A good Sheepdog

[Elei]

It’s lambing season on our farm. We have 19 lambs so far. Kip is quite excited and wants to lick them all over. Their mothers are not so thrilled..

One ewe (female sheep) had twins, and the second born was tiny! Only 4.4 lbs (should be 7 to 10 lbs). Although he was full term he was like a preemie and had no suckle reflex. He also got chilled easily because he was so tiny. We had to tube feed the lamb every 3 hours, and my sister made him a fleece coat to keep him warm. When he was a little over 24 hours old he finally started nursing on his own, and from then on developed normally. He is now 4 weeks old, small for his age, but quite healthy.

While we had the lamb in the house to warm it up and feed it, Kip was so good. He wanted to lick the lamb, but he was very gentle and left the lamb around when I told him to. Kip can be so hyper and crazy, but around the lamb he was calm and quiet. Such a good boy!!

The tiny lamb (on the right) with his twin brother and mother.

Kip checking on the tiny lamb

 

[trini]

What a sweetheart your Kip is to take such gentle care of the wee lamb. Wonderful that the tiny one survived thanks to the constant care you gave him...he is so cute. Have you named him yet?
Trini

 

[Elei]

he is so cute. Have you named him yet?

Yes, his name is Zimmer. He’s named after Hans Zimmer the composer

 

[Sharon7]

They just seem to know when they need to change their approach in a given situation. What a good boy Kip is and what a darling lamb Zimmer is. So glad he's OK especially after you lost that sweet calf.

 

[Wendy C]

What a good sheep dog you are Kip!!

 

[Elei]

So glad he's OK especially after you lost that sweet calf.

As you can imagine I was really stressed out and not very optimistic about Zimmer’s chances of survival. We’ve had lambs like this in previous years who we tube fed but none of them survived. But we learned from all those previous failures and this time we were very aggressive and diligent with treatment and care and I’m so thrilled it paid off!!

 

[Margi]

Aw that's just precious!

 

[Ann]

Those are just the sweetest pictures! Good boy, Kip, and bravo to you for nursing little Zimmer successfully!

 

[Piper's mom]

That is just the sweetest! I remember reading (I think maybe in Sheltie Talk) something about Shelties that are real mother hens (wanting to care for young ones) have a lot of herding instinct. Riley herded Piper away from stairs when Piper was a puppy. Piper was about as bad as Blueberry is in terms of hanging off of his back but Riley allowed anything and everything! Kip probably has a good herding instinct as well. He cares about his flock!

 

[Darren]

Always love your photos
Kip is just so good, he's certainly a special Sheltie!