You may recall that pet lamb Trixie has been this season's "problem child" here at Struan Farm; there always seems to be at least one! She is one of three triplets, along with Dixie and Mixie, all of whom were abandoned at birth. Trixie was the one I didn't think was going to survive, but she managed to pull through those first few days when things can go either way.
When the first round of pet lambs was put out into the paddock Trixie stopped drinking her bottles any time anyone bumped her. Which was often. We were reduced to catching and force feeding her until the decision was made to airlift her back into the Pet Pen with younger lambs Alfie and Daisy. Fortunately she settled happily into a routine with them, drinking her bottles. This trio was put into the front paddock a few weeks ago, recently joined by youngest pet lamb TimTam.
Last week the gang of four decided to wander and explore the pond below the Cottage, which is part of their official territory. Midday bottle time came and three muddy lambs showed up at the front gate. Nephew Mike, on bottle duty that day, found Trixie mired in the muck at the pond, unable to pull herself out. He went to her rescue.
One afternoon this week I noticed that she had started to limp, wasn't putting any weight at all on one of her back legs. This usually means something is broken. John told me to give her some time to see if the injury might right itself. The next day she was still hopping around on three legs, an intervention was clearly required. I remembered that a few years ago sister-in-law Anna had a pet lamb named Wooly Joe, who broke his leg climbing up and jumping down from her plum tree. Anna splinted his leg with chicken wire and wood sticks and he recovered. Trixie might need something similar.
And so John, farmstay guest Sandra from Munich, and I ventured out and rounded up Trixie. (Note: Sandra had a good time with the whole pet lamb experience, she'd never been this up close and personal with lambs before, let alone ones with personality or wonky legs.) John sat down on a tree stump with Trixie and checked out her leg. She sat calmly while this went on, I think she knew we were trying to help. The problem was with the bottom half of her leg, below the knee joint. John couldn't feel a break and she didn't cry or baa at all, so didn't seem to be in any pain. The decision was made to wrap the bottom part of her leg with elastic bandage for additional support (I would call this an "ace" bandage, here in NZ I think it's called "elastic crepe"). We had a splint on standby but didn't use it.
The good news is that the next morning she was putting a wee bit of weight on that leg. Hopefully the extra support is helping her heal. I'm not sure what drama is next for Trixie. But I do know there will be one.
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