he thinks he has a ‘pitting edema’ in his leg and might need to see an orthopedic surgeon.  I’ll do his new medicine plan for the weekend and keep up the physical therapy, and we’ll see how he is on Monday (the earliest the surgeon could possibly see him anyway).

I love berries, and I’m fortunate that raspberry plants pop up like weeds here! I cleared out a lot of them last fall, trying to save the blackberry plants that were being overrun.  I harvested a few cups of blackberries recently and made sorbet that is out of this world! But blackberry harvest is over now, and just like last year, the raspberries are only starting to ripen. That’s two years in a row now that they’ve ripened 2-3 weeks later than in previous years, maybe they will stay ripening at this time for a while.  We’re having a nice wet season so far though, no drought! Which means nice plump berries simply bursting with flavorful juices.  I started harvesting the first of the raspberries today - five cups of early birds! With many more to come.  I’ll be making up some rasberry sorbet tomorrow, for when the blackberry runs out.  Then on to the jam, sauce, etc. as the harvest progresses.  Yummmmmmy!

Let’s see, farm news… the sheep are growing well, fat and happy out grazing the lower pasture.  The new fence splitting the bottom six acre pasture into two three-acre pastures is finished, and there is a new 12×16 run-in shelter in place too.  Not much news on the sheep front, they will just be grazing and growing and needing little to no intervention until September-ish, when we get ready for breeding time again.

Argyle the llama is not doing too great, I’m sorry to say.  He was limping on Friday so I had the vet come out to look at him.  They took x-rays and stuff and didn’t see any fractures, so thought he might have pulled or torn his ACL, or have the beginnings of a bone infection.  His right rear leg is somewhat swollen and he’s not using it.  They bandaged up his leg and have prescribed meds - I’m giving him shots of asprin/painkiller-type stuff and penecillin daily.  Poor Argyle, I hope he gets well quickly.