Homesteading Forum banner

Health issues after hybrid wolf attack on sheep

3K views 28 replies 12 participants last post by  Amanda Lovan 
#1 ·
Last Monday, April 16, my sheep were attacked by hybrid wolf dogs (3 adults and 6 puppies). We had no idea there were any in the area. They killed 4 of the 19 ewes and 5 of 22 lambs. We are lucky our neighbor's dogs heard the commotion and sprung into action to run the predators off. The weird part is that they continued to come back to consume the bodies. They didn't just kill for sport like a lot of dogs. We quickly disposed of the bodies to ward off other predators and honor the sheep lost.
Early the next morning, the adult dogs and a puppy returned. Despite having a window open, we were not alerted to the attack until a ewe busted through a gate to get to our porch. While we only lost two more lambs and another ewe, the injuries were significant. Thankfully, we were able to kill all four intruders (the puppy was attacking a downed, alive ewe, otherwise it may have lived).
Here's where the hard part really begins... all of my sheep seem depressed and I can't tell if they're in pain, truly sad (some of them lost their mommas and vice versa), or have other injuries we can't see. We've been treating for worms in those bit, fly strike, gangrene in a lamb that had maggots in her neck wound, bloat, and possible toxicity (not copper?). I feel like I'm juggling all of their health which has gone from strong/ never a problem to fragile/ moment to moment. Since we've never had health issues (besides one girl with worms) I feel like it's out of control and I don't know if I'm doing anything right. The two vets in the area flat out said they don't treat sheep even though we're in rural Arkansas. I don't want to lose anymore simply because I don't know where to go or how to treat them.
What is really good, reliable source of information for diagnoses and treatments (besides Sheep 201)?
How do I know who is just sad or scared and who is genuinely hurt/ sick?
Anyone know where I can find a certification class for treating sheep medically?
Thanks in advance.
 
See less See more
#3 ·
I'm very sorry to hear that, there is nothing worse than finding mauled and dead sheep thanks to dogs. It makes me very angry when the dog/s belong to people who are happy to let them wander. It makes it slighter better I suppose that they appeared to be killing for hunger rather than sport.

Your sheep are probably upset and depressed but more importantly they may have bites that have punctured the skin on the legs and neck (mainly, but also other areas of the body) - and dog bites are the worst of any. Have you got any penicillin? If so bring all your sheep in and dose the lot as per instructions even if you can't see any bites. If you can see bites, wash them with saline and spray liberally with Iodine.

Are you able to shift them to another paddock for the time being - it might help them feel a little safer and secure. Check that they are all eating and drinking.

I'm not too impressed by those vets but perhaps ask them for a stronger AB and anti-inflammatory too. Not really too much more you can do for them I don't think. Someone else may have some more/better ideas. Also, take care of yourself because I suspect you too are upset as well as worried.

Cheers,
Ronnie
 
#5 ·
I'm very sorry to hear that, there is nothing worse than finding mauled and dead sheep thanks to dogs. It makes me very angry when the dog/s belong to people who are happy to let them wander. It makes it slighter better I suppose that they appeared to be killing for hunger rather than sport.

Your sheep are probably upset and depressed but more importantly they may have bites that have punctured the skin on the legs and neck (mainly, but also other areas of the body) - and dog bites are the worst of any. Have you got any penicillin? If so bring all your sheep in and dose the lot as per instructions even if you can't see any bites. If you can see bites, wash them with saline and spray liberally with Iodine.

Are you able to shift them to another paddock for the time being - it might help them feel a little safer and secure. Check that they are all eating and drinking.

I'm not too impressed by those vets but perhaps ask them for a stronger AB and anti-inflammatory too. Not really too much more you can do for them I don't think. Someone else may have some more/better ideas. Also, take care of yourself because I suspect you too are upset as well as worried.

Cheers,
Ronnie
Thank you for the advice. We have been using penicillin and oxytetracycline for the antibiotic, banamine for a pain reliever/ anti- inflammatory, larvacide for the maggots and then scarlet oil for the wounds, and electrolyte gel to perk them up. I've been told to use neosporin on the wounds too but I don't want flies to lay in it or them to get dirt in it when they lay down. As you said, a lot of the wounds are to the legs and neck.
Since we've always been fairly hands off with the girls it's quite an effort to catch them.
We have two barns, the large one is where the second attack took place and they refuse to go in it. The smaller one is up by the house and they're comfortable there so we're going to put in a corral for all of our sanity. I'm 5 months pregnant and the stress and running on adrenaline has taken its toll for sure.
I guess we all mainly need time to heal physically and emotionally. Waiting is hard...esp with the littles.
 
#6 ·
Hi Amanda, you're doing everything I do for dog attacked sheep. All you can really do from now on in is keep up with topical applications and repeat penicillin if you think it is required - and most often I do in these cases.

How old are the lambs? If under weaning age they are going to take a knock back but they will survive, probably just not as well as if mum was still around. Again, keep a careful eye on them.

Yes, build yourselves a corral (or yards as we call them) because you really do need somewhere you can bring them into for drenching, vaccinating and situations such as this. Rethink your hands off policy too - and I'm sure you probably have after this. Even the best breed of sheep can be flighty and it goes a long way in handling to be able to call them in and even give an ear rub to the odd one. Once things have settled down, start walking amongst them, talking as you go. Initially you will find they will move off but eventually they won't even bother to stand up. No kidding.

Ah, so a babby on the way:). Wonderful! I don't want to know the sex until it's born. While pregnancy isn't a disease, it's also a good reason to take care.

Cheers,
Ronnie
 
#11 ·
We did not test any of the predators. By the time the sun came up and we assessed and tested the injuries and filed the report with the sheriff it was late afternoon and we weren't thinking of rabies, only disposing of the bodies. I have looked up the gestation period for rabies in sheep (10 days to 8 weeks) so that's still an unknown. We'll certainly keep that in mind if we ever see another one near our property though.
 
#9 ·
Last Monday, April 16, my sheep were attacked by hybrid wolf dogs (3 adults and 6 puppies). We had no idea there were any in the area. They killed 4 of the 19 ewes and 5 of 22 lambs. We are lucky our neighbor's dogs heard the commotion and sprung into action to run the predators off. The weird part is that they continued to come back to consume the bodies. They didn't just kill for sport like a lot of dogs. We quickly disposed of the bodies to ward off other predators and honor the sheep lost.
Early the next morning, the adult dogs and a puppy returned. Despite having a window open, we were not alerted to the attack until a ewe busted through a gate to get to our porch. While we only lost two more lambs and another ewe, the injuries were significant. Thankfully, we were able to kill all four intruders (the puppy was attacking a downed, alive ewe, otherwise it may have lived).
Here's where the hard part really begins... all of my sheep seem depressed and I can't tell if they're in pain, truly sad (some of them lost their mommas and vice versa), or have other injuries we can't see. We've been treating for worms in those bit, fly strike, gangrene in a lamb that had maggots in her neck wound, bloat, and possible toxicity (not copper?). I feel like I'm juggling all of their health which has gone from strong/ never a problem to fragile/ moment to moment. Since we've never had health issues (besides one girl with worms) I feel like it's out of control and I don't know if I'm doing anything right. The two vets in the area flat out said they don't treat sheep even though we're in rural Arkansas. I don't want to lose anymore simply because I don't know where to go or how to treat them.
What is really good, reliable source of information for diagnoses and treatments (besides Sheep 201)?
How do I know who is just sad or scared and who is genuinely hurt/ sick?
Anyone know where I can find a certification class for treating sheep medically?
Thanks in advance.

Amanda, recently a gal whose family runs thousands of sheep in Wyoming posted on Facebook a story of a rogue wolf pack attacking the flocks (even with many LGDs). Several were killed, and many injured. Several died weeks later, and in autopsying them she found (and posted) pics of the bodies skinned. Many showed bruised/deeply injured underlying flesh, which could not be seen from the outside. Puncture wounds close up, but still are there. My point isn't to be gross, but if some of your injured sheep don't improve, that may be what is happening. There's not much you can do besides what you are, TLC will do the best. If you are interested in her story - she writes books about LGDs and other ranch life stories, check out Cat Urburgit on FB.
 
#18 ·
Folks sometimes give me a lot of guff about the fence I recommend but after raising sheep I learned you don't really need to fence the sheep in you need to fence everything else out.
How did you discover they were hybrid? Were you able to find the owners?
Yes, the sheriff actually came out and took pictures and knew about where they live from other issues they've had with the owner. The guy admitted to breeding hybrid wolves. Said that's why they look like wolves. Smh.
 
#19 ·
So we're still dealing with injuries. Puncture wounds from the bites are building up pus. We are treating with cleaning out the pus by squeezing and clearing with sterile gauze and then spraying scarlet red and fly strike spray (sadly, it's fly season and it's the worst we've ever had). My most critical is a lamb who had a gash on her neck. We treated her immediately but she caught fly strike. We caught it early and got her fixed up but 3 days later she went down and hasn't been back up. It's been a week now and we're feeding her milk via syringe, grain/corn, and water via syringe. We initially packed the wound with sugar but after 5 days it wasn't making progress so we cleaned the sugar out and put ointment in the wound and covered with sterile gauze and stretchy self-adhesive tape (applied loosely). She was doing fine until this morning. She started opening and closing her mouth, refusing milk, grain, and water for the most part. Her stomach was a bit bloated so I gave her 4oz of a water, oil, baking soda mixture. That was around 4pm. When i fed her dinner around 730, she was still doing the thing with her mouth. She was also kicking her legs and crying out which she hadn't been doing. Her wound began to pus again today so she got another shot of long-lasting penicillin, her 3rd total since the attack. She has been peeing and pooping normally and we move her often to keep her in the shade, out of the barn during the day, and on clean, dry hay if not in grass. I don't know if this is her giving up or if it's just a severe case of bloat or pneumonia. Any ideas??
 
#20 ·
You need to watch yourself as well. Any open skin on humans can pick up rabies from the wounds, siliva from the injured and dead animals. We just went threw a mess with a neighbors injured cat that was attacked by a as it turned out rabid dog.
That's an excellent point. My husband and I both wore gloves during all of the cleanup and he was the only one who touched the predators. All carcasses were burned. We also poured sodium hydroxide (lye) on them after the fire went out. We are keeping a close eye on everyone involved.
 
#21 ·
Hi Amanda,
Where are you at with the lamb? I will push things to the inth to keep my animals alive in situations like this -BUT, when the sheep (as it is in this case) starts kicking, bleating and refusing food, I know that it's time. Sheep can be very stoic, as are most animals, but when they start to actively show pain, it's time to call it quits. That decision is up to you.

Try not to squeeze out the pus from wounds. Instead make up a saline solution and using an old syringe (minus the needle) flush it out on a daily basis. Pat dry with a paper towel, spray with Iodine and very carefully apply fly strike repellent, again with an old syringe, about an inch away from the wound and right around it. You should only need to do that bit about once a week.

Did you get back to those useless vets about a stronger AB because I really think in this case you need it. If it was too hard (and I know what that can be like), give LA300 every 4-5 days. I'm not a fan for pumping things into animals wholesale but there are times when needs must.

Take care,
Ronnie
 
#22 ·
Hi Amanda,
Where are you at with the lamb? I will push things to the inth to keep my animals alive in situations like this -BUT, when the sheep (as it is in this case) starts kicking, bleating and refusing food, I know that it's time. Sheep can be very stoic, as are most animals, but when they start to actively show pain, it's time to call it quits. That decision is up to you.

Try not to squeeze out the pus from wounds. Instead make up a saline solution and using an old syringe (minus the needle) flush it out on a daily basis. Pat dry with a paper towel, spray with Iodine and very carefully apply fly strike repellent, again with an old syringe, about an inch away from the wound and right around it. You should only need to do that bit about once a week.

Did you get back to those useless vets about a stronger AB because I really think in this case you need it. If it was too hard (and I know what that can be like), give LA300 every 4-5 days. I'm not a fan for pumping things into animals wholesale but there are times when needs must.

Take care,
Ronnie
Ronnie,
Thank you for getting back. We went ahead and put her down yesterday. It was a very sad day because we worked so hard on her for so long. From what I can tell she probably caught pneumonia from laying in the barn and grass. Even though we moved her frequently, she was still laying near moisture from urine and dew. We could tell she was in pain and it was time. It's the first time we've had to make that call and it was even harder because we'd had hope for so long.
So when I said pus, I actually meant a (sorry for the assimilation) grits like consistency. One of the lambs we caught had not initially been treated because we didn't notice the bite somehow. There were two small punctures but one must have become infected. It was so deep by the time we caught it it had about 1Tbsp of this thick pus. We would have never been able to clean it out with a syringe solution. I will definitely use the solution now that the would has been cleared. She seems to be doing well although she never really slowed down to begin with. We just noticed a dark area on her neck.
A win for us last night... the morning after the second attack, one of the ewes that was unaccounted for from the first attack returned amazingly. She'd spent the night in the woods, had a huge neck wound, and wasn't walking straight. We're still assessing if she's blind in her right eye even though the bite was on her neck. Anyway, she also had fly strike badly and the bite wound was very deep. We cut her hair (she's a hair sheep) and doused the wound in permethrin and they were literally falling off of her like water. We rinsed thoroughly and scrubbed it down with soapy water and betadine for livestock and rinsed thoroughly again. Then used sugar for the necrotic skin... we'r just poured it right in and let the moisture from the wash create a crust. We also sprayed with scarlet red around the wound and permethrin to make sure the flies wouldn't be back. She also received a worming treatment and antibiotic (long- acting penicillin). After the sugar broke up a couple days later we used a liquid adhesive because she had exposed fascia from the neck muscles and we wanted to create a barrier without actually bandaging the wound. (I hope you don't mind me posting this much detail but I'm hoping it might be helpful to someone else) The necrotic skin and scab have fallen away almost completely and the skin seems to be joining with the other side so her fascia is not quite as exposed.
Concerning her eye, I happened to be outside working on fencing when I heard a commotion. She was completely upside down. She'd rolled into a drainage ditch on the backside of their barn and couldn't get up. I'm so thankful I was outside at the time. I pulled her up and she shook it off and walked away. Not really sure how to assess this further or if it's even necessary. It's not like I'm going to put her down for being partially blind. We got into sheep initially to mow our grass because we live on top of a mountain and it's dangerous to mow. All that to say, I don't care if she never gives another lamb, I'll never take her to slaughter. She'll always have a place here.
Another win, our last momma lambed (we thought we'd lost her or thought there might be damage to the lamb because of the stress from the attacks). She gave us a beautiful ewe (had a lot of rams born this year and lost mostly ewes in the attacks). Because she's so much younger than the other lambs she doesn't have anyone to play with during evening feeding so she chases the chickens around while hopping. It's uplifting to have innocence back in the herd. All the surviving lambs seemed to have theirs stolen... like they had to grow up fast, esp those who lost their momma.
Thank you for all of your advice. I will continue to give updates until I feel we are free and clear.
 
#23 ·
Hi Amanda,
Making the call is never easy but at some level you know it has to be made and once the decision is made, there is a huge sense of relief.

Carry on with what you're dong but under the circumstances, don't be too afraid to give LA penicillin every 3-4 days. I have done with mine and while it might seem to be an overkill, I would rather that than not give enough and lose it.

As to the blindness, don't worry about it - they get on perfectly well with one eye - or no eyes at all. Keep in mind that major injuries to the neck could impact on a myriad of things as all nerves etc. come down through that relatively small area of neck. I would be most surprised if she didn't make it.

You've had some plus and minuses through all of this and I think you need to focus on the pluses which are positives and are teaching you how resilient animals can be and therefore it's worth putting the effort into them because you never know......

How's bubba doing - nearly two weeks on from your original post, it's probably giving you some grief when it comes to getting some sleep. Lucky you!

Cheers,
Ronnie
 
#25 ·
Things are definitely looking good. All the lambs were playing last night and ignoring their mother's admonishings.
The baby is doing great. I was slightly worried all the stress was going to hurt him but he's beating along inside and my doctor said he looks great. I'm 23 weeks along so it hasn't started to get miserable yet. I can still run around chasing sheep and cuddle lambs.
 
#28 ·
I am in agreement. I use to rescue Northern Breeds...Malamutes and Siberian Huskies. When I would get a hybrid I put it to sleep. VERY hard choice but I have had people threaten to shoot my Husky for looking like a wolf.
 
#27 ·
We are definitely more mindful of our surroundings now. We had no idea they were in the area. The owner is a pretty shady character so he hides his activities fairly well. We had considered a civil suit against him just to recoup our financial loss but doubt he'd be able to pay and don't want to have to look over our shoulder all the time. Thankfully, we don't rely on our animals to pay our bills and the money won't bring them back. So in terms of healing, it's just best to clean up the mess, heal our injured, reinforce our fence, and move on...move on more aware but move on nonetheless.
 
#29 ·
I am in agreement. I use to rescue Northern Breeds...Malamutes and Siberian Huskies. When I would get a hybrid I put it to sleep. VERY hard choice but I have had people threaten to shoot my Husky for looking like a wolf.
That's exactly what he was breeding his wolves with...Huskies. I'm not sure why anyone would need a hybrid wolf as a "pet" other than shady characters. They're not hunting/sporting dogs and I'm not even sure they'd be good for protection. They seem to take on more of the wolf attributes than the dog's...probably because they're already genetically similar. I'm afraid for what this will do to the husky/malamute breeds. I hope they don't gain a pit bull's reputation (can't always trust them kind of thing).
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top