Water Hemlock Scare!

This past weekend we had a scare. As we were sitting in the swing under the shade of one of our big Maple Trees in the back yard on Shabbat watching the sheep graze, Ester (one of our new lambs) stood up, shook her head, then fell down! Then she began convulsing! I watched as she stopped and attempted to stand and the convulsions started again! 

I ran in to the computer to see what could cause seizures in sheep or lambs… WOW! there are a lot of options! But the one that seemed the most compelling (through the guidance of the Holy Spirit, I’m sure) was Water Hemlock poisoning. I researched Water Hemlock and seizures in sheep (all of this as fast as I could out of concern for the poor lamb that was convulsing in the back yard) and found that most sheep die from this and if they have eaten enough to have seizures they most certainly die. We went out to where she was just grazing and found LOTS of Water Hemlock! We had never had it growing here before, not in the past 11 years!

Well, I made a black liquid mess of water and activated charcoal and took a large syringe and shoved it down her little throat! After two syringes full, she’d had enough and got up and wobbled away, still listing to the right and shaking her head, looking for mama. We kept an eye on her for the day and prayed that the Father help her survive and for us to find all the Water Hemlock on our little homestead. We found it growing in moist areas around the water troughs, the water spigot, and our rain tanks. We cut it down carefully and got as much as we could away from the sheep.

Sunday morning we went outside, Ester was still listing to the right, but no more seizures. However, Moshe, our ram, was down on his side. Not really convulsing, but not getting up either… I went immediately to make the charcoal and water remedy, twice as much as I had made for the lamb and headed out the door. Satch helped me get the solution into him and we helped him to his feet to keep him moving, if possible. He moved slowly at first, and finally went to where the others were.

By Tuesday, both Ester and Moshe were symptom free and eating heartily at the grass in the back yard.

I thank Yahweh for His hand on the little ones he has put in our keep and for the leading as to what to do. We have since found that we have Gypsum Weed, Water Hemlock, and Buttercups, all poison to the animals… we have our work cut out for us! We hate to use poison on our farm, but these plants are too dangerous to have around the animals, so we are spraying them with roundup in some areas and 1 year sterilizer in other areas where we don’t want weeds, grass, or anything else to grow. The enemy will not have the victory on Shekinah Farm!