Vet Said Nacho Would DIE!

How you doing, Nacho? I'm worried about Nacho and his— his— I don't know, it looks kind of like an arthritic condition. I think it's more than just breeding activity. Okay, he's still getting up. It's not getting worse, is it? He's got normal poop. His balls are retracted, but I wonder if that's a safety mechanism, you know, put all the energies towards the organs. Parasite test, Nacho. See all that redness under his eye? He's not got infestation of parasites, harmful at least. You see that redness in my eye? If that was all pale and white, not red, that's an indication of harmful parasites. Come with me, we're gonna treat Nacho. Come on, Nacho, our breeding lamb, half our breeding stock. He's not getting better. Let's go. And I'm afraid if we let nature run its course He's gonna die. Texted Aunt Claire in Abundance Plus. She said make sure he has digestive enzymes available. That would be Buffer Plus from our mineral— ABC Mineral lineup. Pretty sure they have it, but we're gonna just double-check. Also just called the good people, the amazing people at Synergy Animal Products, herbs and essential oils. I said, does it work with sheep too? We normally use this stuff on— on for our cows, and they said it worked. They said, you got any Excel 7000. I said I got Excel 7000. We're just backlit. Oh my God, we're backlit like crazy. Excel 7000, uh, syringe, and some udder cream. There you are. What, you have to hold your pants up? Called the vet too. Now we have a conventional vet, and they figured— they're really good for diagnosis just over the phone— figured it could be tetanus. Tetanus certainly not out of the equation. They said, have they had their tetanus shots? No, they don't. We don't do tetanus shots. They said, well, if you want him to live, you got to bring him in and get a shot. Well, we're not bringing him. We're not taking him. No, Mom's gone. She's gone. Mom's actually gonna leave in 25 minutes. That was a lie. Sorry, sorry, Henry. He's only stopped crying because we've turned back. He's not gonna stop. It is gonna be hard for me to deal with a ram with you screaming in the background, especially if I'm gonna take you guys with me. Hey, Beck. What should I do with him? He's not being consoled, and I know you got to leave very soon. Oh, you're fine here? Okay. Henry's nursing. Mom's leaving in like 5 minutes, so I'm just gonna clean up a little bit. It's one of those things though, I need to treat him like 3 times today, so the sooner I get out there the better. Our approach is this way because Really, we need breeding stock, especially the ram, that, well, isn't going to get sick in the first place. And then if they do, they're going to kick it on their own. I feel like we've given him his chance to kick it on his own and he's not gonna. He's gonna need a little bit of support for whatever this is. Maybe it's tetanus, maybe it's some other kind of infection, uh, but we're gonna treat it naturally. You know, if we're gonna have to intervene like this He's not our long-term breeding ram, right?

Well, he's 50.

I think it's worth— I know, right? So especially important because would we eat him like this? No, no, we're not eating him for sure.

I mean, I guess we could do testing on him to see exactly what he has, but do you want to do that?

Uh, what kind of testing?

I mean, like some sort of blood test.

I put our vet— I think the only thing they're willing to do is for us to bring him in and get him a tetanus shot, right?

We could look at what testing we wanted him to have and have them do that also.

I did put a call in to our buddy Mike. I think he knew a holistic vet. Come on, Henry. No, Mom's leaving. You don't want to be home without Mom. I know. Bring your truck. There's one reason why our animals need to keep things on their own. I'm gonna have to deal with going out there 3 times today, and 2 times henceforth. Get you a brownie, bro. I'm gonna do anything at this point. Let's wait till she leaves and then we'll give it to you. Are you saying it? Say it again.

Mommy!

You are saying it. Mommy! Here's the deal though, I'm gonna give you a brownie, but then you're gonna be happy. Why is he so ill about you leaving? I wish I knew where the 3 brothers were. You go ahead, Mom. Just go ahead.

This isn't gonna make it any better.

There she goes. Girl's tea party. I don't think you want to go to a tea party. Actually, you probably would.

Where are you going?

She'll be back. You want some milk to go with it? Yeah. Okay, you just thirsty? Where are you going? We're gonna go swimming. Okay, I might need some help with him. I need to go treat Nacho. Hey, you want to go swimming? No, he's gonna have to wear a life jacket if he goes with y'all, but I'll try to take him. Oh, you're eating? It's good. Let him eat. Just be on standby. Got you a snack. Are you ready to go? Uh-huh. Boys, you want to go with the boys? Well, then you need to wear a life jacket. I'm sorry, guys, if he starts screaming this time, we just have to go anyway because we need to get this in nacho. It's getting worse. He's not even getting up on his hooves. Go through, buddy.

Come on. I catch him without attracting the steers.

Nobody misses a beat. Superior cow cream and rub it on his joints. Got an appetite. It's maintaining condition. Boy, he is retracting those balls though. No, says he has diarrhea. Kind of looks like it based on his height, although that's probably because he's just been sitting in it. Gray sits in his own poop because he doesn't want to get up. Look, he's grazing on his knees. You sit so good. Thank you. I don't know if I said, but the kind folks at Synergy Animal Products not only have natural products, they offer their expertise. They definitely need BVC, so they recommended 15 cc's 3 times a day the first day today, just to get in their system, and then twice a day, and from then on out. So I'm gonna think 10 days. Now that I'm saying this, I think I said that. So how hopeful am I that this is actually going to work? I guess there's enough hope that makes it worth it to wrangle Henry, go out there in this intense heat and give it a try. What's at stake here? Well, the life of Nacho. I mean, the vet said if I want him to live, I would bring him in today. I want him to live, so I'm gonna do this intense, uh, herbal essential, essential, uh, oil, which I've noticed tends to be much more in town and labor-intensive, you know, go out there 3 times a day, 2 times a day, as opposed to just one shot. I mean, that's awful tempting, isn't it? This evening I totally forgot the alfalfa, so I'm gonna have to just quickly grab him as he gets up before he gets unstiff.

Shoot, he sees me coming.

That's a good sign that he could run that good for me.

He likes it. He might know what it is.

Day 2 treating Nacho. Kaden's going to have to hold the camera. I'm milking. Jonah's going to do it. Bad news, I think Belle's got it too now. She's eating out Fafa right there. This is our chance to catch her. Come help me catch her. Jonah says it could be something they've eaten. I'm kind of thinking they're— at this point I'm thinking they're going to kick it, but I am scared to death everybody's going to get this. Strong and the fit are going to survive. That one's got a little limp, but it's not the arthritic. Sometimes when they get up, they're stiff. I don't think we're gonna be able to catch her without Fafa. Let's just watch her though. I just talked to my friend Mike Piccato. He connected me with a holistic organic vet. I said the vet thought it might be tetanus. He said not necessarily tetanus. Are they, are they eating? Yes, he's eating. Is he chewing his cud? Yes, he's chewing his cud. Was he lame before he was stiff? So yeah, he was. At first we thought, oh, his hooves needed trimmed, and we went and trimmed. They didn't really seem to needing trim, but they did have a little— they did seem extra soft and like they needed like they were peeling a little bit. I relayed that information. We'll see. Hopefully we can get them out. He did ask where we are. I have no idea where he's at, so hopefully we're not too far. He just asked if I had any other lame sheep. Lame meaning like limping or whatnot. There are a few. It's kind of normal for us though to just have a few lame. He was typing, so I was waiting around to see. We are gonna have to go on our chores. I'll put it on cell phone mode, keep it off of my body. And just see if he texts back. I'm out in the field on another project. He texted back, he said he could come out. Yes, and he's going to bring somebody with even more sheep experience. Yes, this is, this is the doctor. He's gonna bring some chiropractic tools, acupuncture needles, and homeopathy remedies. We have found, we have found the vet for us. Good news, I heard back from the vet. He's bringing his chiropractic tools, his acupuncture tools, and his homeopathy tools.

Awesome!

I like it. This is my kind of—

this is my kind of, uh, vet.

Yeah, I'm like, this is amazing. And he has St. Croix. Oh really? And catarrh. Didn't we get catarrh?

I don't know.

From Florida? Aren't those catarrh? It doesn't matter to us. It doesn't really matter to us. Just as long as they live. Day 4. The holistic vet is supposed to come today. Let's see how easy it's catching today. He stood up. He's peeing! Grab him!

Oh, he's peeing!

I don't know if we've had any progress. Hey, he's pooping solids. I don't think we're getting any worse. I don't think we're getting any better at day 4. So hopefully the vet will have some clarity today. The vet is going to be here in an hour and 45 minutes. I'm trying to get these two to Let's get the trailer. Let's get some pig panels. Let's go corral them. Let's get them in the trailer. Y'all don't want to do that. What do y'all want to do? Go out there and grab them. Okay, Nacho can be grabbed. Belle could probably be grabbed. Dixie is your wild card. How are you going to catch Dixie? Give her some without panels. Okay, you guys gonna do that? Yeah, yeah. Okay, I'll come out there with the tractor. I'm wondering if I should drag cattle panels while I'm at it. You can if you want. Henry, you want to go with us? I'm going to drive the tractor. Well, the boys are trying to catch the sheep. I've got to get over there with the tractor and the trailer. Come on, let's go! We have to go catch these guys so that the vet can handle them. We're giving ourselves a lot of time so the vets aren't sitting here twiddling their thumbs. While we're catching animals. How many vets are there? Uh, there's two of them coming. The vet is here. He's gonna want Nacho on a rope halter.

Dixie, stay in there.

Good girl.

Like she knows what I said.

That's Nacho.

Nacho Libre is his full name.

Is he a Catahdin? Yes. No, he's a St. Croix.

Sniff his breath, make sure he's not ketotic, because being ketotic, they can, uh—

what would you smell if it was ketotic?

Uh, you either can smell ketones or you can't. It's a genetic type thing. It smells like airplane glue. Like you said, the eye sockets look nice and pink. Yeah, and that's okay, but he still can have worms, just so you know that. There's only one kind of worm which makes that FAMASHA test look pale and everything like that. Okay, there's two other kinds of stomach worms. There's three kinds of stomach worms. Only one does the FAMASHA test, like, you know, make it happen. And of course, we're still just talking parasites right now. And on the back side, you want to see if there's any diarrhea happening.

He's not having diarrhea. He's got the black jelly beans today.

When you called or texted and you thought it— or someone thought it was tetanus? Yeah, like, no way.

He'd be dead by now. Yeah, they didn't—

they wouldn't be eating, drinking. They— he wouldn't be standing here. He'd be standing on one leg.

Bring him in and get a tetanus shot. I mean, for what?

I didn't even bring any along. When you got lockjaw and you're a bovine, you're standing still and you, you literally are on all four like a sawhorse stance.

Yeah.

And you can push the animal over. There's one other parasite that can cause neurologic signs. Uh, it's, uh, transmitted by deer, but usually alpacas and llamas get it.

Okay.

Um, it's, uh, I mean, a lot of deer Really?

We've seen more bear than deer, and we've only seen 3 bear. Really?

First night in the pen.

He definitely had a noticeable difference yesterday. Has he gone back to his norm, or has he ever improved over the night? We've got a little homeopathy the doctor gave me to give to him. I'd really like to come in here and jump up like Dixie just did. Look at that. Not 100%, but better. Well, at least we confirmed it's not infection, which could be deadly. Muscle injury, not so deadly. Yeah, he's still sore. Lay him back down. He's either gonna get tamed or healed.

You catching him in here?

4 days since the adjustment. Let's move him. And y'all can tell me if you think he's getting better. What? So it looks like before the move, this is after the move. Boy, this mobile pen comes in handy. I can't tell if he's just getting tame and letting me come up to him, or he's not really got his legs back yet. Homeopathy. Oh yeah, look at this. 2 weeks since the vet was here. It's getting harder and harder to catch Nacho. This is a good thing. That means he's getting his mobility back. Come on now. No, no, no, no, no. Make a liar of me. Oh, he's a little, he's a little stiff this morning. He's either gonna get tamed or healed. Hey, good back job there. All right, he's doing so much better. Can you get them up to the ladies? That rope will be nice. Yeah, that'll come in handy, won't it? Pick them up and put them over. He's so heavy. Just, just unclamp it there and we'll run this net down to here. I might weigh almost as much as me. I feel like lifting my own weight. And sheep. You remember your old pals? He's still a hair gimpy. He's so much better. Chiropractic and acupuncture on a sheep. Now don't be getting too active. Take it easy on those ladies.