Minnie has moved on

Skinny Minnie is no longer with us. She was always the weakest lamb, I was convinced that she was autistic, she would never finish a whole bottle and would then stand in the corner of the shed and stare at the wall.

A few days ago, she stopped drinking so I brought her in overnight to keep her warm and to force feed her. The day after, I noticed that one of her eyes was red. Michael thought it was because she'd scraped it on something, but when she finally opened it, the eye had been covered with a film (like a cataract).

Keeping warm near the fire

On Friday night, we think she must have had a seizure. I found her early on Saturday morning, lying on the floor in a strange position with her neck bent right back. She couldn't get to her feet and her head kept flinging back along side when it wasn't supported. She wouldn't suck from a teat, so I feed her using a baby panadol dropper, 3mls at a time. I think she managed to down about 100mls over the morning, but was exhausted and slept a lot.

In the afternoon, I put her outside with the other lambs, in the sunshine. We had warned the girls that she was likely to die very soon, she was just skin and bone. But after a little sleep in the sun, she was able to stagger to her feet and stagger around with the others for a short while.

Ethel and Minnie

When the sun went down, I brought her inside and she spent the night in a box near the fire to keep her warm. I tried feeding her small amounts regularly, but she wouldn't suck for long and only seemed to manage on small amounts of force feeding. I think she may have had another stroke or another fit overnight, because this morning she couldn't even get to her feet. I took her outside and lay her in the grass. She tried a few times to struggle up, but never made it. She was spastic in the most literal sense.

We decided that the kindest option (and only real option) was to end her misery. So, when I took the girls and Margaret shopping, Michael did the deed and cremated the body in a bonfire (assisted by petrol). Caitlin was very upset before we went shopping, but has coped well this afternoon. She picked some flowers and threw them on the fire. Michael has suggested that we call the western paddock the Minnie paddock as that is where her ashes are.

Caitlin has also requested that we not have lamb for dinner this week, she doesn't think she could eat it.