I am a Farm Cat Parent

I have farm cats.  While some people think that all farm cats have ideal lives, the sad truth is that many farm cats are not generally well cared for.  Few farm cats are treated as pets.  Many farm cats are not vaccinated, wormed, or even spayed or neutered.  Few are allowed in the house; but rather forced to make due in a barn, even on cold nights.  A lot of farm cats are not even well fed as some farmers think they will be better mousers if they are hungry.

One of the "left behind" cats

I own several farm cats, and I do love them.

I moved to the farm with my own cat (adopted years earlier), the previous owners left their cats behind.  I had allowed this because I knew that they could not take them and that these cats had very little chance of being adopted (or even being put up for adoption).


 Over time a few other cats "showed up", and decided to make our small farm their home.

Kafka, who showed up as a kitten, at home on the farm

We have had all the cats neutered (oddly it has only been males that have moved in), vaccinated, and they get wormed regularly.  They stay outside mostly all summer; only my original cat shows any interest in being indoors at all in the summer, and even sometimes she tries to stay out at night to catch bats (I prefer to catch her and bring her indoors).

Many farmers treat injuries to their livestock seriously, but sometimes let "nature take its course" with their barn cats.  One of my cats recently had a swelling under his jaw and it was a few hundred dollars to fix him up, but he is indeed a "pet", and a very loved one too.  The pictures are a bit gruesome, you can click here to read what happened.

All in all the cats do have a pretty good life, I think they are happy.

Visit PetFinder, click here

I just want to change the perception that all farm cat parents are bad, indeed some of us do love our cats.

I do want to add though, that if you own a cat and cannot care for it, please do not abandon it on a farm.  Most farmers do not want more cats and many city cats will be chased off by the resident farm cats (or dogs).

If you are looking for a new cat companion, please check PetFinder, or your local shelter.  Adoption really does save lives (so does spaying and neutering).

Please check PetFinder's "I Am A Cat Parent" site, and tweet about your cat using hashtag #IAmACatParent

Lambs Born on St Patricks Day

March 17 was St Patrick's Day and the day Patsy sheep finally had her lambs. Patsy is an unusual looking sheep, she is part Jacob, part Barbado, she use to have 5 horns but knocked one off leaving her with 4. She is part wool sheep, part hair, so she sheds – sort of.

Three other ewes had their lambs last week, when the weather was good, but a nasty storm had blown in a few days earlier, dumping new snow and sending temperatures well below freezing. At night the moms with lambs are in a stall in the barn, the other sheep are loose in the rest of the barn, and I would let them outside for the day, while leaving the moms and new lambs in the barn. 

I knew Pasty was due any day, but in the morning she was eager to go outside.  She ate her oats and then snuck away as I was putting hay out. I noticed her standing in a shed to the back of the pasture. Sheep are herd animals, they do not go off on their own except for when they are lambing. I had to bribe her (with oats) to get her back into the barn because at -15 celsius it was much too cold to have lambs in a three sided shed.

I left the mom to be alone for a while going out to check on her a few times. At about 11:00 her amniotic sack was out (you can see it in the picture). I left her alone again, going back at noon. At noon I walked into the barn, Patsy was standing near the back of the barn was having contractions, her head was held up and she was straining. Having seen ewes give birth before I noted she looked to be having a harder time of it, so I turned to latch the barn door shut behind myself so I could get a closer look, but in the moment it took to latch the door, by the time I turned around her lamb was out!

Patsy stood up, turned around, and started cleaning off her lamb right away. I waited at the far end of t the barn for a few minutes. Her location at the back of the barn was not great, there is a gap around the back door which let in a cold draft so I wanted to move her, and her wet lamb, to a drier stall. I picked up the lamb and carried him to the stall and Patsy followed. I gave him a quick drying but mostly left the rest up to Patsy and I went back to the house.

I returned an hour later (bringing water with me as we do not have running water in the barn) and as expected she had an other lamb with her. The second lamb was larger, and white. Although Patsy has had lambs before I think this was her first solid white lamb, most have been spotted like her.  The brown lamb does have white spots on his side.  Both lambs are male, ram lambs.

After another three hours her placenta was shed, I picked it up and took it to a place away from the barn area where I know ravens will come and gobble it up, and then added new dry straw to the stall. 

All sheep are doing well and hopefully the weather will improve.  

Click here to shop StateLineTack.com for Farm & Ranch Supplies!

Other Reading

My Husband's Account of the Lambing  - with some information on lambing in general

Four of Last Week's Lambs

Surprise Triplets Born on Canadian Thanksgiving

In my last blog post I mentioned we just got a ram for the fall breeding season and had suspected some of our ewes were already pregnant... well as it turns out we were right!

Canadian Thanksgiving was October 8, 2012. Thankfully I had the day off work. Just days before we had got our new ram as normally sheep come into heat in the fall and mate to produce lambs in the spring. In the last month though I have been observing that three of our ewes appeared pregnant. I suspected they had been bred in the spring before our last ram was sold, while they still had their lambs with them.

Sure enough on Thanksgiving day one of the ewes gave birth, not just to one or two lambs, she had triplets. Earlier in the day I had seen the sheep and was just about to go looking for her as it appeared she was not with them, but she was there, just a bit behind everyone else, so I gave it no more thought. Then later that day I went out to check the sheep and noted her missing. I saw all the others, so went to the barn to look for the missing ewe (her name is Girlie). I found Girlie in the old barn with two lambs (one black, one white) standing at her side and a third one (black) laying down. 

 Even though it is fall and the weather is okay (breezy but not as cold as winter) I did not want to leave them in that barn overnight. Small lambs are an easy target for coyotes and some have been coming around to get our crab apples (and possibly even killed a cat a week earlier). The old barn is small, leans to one side and does not have a door. Instead I picked them up and their momma followed me to the newer barn (which is still old, but at least it has a door, and proper stalls). I put them into a stall that as coincidence had it I had just prepared the day earlier in expectation of fall lambs.

My daughter came out to help dry the lambs off (in the top photo) and make sure all were doing well. We gave them water, hay, and then came back inside where my husband had our Thanksgiving dinner ready and waiting.

Further reading

Supplies needed for Lambing

How to Care for Newborn Lambs

One down.. two more to go.. and today it is snowing (lightly - but windy).

Favorites New Twins

Favorite sheep is an interesting gal.  She got her name because out of the four ewes we originally bought, she was the friendliest, so even though we agreed not to name them, my daughter soon referred to her as her "Favorite".  She had a small marking, a spot on her back, and was always friendly even when some of the other ewes were scared.

A few years ago she had a stroke, as a result she does not eat well and tends to drool.  We have to feed her a bit extra, but since she was called "Favorite" we could not really sell her (or... you know...), as most real farmers would have done.

Anyhow... this morning when I went out to the barn there she was just inside the barn door with two new lambs, twin girls, both white, with black around their eyes.  One even has a little spot on her back too!

As Favorite is a wool sheep, and the father is a hair sheep it is interesting to note that one lamb has tight curly wool (laying down in the picture), and the other has what looks more like hair (standing and still a bit wet in the picture).  Favorite has broke the trend this year, so far every ewe has had at least one black (or black and white) lamb.  Favorite was the first who did not.

I put her in the smaller stall with her lambs, while the other ewes and lambs went out for the day.  Temperatures are just above freezing in the day, and just below at night.  Things are melting - Yeah!

So that leaves just two more ewes left to have their lambs...

As a note - one of Girlie's lambs still needs a bottle, but only twice a day.  Diamonds triplets born a few days ago,  had fetlocks that really curled under.  I have been straightening their legs out and they look just fine now.

In this picture we see Girlie with her triplets, the black one is hard to see, and the smaller white one is the one that gets the bottle.  Behind her is the ram (you cannot see his head).  To the right is Patsy and her twins - not a good picture I realize, and of course Crystal the llama watching all.

Okay, Everyone Go Play in the Snow

Over the weekend we had a lot of snow, more snow I think than we had all winter. 

Today the temperatures were expected to be above freezing, and it was not windy so I thought this would be a great day to get some of the new lambs outside.

I put Blackie, her two lambs, Dark Brown Katahdin, and her twins, as well as Patsy sheep and her twins,  outside in the morning at feeding time.  This would have been a good time for pictures as Crystal the llama especially loves seeing the new lambs.  Aggie the donkey likes them okay too, but Crystal really adores them.  However as I was very busy getting everyone sorted out I did not plan for photos.

Here they are later in the day.

I kept Girlie and her triplets in the barn.  Although they are a week old now they are much smaller than the other lambs and the one needs bottle feeding.  It is pretty hard for the sheep to keep track of two lambs when outside, and three is much harder.  Because the temperatures were not great, it is simply better not to risk putting them out.  Besides, they were able to keep Diamond and her two-day-old triplets company, as they are also still in the barn.

Two of Diamond's triplets have fetlocks that are still a bit bent, a likely result of being cramped before birth, so, although they can walk, they need to let their legs stretch out before they would be able to keep up outside in the snow.  I am trying to spend a few minutes every day with the lambs stretching out their joints a bit to make them stronger.  This problem does occur from time to time although I have not had a lamb with it prior, and it ususally corrects itself in a few days to a week.

Patsy must have wanted to be alone because she took her twins away from the group.

Anyhow the moms and lambs that were out in the snow were probably glad to get out of the barn, and I have been checking to make sure they are doing well.  The show is about 20 cm (8 inches) deep in most places but deeper in areas where it has drifted. 

The sheep walk on the same path and actually pack it down so well that when the other snow melts the path of packed snow often remains as ice and is the last to go.

Not a great day for photos, I took more picutres of them in the shed but they all turned out too dark to show off.

Diamond has Triplet Lambs

This morning I went out to the barn to find another set of triplets.  Diamond had given birth over night and was standing at the back of the barn when I entered.  I had hoped to put the other moms and their lambs outside today, but it had snowed over night, at least 20 cm (8 inches) and more falling - and blowing!  As such I put the sheep outside that did not have lambs and left everyone else in the barn.  Diamond did not even try to get out.

I spent most of the day shoveling, and shoveling, and shoveling.

I have had to bottle feed one of the triplets born a few days earlier, but with Diamond I doubt this will be a concern, she is a great mom with a large udder and has had triplets in the past and always had plenty of milk for all.

My biggest concern is that one of the lambs (pictured in the lower left) seems to have curled fetlocks on the front legs.

I have been reading up on this and it is very likely related to being one of many lambs, kept tightly inside the ewe.  They should straighten out, but I will keep an eye on her. 

Tomorrow is expected to be cold again, hopefully warmer the next day. 

To keep track so far 5 ewes have had their lambs, only 3 more to go.  We have 2 sets of triplets and 3 sets of twins, for a total of 12 lambs.  Plus the ram of course!

Lambing Makes Me Worry so Much

With triplets born only days ago, and the ewes actually not due for another day, I was a bit surprised by today's events.

As you may know from reading earlier blog posts I live in Alberta, Canada, it is winter, so the ewes are in the barn at night and out in the day.  I opened the barn door this morning to find one ewe, Mrs Brown Katahdin, with twins.

She would need to stay in, as the ewes with new lambs are kept in the barn for a while to bond with their lambs and so  the lambs get stronger before going out (after all there is snow on the ground). 

I went outside to throw the hay over the fence and noticed one ewe, Blackie, wandering off to the old barn.  It was pretty clear at that point that Blackie would be lambing today too.

I checked on Blackie several times throughout the day.  At one point, just before lunch, I found her with one lamb.  That make it easier to get her back into the other barn - I just picked her lamb up and she followed me.  I put her in a stall by herself. 

Blackie and the lamb I found her with.

I had lunch and went out a little later to check.  I am now feeling terrible for not going out sooner.  I found a dead lamb in the stall, a black and white lamb.  I noticed yet another standing with her, as well as the earlier lamb.  She had given birth to triplets, and somehow lost one.  Was it born dead?  Did she not clean its nose off in time?  Could I have saved it?  What happened?  I tend to beat myself up mentally in these situations.  Poor thing.

As if that was not enough, later in the day when it was time to bring the other sheep into the barn, one ewe was missing.  It took a bit of searching (it was getting dark by this time) but I found Patsy standing with two new lambs.

And there's more.  When I got Patsy and her lambs back into the barn, I checked on everyone again, and decided that one of the triplets born days earlier was not looking too good, I would have to bottle feed it.  She drank good but this is an expensive thing to do, not to mention a lot more work added to the day.

Good thing I am unemployed!

Free Cats for Farmers

Farmers often have no problem getting “free” cats for their barn, but many do not bother to vaccinate their cats, or to spay or neuter them, as a result they often have more kittens than they need, or have sick cats.

On the other side of the coin there are always cats surrendered to animal shelters that are not suitable for adoption in most homes. Cats who are not using their litter box for behavioral reasons rather than treatable medical ones, are normally euthanized as “unadoptable” by most shelters.

Most of these cats would make suitable barn cats, or good shop cats, and as such many shelters are now trying to saves as many of these cats as they can by offering them up in such a way.

The Edmonton Humane Society is one place that has recently started a “Barn Buddies” program to give these cats a second chance. The cats are free (but donations are always welcome) and come vaccinated, chipped and spayed or neutered. They are also friendly. To note, some shelters do adopt out feral (less friendly) cats to farm homes as well. The Edmonton Humane Society requires interested people to apply with them for this program.

Potential adopters are required to have:

• A barn or building where the cat can find shelter from bad weather.
• Food for the cat. Note that a well fed cat is a better mouser.
• The right attitude to make sure the cat is cared for and receives veterinary attention as needed.

If you are bringing home a new cat to the farm or shop, it should be kept in an enclosed space with food and water for several days to help it bond to the area.

If you are a farmer who could benefit from such a program please contact your local animal shelter to see if they have cats available under such a system.

The information for the Edmonton Humane Society's Barn Buddies program is here.

Baby Katahdin Scares, then has Lambs Days Later

Baby Katahdin, our youngest ewe - being born last year, and the only one who would be a first time mother, is a shy sheep.  She is a bit smaller and was terrified of us earlier in the year.  Throughout the winter she has slowly learned how to trust us (the oats helped) but is easily intimidated by the bigger sheep who push her out of the way at feeding time. 

She has been thin - so I have been hand feeding her extra oats.  Two nights ago, however, she started choking on her oats, to the point it looked like she was a gonner.. she was frothing at the mouth and stood frozen, clearly in fear.  I gave her a hard smack on  her shoulder hoping to clear her throat.  Well the poor sheep must have thought I was horrible, but after a few tense moments she was fine.

Today, March 19, 2011, I went outside to give the sheep some hay for lunch, this is because our weather has been crazy this winter and we still have over a foot of snow on the ground and it gives them something to do in the middle of these winter days – eat. Finally we are seeing temperatures around the freezing mark, or just above – today was +1C (just above melting).

At the time I could see Girlie was in the shed with her two young lambs (just over a week old) and with her was Baby Katahdin – and just above the snow drift I could see a tiny white head pop up so I knew she had a lamb.

I went into the house to call my daughter for help. It's never easy getting one sheep and her lambs into the barn in the middle of the day. We spotted a darker lamb laying near by – shivering – both were still wet, born only minutes earlier. It took some doing but we finally got them into the barn (and chased the other sheep back out).

My daughter dried off the lambs, while I got their mother some water - ewes often need a good drink after lambing and this one was no exception. 

Having twins for their first year is not easy, she seems to be mothering both though and hopefully will have enough milk to provide for them - as she has been thin and does not have a huge udder - this is a concern!

The white lamb is a male - ram lamb.  The brown one is a female - ewe lamb. 

So that brings our total to 18 lambs - 9 male, 9 female, a perfect split!

Girlies Matched Set of Twins

Girlie is part hair part wool sheep. Her mother is Mrs Dark Brown Barbado, the sheep who earlier had triplets, her father being a wool sheep x Barbado. Girlie had two lambs last year (her first lambs) but was a bit overwhelmed and we ended up bottle feeding one.

On March 10, Girlie did not come into the barn with the rest of the sheep. It was just lucky we noticed her missing really, as it was a cold night and we were hurrying. I went out and they Girlie was in the old barn, standing with two identical twins... well not quite identical, one is a ewe lamb, the other a ram lamb.

Both lambs are solid orange - their father being a Katahdin.  The little lambs needed to have their ears rubbed as they were quite cold – temperatures are still below freezing – well below seasonal normals.  The ram lamb is on the left, the ewe lamb on the right.

I took a few pictures after getting the mother ewe and her lambs set up in a stall but the camera seemed to be acting weird so gave my husband instructions to take more pictures in the morning after I went to work.

By morning time it would appear the camera was acting even weirder. My husband got several pictures, but most had terrible double images. Well that's what you get for buying a cheap Walmart Camera I guess.  The above photo is the only picture (of about 10) that did not have a double image, but the color is slightly odd.  I am pretty sure this is the ewe lamb. 

So far it looks like Girlie is letting both lambs nurse - so that is a good sign.  I hardly feel like looking after any more bottle baby sheep!

How Cold is Too Cold?

Yesterday morning, I woke up to temperatures that were -39C.  I went out to the barn and it was clearly too cold for the lambs to go outside.  I put the ram out, and the two ewes that are not due to lamb for a little while, then came into check the weather forecast on the Internet.

This is what I saw:

You will note that the Yahoo Weather chart seems to taunt me, showing the actual temperature at - 39C (roughly -38F) and tries to lighten it by saying it feels like only -38C!

Later in the day it got warm enough to let some of the more woolly ewes with bigger lambs outside, this being Diamond, Blackie, and Patsy.  Everyone else stayed in the barn (boring, but slightly warmer).  Of course they all got extra meals throughout the day.

I think they blame me for the bad weather, and refused to look at the camera for their picture to be taken.

A sheep keeper, especially when there are lambs, must be aware of the temperatures for the week ahead, and be willing to plan accordingly.  The ewes who are not doing as well should be kept in and fed extra, any with small lambs, young lambs, or even triplets, should be kept in, as should those who do not keep their lambs close.  Any ewes who are due to lamb should certainly be kept indoors in climate extremes. 

Lambs should be watched for signs of chilling, frost bite, or even pneumonia.  Sudden drops in temperature will also cause scours.  As I also keep hair sheep, I found that the hair ewes, and their lambs, needed to be kept in on this cold day.

The Great Sheep Escape

Every morning I go out to feed the sheep and let them out of the barn. I do this between 7:00 and 7:30 am. From the barn they can hear me coming and always make a racket, especially if I am late. On the morning of January 23, 2011, something was clearly wrong, there were no loud shouts of “HURRY UP AND FEED US!”. I was a little nervous to open the door, puzzled that they all might still be sleeping.

barn photo taken later in the day

I opened the door and turned on the light. There at the back of the barn was Dark Brown Barbado and her triplets, Mrs White Katahdin and her twins, over to my right was Favorite and her twins, tucked behind her was Mrs Brown Katahdin and a new lamb (more on that in my next blog post) but everyone else was missing. It was pretty easy to see where they had gone.

Our barn has 4 doors, one big sliding one at the front, with a small door in it, which we use rather than opening the sliding door. At the back is the door we use to access their pasture, and to the side another door leading out to hay, this is where I go when tossing hay over the fence to feed them outside.

photo taken later in the day - by the way.. if you think my barn is messy - you should see my house!

We have had crazy weather, the snow has made shutting the side door tricky, and as it happened I apparently had not shut it correctly the night before, at some time it blew open allowing the sheep outside for snacks - they were having a (pardon the pun) hayday!

It was a bit tricky getting them back indoors - lambs bouncing around like crazy, but at least the weather was better, up from the below freezing temperatures we have had for weeks, today is melting!  A quick head count to make sure I had all the sheep and lambs (10 sheep - 13 lambs) and then I had to attend to the new born lamb and its mom....

By the way... our sheep were not going too far, they had hay to eat and could not walk through the 18 inches of snow surrounding the hay, however you should know what to do if you ever encounter escaped livestock when you are out driving in the country - read here.

Favorite Sheeps Twins, Fingers Crossed

On the morning of January 17, 2011, I walked into the barn to see Favorite Sheep with two new lambs.  She picked the worst corner of the barn to have them, right under a drafty spot.  With temperatures still well below normal (today was -21c) the lambs had bits of ice on their wool from where Favorite licked them to dry them off (ironic I know). 

Due to the fact that Favorite had a stroke a few years back she cannot control her saliva in the same way, and it often runs out of her mouth, sometimes it is rather smelly containing parts of semi-digested food.  This was all over her lambs.  I got a towel and did the best to dry them off, before bottle feeding one of the tiplets born the week earlier. 

(her face is particularly swollen here due to just eating)

Favorite had a girl and boy (a ewe lamb, and a ram lamb).  The ram lamb has the same marking on  his back as his mom, a black dot.  You cannot see it on her because her long wool has bleached white. 

After I got everyone fed and watered, I went into the house for my own breakfast, returning to check on them (and bottle feed again) after lunch.  Well.. by the time I went back to check I soon saw one lamb, but the other was missing.   I spotted him curled up and shivering against a wall. 

He was a house lamb for an hour at that point, I brought him in to warm him up, and even gave him a bit extra to drink to give him engery.  I did not get pictures as I was rather worried about him at the time.  The house cats quite enjoyed the novelty animal in the house!

He is back with is mom now, in the warmest stall of the barn, she had been looking for him the whole time he was in the house (I could hear her from the barn when I went outside).  I have my fingers crossed that he will do well and get strong, I will be checking again later today of course.

First Lambs of 2010/2011, Sad Ending for One, but Lucky for Another

December 31, 2010 brought a sad tale to my little hobby farm.  By looking on the bright side we see that although one lamb did die, in a strange way, another was lucky that to have lived.

It's my job to take care of the sheep most mornings. They sleep in barn overnight, and every morning I go out to feed them and put them outside for the day.

The barn is small, about the size of a double garage, but there is a horse stall, however the stall itself would be too crowded to keep all our sheep (9 pregnant ewes and a ram) in so we only use that to confine the ewes who have had lambs.

As I approached the barn, at 7:30 in the morning, I knew something was amiss. One sheep was baaing a lot more than usual. I opened the door stepping into the dark barn, fumbling for the light. Immediately my eyes fell upon Blackie sheep (also nicknamed Piggins because she is a bit pushy at feeding time due to being a bottle baby, and overly friendly to people). Blackie was standing there with a tiny white lamb.

Sheep often have twins, so naturally before putting Blackie and her lamb into a stall I looked around for a twin. The twin was nearly impossible to find. It was brown with white speckles on its back, and had tucked itself behind a garbage bin, all that was showing was its back, in the dark corner the tiny lamb (smaller than a house cat) looked like straw. It appeared to be dead. I pulled it out by its hind legs, and thankfully it was very much alive, it had crawled in, and unable to back out, fallen asleep.

Mom ewe, Blackie, was glad to have her lamb back, he needed to be warmed up. The barn is not heated since this would actually be bad for the sheep, being kept in a heated barn then put out into the cold winter weather for the day. They would get sick. Mom, and the two lambs were moved into the stall she would have food and water.

I started to feed the other sheep, and put them outside before cleaning the barn. Thats when the dead lamb was found. Poor thing. It had died close to the barn door, but in the darkness before turning on the light, I had not seen it and instead been distracted by the sight of Blackie with her white lamb.

This poor lamb had not had the sack removed from its nostrils (the ewe usually does this), it suffocated to death, or perhaps was born dead, I don't know. At any rate, Blackie had been a mom of triplets (less common than twins but not overly rare in sheep). Since there had been three lambs they were slightly smaller than usual.

The amazing thing is that if I had found the dead lamb sooner, I may not have ever noticed the other lamb sleeping behind the garbage bin. I would have assumed Blackie had twins, put her and her white lamb in the stall and left for the day, who knows what would have happened to the other lamb.  I suspect it would not have lived as the day was -15C, and both my husband and I had to go to work, not returning until 5:30pm.

The lambs are now a few days old. The white lamb being slightly bigger and a female, the multi-colored lamb being a male. More lambs to come!

The First Lamb

While our first ram (read previous post) was a dud, we did have a lamb that winter.  One of the ewes we had purchased pregnant gave birth to a ram lamb.  We kept them in the barn for a few days, then put the pair out in a small pen only for the days, prior to putting them with the rest of the sheep.

Shown here only a few hours old is our first lamb, and his mother.  You will note that with hair sheep the tails are often naturally shorter and are never docked.  This is January, winter time, so the ewe has some woolly hairs (white hairs) on her back which she will shed in the spring.

We kept this little guy to use as our ram for that year, and when he became a father, we named his mom "Grandma sheep".

Here is her ram lamb as pictured later, you will note he is shedding.

Learn more about the Barbado sheep, click here.