Something attacked my pet sheep last night

catherinep

catherinep

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Horrific attack....my poor dear Camilla has been badly hurt and both ears have been ripped off (yes, ripped....one may be saved by the vets staples, but he is not optimistic)

My pet sheep have been out with my horses for 6 months and never had any trouble but we have a new shetland??? we think that the sheep may have been attacked by a badger and the horses came to her rescue and may have damaged her in scaring off the original attacker??? I cannot believe that the shetland would launch such a savage attack on a largish sheep???

Any one heard of this sort of thing??

It is touch and go with Camilla, so positive vibes pls - she means the world to me.

Thanks.
 
That's really strange...and unpleasant...could it not be a stray dog or something?
S
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Having lost 4 of my pet sheep recently I do sympathise with you. Most people don't realise what great personalities they have. I hope your Camilla come through OK.
 
Sounds like a dog attack. We get cases of sheep worrying up here and the dogs often hang onto whatever part of the sheep they can get hold of- quite often the ears. Unlike badgers, etc, dogs will hang on while the poor sheep tries to escape.
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Hope she's not too traumatised and gets well soon.
Get well soon vibes.....x
 
Are you sure it is not one of the horses. I also have a pet sheep, she is free to roam around all the paddocks as she likes. I had a horse that would chase her and grab hold of her ears or fleece and pull her over sideways if she dared to go into his paddock. Her ears were badly torn. They are sort of raggy ears now bless her. No longer have the horse!!
 
Last sunday we found one of my pet sheep (Hattie) with a very large wound to her head. (from ear to just above eye skin ripped and hanging down) The vet said they couldnt stitch and the risk of infection was very high, so we had her put to sleep.
We still do not know what attacked her. We were/ still are worried that whatever it was will come back and do the same to the others.
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*hugs* to you. I am amazed how attatched i get to them. I did hand rear HAttie tho, her sister crying after her, so have got her a new friend.
 
Hard to say what did it without seeing the wounds - but is it possible sheep got cast? If so, a badger or a fox would have the ears or any other interesting bit without a moment's hesitation. A horse COULD have done it - but in my experience of keeping sheep and horses, the horses are more likely just to grab the wool.

I had one horse who was a pain with sheep so I had a single line of electric tape at the top of the posts so sheep could run under and avoid Bramble's attentions!
 
Be aware that it could have been one of your horses that did it.
We have sheep and our new forest pony chased one down the field and when she tripped up he actually reared up and came down on her with his front feet! he kept stamping on her until we could shoo him off.
Sadly she was put down a couple of weeks later as she never really recovered.
We always kept the pony away from them after that.
 
I am so sorry to hear about Camille, we have only one sheep now, as this one's mum and sister have died over the years. She is now sharing a box with Bella, our 14:3 Black and White cob, who seems to prefer sheep to horses, she would never share her stable with a horse. When Amber first came she was not used to sheep and thought that they were skittles, fortunately they are Ryelands and quite big girls.
 
A friend had sheep and donkeys. The sheep were slowly losing their ears then one day she saw one of the donks pick a sheep up by the ear and swing it round and the sheep only escaped when its ear ripped. Maybe the shetland is to blame.
 
One of my youngsters was involved in a sheep killing
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He was turned away as a three year old with some other geldings and there were sheep in the field.

The sheeps had some lambs and rightly or wrongly, they were all left in together.

Anyway, scout (mine) and his best friend were caught playing tug of war with a very new born lamb and they killed it
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I had another that didnt like them also. He used to chase them and if he caught them, he'd literally just plough over the top of them
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And at 17.2hh.. that wasnt nice either
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Thank you all for v interesting comments....Camilla has come thru the night and taken some water and looks a bit more perky and alert (still down tho). She is tucked up warm in the garden at home and will stay here for as long as....

The owner of the shetland has admitted now that he does chase and stamp on dogs (she omitted to tell me this before and I have a dog....) so have removed pony and he is now well away from any small animals.

Camilla got me thru last Christmas when I lost my old horse so is particularly special to me...she still looks pretty battered/no ears etc but think that she will make it thru.

Thank you all.....
 
hope Camilla recovers quickly.
i've heard of horses killing sheep, grabbing their wool at the back of the neck and skinning them. very nasty. i've also seen sheep with ears ripped by dogs.
i wouldn't put a sheep in with horses unless you know the horses are not at all nasty or mischievous. tbh i think i'd trust mares much more, just as i trust the fillies together more. my 2yr old fillies never fight, never play really... they'll charge about a bit and have a rear and buck, but never have a go at each other or anything else. but when i had 2 young geldings they spent their whole time fighting, or looking for other mischief. a sheep wouldn't have had a chance in with them.
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