purplequeenvt
Herd Master
This is Marimba. She was mauled by a dog, who ate most of her shoulder blade as well as the surrounding muscle, on October 2nd 2015.
Unfortunately, I was too concerned about getting her patched up to take a picture of the injury before taking her to the vet. I only have pictures of it after getting patched up and during the healing.
This is after her vet visit. The vet just closed the skin covering the missing bone and muscle. Not much else she could do.
She spent the first couple weeks sleeping in a crate in the house and out in a pen on the lawn during the day.
Despite the daily high-power antibiotics, she got bad inflammation and some infection. The skin around the sutures died and the skin split open. This is about 3 weeks post attack.
Still, her spirits were excellent and her appetite was good. I had decided at the beginning that I would keep working on her as long as she was working too. If she gave up, then so would I.
The process was slow. For several weeks, I changed her dressing every day. After a while, I was able stretch out the dressing changes to once a week.
This is what she looked like 3 weeks ago.
Still draining fluid and not completely closed.
This is today. No drainage and almost completely closed. The bandages are off for good.
She remains otherwise healthy and full of spunk. She pushes her way into the larger sheep to get her share of the food and likes to boss the Pyr puppies around. She will always have a limp and a funky shaped shoulder, but should be able to function like a normal sheep for the rest of her life.
I am amazed at how well she has come through this. A lot of other animals (and even other breeds of sheep) wouldn't have made it past the attack.
Unfortunately, I was too concerned about getting her patched up to take a picture of the injury before taking her to the vet. I only have pictures of it after getting patched up and during the healing.
This is after her vet visit. The vet just closed the skin covering the missing bone and muscle. Not much else she could do.
She spent the first couple weeks sleeping in a crate in the house and out in a pen on the lawn during the day.
Despite the daily high-power antibiotics, she got bad inflammation and some infection. The skin around the sutures died and the skin split open. This is about 3 weeks post attack.
Still, her spirits were excellent and her appetite was good. I had decided at the beginning that I would keep working on her as long as she was working too. If she gave up, then so would I.
The process was slow. For several weeks, I changed her dressing every day. After a while, I was able stretch out the dressing changes to once a week.
This is what she looked like 3 weeks ago.
Still draining fluid and not completely closed.
This is today. No drainage and almost completely closed. The bandages are off for good.
She remains otherwise healthy and full of spunk. She pushes her way into the larger sheep to get her share of the food and likes to boss the Pyr puppies around. She will always have a limp and a funky shaped shoulder, but should be able to function like a normal sheep for the rest of her life.
I am amazed at how well she has come through this. A lot of other animals (and even other breeds of sheep) wouldn't have made it past the attack.
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Sorry, but I had the same nagging question. Glad you were able to save her. It would have been much easier to just put her down.
