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A Near Catastrophe Averted
Posted 29 Apr 2008
This morning we woke to find Favourite Sheep, mother of North, West and Tonight and our favourite sheep of them all, rigged (aka riggwelted, riggweltered? - click here for pic)... This is where the sheep manages to get itself into a position on its back so its body is upside down and its feet pointing upwards to the sky, usually caused by a combination of the weight of the sheep with a very thick fleece and also by sleeping on a slope.
When the sheep gets into this position it has only a few hours to live as pressure gets placed on all the wrong places. We do not know how long Favourite Sheep was rigged for but judging from the pile of poo that had accumulated at her backside it was quite a long time and we think that she would only have lived for another hour if that had she been left unattended.
Thankfully we found her in time, rolled her over back upright and N,W & T dashed straight under for a drink which also suggests she had been there for a long time. She was very dizzy and still not 100% by the time I left for work but looks like she is going to recover fine.
We will be clipping Favourite Sheep as a result of this, to remove her wool and reduce the chances of her getting rigged again! I will try and record this on video.
We are all breathing a very large sigh of relief as this would have been devastating had she died from getting rigged in the night and we are very thankful that we found her in time to push her back over. If you ever see a sheep in a field that is rigged you should always try to go over and push it upright - the farmer will be very grateful.
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