Off to collect the sheep this morning and alas as is often the case, when we arrived the poor things were in pretty awful condition and being kept in pretty awful condition. One of the 7 had apparently been killed by a fox since we agreed to come and see them last weekend - though I suspect it had died of blue tongue. One of the ewes had loads of snot issuing from her nose and I'm pretty sure she had the disease. The sheep are all tagged but other than that I don't think they've been well cared for or vaccinated. Their shelter had no bedding and their paddock no grass left. When we went to see them, the 3 ewes escaped leaving us with just two males and a lamb. We took them and are returning tomorrow to try and collect the others - but not the ill ewe who was as thin as a rake poor thing. We'd love to try and rescue her don't want to risk infecting our or other sheep - the disease is spread by mosquito's biting an infected animal then spreading the virus it to it's next victim.
Once here I think the sheep thought they'd died and gone to heaven. They seemed wild and scared at their old home, but here they are at once calm and content. De-worming, vaccination, hoof trimming and shearing in the coming weeks and hopefully we can give them a better life.
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