We need to talk about Kevin

Kevin came to stay on Monday.  He had been abandoned by his mother during Sunday night and by Monday morning he was suffering with hypothermia.  He is about 6 weeks old, but is only half the size he should be.  His mum is a cull-ewe, which means she has reached the end of her breeding life and should not have been having any more lambs.  No one told her, hence Kevin arrived.

 

He urgently needed warming up, so I tucked him up in the kitchen with a hot water bottle and covered him with a rug.  He had a runny nose and eyes and you could hear him rattle with each breath. 

A six-week old lamb should be bonny and plump, but Kevin was scrawny and had a nipped in tummy. He needed feeding up, but after six weeks with his mum, was very reluctant to take to a bottle.

I persevered over Monday and was up early to make sure I had time to feed him before work on Tuesday morning. Jamie and I popped home at different times during the day to check on him, and try to tempt him to have more milk. We were worried that if he didn't get his appetite back, he wouldn't make it.



We put him in the garden, where he gravitated straight over to Dave II, thinking he was joining his flock.

 

He was happy grazing for a bit but still very reluctant to have a bottle of milk.  In desperation, Jamie gave him some hay.  Kevin spent the rest of the day happily chomping away. 

When we came down on Wednesday morning, Kevin had eaten nearly all his bedding and was wandering about the kitchen looking for something else to eat!  He even downed about half a pint of milk. 

 

Having made such an amazing recovery, he was definitely well enough to go back to the farm.



I think he looks rather like Shaun the Sheep!

NB: Apologies for the poor photos, most were taken without the flash as I didn't want to startle him.
Although he looks rather sweet he was a very stinky lamb.