Horns and Quills

It was a beautiful, sunny but cool breeze blowing kind of day. Perfect for cleaning out the sheep barn....again. I'm getting a new ewe tomorrow, Windwater Caramel and I wanted to clean out the pen which has the remaining girls & ewe lambs. One section was done a few weeks ago when I separated the ram lambs from their moms. As I did the morning chores, I finally noticed the big rams. They are in an adjoining pasture and I typically throw them a couple of flakes over the fence as part of my routine. Twist was covered with white spikey things on his head. I quickly realized that he had rammed a porcupine. Panic set in...what to do! I remembered that my neighbour Pam had removed several quills from her dog herself, so I called her, but unfortunately she wasn't home. Plan B...the internet. Remembering that Pam had mentioned just pulling them out with pliers and NOT cutting the back end, and having that confirmed by what I was reading online, I headed out with 4 different pairs of pliers to try out.


I tied him outside of his pasture in the backyard and gave him his own flake of hay. I held his horns (I love that the rams have "handles"...it makes handling them much easier) and closed on one quill as close to the skin as I could and pulled. I was pretty nervous and shaking, but out it came and rather easily. I did 5 on his nose and near his eyes, before he started to squirm. As he tossed his head, I got pricked by one of the quills. Apparently the back end of the quills is just as sharp. I gave him a break while I went to get a bandaid and a camera. I did 5 more but the wind was taking away the discarded quills from on top of the nearby chicken house. I then went to get a baggie and a helper. Brianna came out to help in her PJs and held the bag of quills close by so I could remove them and just drop them in. When all was done, I counted 64 quills. Overall, he was a really good boy considering his predicament. I'd never heard of this happening to a sheep. I wonder if anyone else has had this happen to their livestock.

I carried on cleaning out the sheep barn. It took me over 3 hours of hard, physical work. I laid down some lime and fresh straw overtop and set up the middle lambing pen to put Caramel in tomorrow night, so she can get used to the new flock without getting bossed around. She'll have her own water and hay and hopefully recover from her long drive.

It was a busy, productive and educational day!