[Ag-eq] Lambing on the BlanchRanch

[Jewel]

Lambing is underway, but I don't know how many I have because, once they know who their mother is, 
the lambs don't make a sound.  I am reminded of the horror film:  "The Silence of the Lambs" 
without the cannibalism.
I had to do a bit of emergency vetting yesterday as, when I went out to feed the sheep, I heard that 
one of them was really struggling to breathe.
She sounded as though she was strangling, which I am sure, she was.
Fortunately, she was the calmest of the lot and has almost become a pet.
I got hold of her and could feel that she had a huge, and very hard, swelling under her lower jaw 
and extending back towards her throat.
It appeared that she might have a abscess in the back of her mouth or in the upper throat.
I started to massage it firmly and a lot of blood and what appeared to be pus came out of her mouth 
and she started to breathe more easily.
I was able to tell you that because, just as I had discovered her, a man arrived who was delivering 
a few bales of hay and he came into the barn     to find me.
We put the ewe who I call Petula, and her newborn ram lamb into a shed by themselves, and I massaged 
that abscess or whatever it was a couple of times during the day, and, this morning, I am pleased to 
say, she appears to be quite recovered:  she was breathing quietly and when I massaged under her 
jaw, the was no fluid coming out of her mouth.
What caused the abscess, or whatever it was, I haven't a clue!

       Jewel