The Victorious Lamb- poor one-eyed Walter

Poor Walter the lamb was attacked by a fox when he was only a few days old and had his left eye damaged. The skin around the eye was torn up and his tear duct was torn. His eye was so badly injured that poor Walter was blind in his left eye. He had several bites on his head and one on his side, but Walter was victorious and managed to escape the fox's clutches- probably with the help of his mother. When we saw poor Walter we had to decide whether to shoot him or try and save his life. We watched Walter for about 15 minutes to assess how he was doing. Walter was just walking around like he didn't have a care in the world and then went to his mother for a drink. We decided that he had a real fighting chance of survival and took him to the vet. Unfortunately, this decision made Walter an orphan, as he was hospitalised away from his mother for several days and because he had such a large complex wound he would not be able to be placed back into the paddock where the wound would get dirty and he may infect other sheep with the nasty bacteria that were infecting his wound. Walter moved into our house, with a lamb nappy and an eye patch.

Above is Walter's 'good side'. Below is Walter's 'bad side'.

This is Walter's injury after surgical debridement by the vet. A nasty gaping wound- you can see his eye on the very top of the wound- unfortunately it is blind and would have to be removed at a later date, according to the vet. The rest of the wound is a large tear in his face that required a little plastic surgery!

Above: Walter getting a little love from his substitute Dad.

Walter's dressing. The vet thought that the wound could heal without a dressing, but I thought better, as we all do, and decided to employ a few plastic surgery nursing skills I had learned from my years as a nurse and give Walter a moist compress dressing to keep the wound warm and moist and scab free. The results amazed even me- Walter's skin tear healed exceptionally well within 14 days, apart from the ongoing infection that the vet and antibiotics didn't seem to be able to control. Two very nasty bacterias- Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Clostridium difficile- were cultured in his wound. Apparently foxes have very dirty mouths.

Below: seven days after the injury- infected, but healing very nicely- although sadly unable to heal completely because of the infection. Curse you pseudomonas. Damn you to hell.  After 10 days without clearing the infection, Walter was started on the top shelf antibiotics to try and kill these very tricky bugs. Poor Walter's rumen was taking a hammering- all his natural bacteria he needed to break down his food were also being obliterated by the antibiotics! And yet he remained strong and otherwise healthy and just kept surviving. I was beginning to question the vet's wisdom of waiting until the infection cleared before removing the infected eye. I could see her point- it is best not to operate on an infected wound, but I was convinced the infection was coming from his eye in the first place, so I was keen to see it removed and given a good flush out with saline.

Below: 12 days after the injury. Curse that persistent infection. The vet insisted that Walter had to wait for the infection to clear before he can have his eye surgically removed, in case the surgery further spread the infection. Walter's eye was often sore and I was very upset by this. One morning I woke to see a huge creamy mess all over Walter's face. His eye had ruptured on its own (probably from the pressure of the bacterial infection inside it). I cleaned his face with chlorhexidine and within days the infection was gone. His face healed completely and his terrible ordeal was finally over. I was pleased that he was finally free from the pressure in his dead eye, and equally pleased that he wouldn't require any more surgery. He completed his course of antibiotics and he was a happy healthy fellow again. Walter is our Victorious Lamb and he is our very special little guy. He has been castrated by the vet under general anaesthesia- he had been through enough pain we thought and did not want to subject him to a ring! He is back in the paddocks with the other sheep and is leading a regular sheepy life.

Below: Walter at about 7 months old

Walter's eye completely healed

Walter at 3 years old, fat and woolly

Walter's fat backside!