Hello all,
My partner and I manage a subsistence farm for ourselves and a neighboring family. This spring we picked up some bottle lambs to be raised on pasture and slaughtered in the fall to fill the freezer. Sadly, one of our young rams (a mixed breed, mostly Black Welsh Mountain we believe) has presented with some baffling symptoms. A few days ago we noticed that he was bleating constantly, even having trouble settling down at night. When checking him out, we noticed he is very thin, and it seems that he has interest in food but may be in pain that prevents him from eating. He seems to compulsively rub his head and face on anything he can, even when trying to feed him, making it difficult to give him much sustenance even with a syringe. His teeth look and feel normal (to my unpracticed eyes), though he is definitely grinding them. I'm afraid we will end up putting him down soon if we can't find a simple answer to the problem. Right now he is separated from our other lambs, and we can't bear for him to continue suffering much longer. A local sheep expert, when given this description of symptoms, was completely stumped and suggested we reach out to a forum in the hope someone else has had a similar experience. Any advice is helpful.
Thank you.
