His name was Abner and he was born on a bitter cold night in early March. He wasn't breathing when he was born so I had to revive him with a few swift suctions of his mouth and nose...with my mouth...I know yuck but it was all I had at the moment and I knew time was of the essence. He wasn't strong enough or it was just too cold and he couldn't stand. I tried everthing to get him to nurse but he was just too weak. I milked his Mom and then tubed him with the colostrum...still no luck...mind you the whole time it was freezing and the middle of the night. I then remembered hearing about giving them coffee to jump start them...I did it twice and then got a quilt from the house and put him and me inside of it and sat with him all night until he could stand....Hooray we had victory he slowly started to come around and could stand and nurse! Boy what a great feeling!
He grew we docked his tail and he was so cute! So cute in the way he seemed to toddle from side to side just like a human toddler! It took me a while to realize that he wasn't interacting with the other lambs and kids in the barnyard...mind you he was the only Babydoll that we had born this year..but their were many other types of lambs and kids. Abner stayed with his Mommy alot ...Boy did he love his Mommy, Abigail!
We had the vet come out and take a look at him it seemed to be that his front left leg had some sort of defect in that it turned inward...yet could be palpatated back in place...MMMM. The vet recomended we cast it and see if it would help. We took Abner to the vet and he was sedated and his cast was put on. Abner was in the cast for approx. 5 weeks. He learned how to walk with the cast. We had to keep him up at the barn and make sure he wasn't out in the rain or mud. I'd see raindrops and fling myself outside to get Abner and put him in the barn. A lot of effort but we just knew this little guy needed us!
After about 5 weeks of the cast it seemed like he was having trouble getting up and one morning I found him down in the pasture and he couldn't get up. He was anemic , pale membranes, even though he had been wormed 3 weeks prior. The worms this year have been terrible and very resistant to wormers. We called the vet, we wormed again and she took a fecal sample. 
Come to find out he was full of coccidia too...treated him for that. He seemed to be improving but then he started to have trouble standing again. We thought it was the cast. We took him to the vet to have the cast taken off. They discovered he was still full of coccidia. It was the last time I saw him.
The vet was heroic and we thank him for that..he kept him 10 days...hand fed him...treated him for the coccidia with everything they could. The vet even made a special stand with a sling for him to stand in but to no avail. Friday evening, July 31, around 8 the vet called and said I think it's time...I said okay and then handed the phone to my husband...I just couldn't talk anymore.
The vet brought his body around the next morning and my husband buried him under his favorite tree in the pasture. Goodbye little boy
I found you through Local Harvest, and I just finished reading your blog, and I am in tears! How hard it must have been for you to say goodbye to that sweet little lamb. At least you know you did everything you could to try and spare his life.
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