# The Tale of Mr Slowroast



## Sheepshape (Apr 5, 2019)

Mr Slowroast (although at the time, he had no name) was born 5 days ago to a Beulah Speckled Face ewe. His twin sister was stillborn. Mr Slowroast, like all the other lambs in the shed, spent 2 days getting stronger in the sheep shed, seemingly uneventfully.

By the time Mr Slowroast was 2 days old, the weather outside had turned ..... with cold winds and driving sleet and snow. However, a lot of ewes in Mr Slowroast's little flock decided to give birth, so Mr Slowroast and his mum went outside into a field with good shelter and lots of food.

Overnight that night a blizzard came, and when the shepherdess went to check the lambs at first light, she found a seemingly dead lamb. She dried and rubbed him and detected a glimmer of life ....so in came the lamb and his mum, and a temporary pen was made. Mr Slowroast was stiff with cold, so he was take to the farmhouse and placed into the stove warming oven.




 
 After 2 and a half hours of very slow roasting, Mr Slowroast began to move....the shepherdess bottle fed him some warm milk replacer.

For a further two and a half hours Mr Slowroast sat in a box under the lamb lamp next to his mum.



 
 When the shepherdess went back to check Mr Slowroast again, he got up and tried to suckle from mum.


  Though mum tried to be helpful, it was clear that her udder was hard and there was little milk.

So Mr Slowroast now has 2 mums, one who teaches him to be a sheep and one who feeds him.

The moral of the story? Well, maybe nothing too startling, but if a lamb with a good fleece is unable to tolerate the cold, then he probably isn't getting enough milk. Mr Slowroast had the worst case of lamb hypothermia I have ever seen.


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## frustratedearthmother (Apr 5, 2019)

Good save!  Hope he stays toasty warm without any more trips to the oven!


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## Mike CHS (Apr 5, 2019)

Awesome story!!


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## B&B Happy goats (Apr 5, 2019)

I love the name you gave him...


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## Baymule (Apr 5, 2019)

That's a very nice oven you have there! I bet Mr. Slowroast was very happy to give it a thorough checking out and give it his seal of approval.


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## Sheepshape (Apr 5, 2019)

Baymule said:


> That's a very nice oven you have there!


Thank you Bay.  It's a 1976 oil-fired old girl....and SO useful at this time. That bottom oven is the 'warming oven', and, suitably lined with an old blanket, which it won't even singe, forms a lovely warm cocoon. It almost certainly saved the little man's life.


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## Mini Horses (Apr 6, 2019)

Good story -- Great save!    Glad his sheep mum will at least handle all details beyond the bottle.   He will certainly switch to other feeds sooner than his need for all the "other mother" chores!

Of course, being a ram, he'll probably not be liking the next oven he meets.

Question --  I see a large "A" on mum.   What are you marking for?


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## AmberLops (Apr 6, 2019)

Aw so adorable!


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## Sheepshape (Apr 6, 2019)

Mini Horses said:


> I see a large "A" on mum. What are you marking for?


Ha...she and her lamb have the same mark. She had gone outside with a couple of other ewes and I'd already used 1-10 green, 1-19 red and then had started on the alphabet in green. When they are out in the field with other ewes and lambs, then the letter/number lets me know who belongs to who.

When Mr Slowroast became cold, he was bought back into the shed with his mum (who I found to have mastitis), so both are penned up there for the foreseeable future.


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## Sheepshape (May 18, 2019)

It's always said that cats have 9 lives. Well, Mr Slowroast (now just called Roaster) must be a cat.

So, Roaster's mum lost her milk altogether after they came into the sheep shed. Roaster became a full bottle feeder.

 After a few days of feeding well I found him shivering and limping....several hot joints. Poor little Roaster had joint ill. Caught early, so, I reasoned, maybe, just maybe, he'll respond to treatment. So pen & strep, high doses, for 8 days plus anti-inflammatories. He literally bounced back......from a shivering, bunched-up, limping mess,  he was jumping around in the sheep shed by the end of the week. 

Eventually Roaster and his mum went out with the other sheep. After a few weeks they 'parted company' as she lost interest in a lamb that preferred to follow me (as the milk provider).

Roaster had his first vaccination and worming uneventfully and was looking fine.

 4 days back I called him for his bottle. He came over gasping, wheezing and hot....pneumonia! By now I am thinking our luck will have run out. Back to the sheep shed and a long-acting tetracycline and anti-inflammatories. Next day he iwas still panting a bit, but was keen to have his milk and complaining loudly about being in the sheep shed.

So, here he is now along with his friend, Denzil, who is a bottle lamb from another ewe who had mastitis.





 



 

Did I just hear 'Miaow' ?.


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## Mini Horses (May 18, 2019)

Huge ifference between no photo & the little guy in a coat.   Gotta ask, will Roaster become a roast?  Well, your own freezer or a buyers...….   He looks well on his way to a good meal.


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## Baymule (May 18, 2019)

He has made quite the comeback, over and over! Haha, i'm glad I'm not the only with "wool rolls" on the wire!


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## Sheepshape (May 19, 2019)

Mini Horses said:


> Gotta ask, will Roaster become a roast?


Most probably will become another 'pet' should he continue to have a pleasant personality. We don't eat meat (!) and I feel that he and I now have a 'special bond' ....he's had more medication than pretty much all of the other lambs put together.....so his frailty may prove to be his strength. Actually, he doesn't seem in the least bit frail. He is chunky, heavy, good coat and thick set. He looks bigger than most of the twins who are with mum.



Baymule said:


> Haha, i'm glad I'm not the only with "wool rolls" on the wire!


That's a 'mild' example. We have whole stretches of white fencing. Wool sheep are forever scratching and manage to bend over and break off fencing posts with remarkable ease. For a short time after shearing the 'fence wool' doesn't increase, but they seem to take out more posts then.

Roaster and Denzil are being weaned now, and they are NOT happy. They would like to continue milk for another year or so.


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