Poor little "Babysheep". With everything else that has happened to her, another malady has laid siege. She has inverted eyelids, where her lashes unnaturally grow inward and cause irritation, infection, or even ulcers on the eyes. This is a genetic thing and usually the problem goes away after a while--but not always. One of Grandma's babies from last year had the same issue, but it worked itself out after a couple of months. If the condition with Babysheep does not right itself, she could go blind. So, we've been keeping a close watch on her the moment we noticed the inverted lids. Over the last few days, the daily watery discharge from her eyes increased and visible ulcers started appearing on both eyes. And we could tell she was not seeing very well--bumping into walls and such, zigzagging here and there. She needed to go to the vet and we took her yesterday. We don't have pictures of the procedure she underwent, but it is just as well. It was ghastly. First, the vet (a very good vet by the way) had to inject medicine INTO HER EYES! YIKES! Good thing Farmer Tom was not in the room. This medicine, while ridding the area of infection is also designed to puff out the eyelids and keep the lids and lashes pointed out. The vet then proceeded to gently stretch and suture the skin directly above and below each eye to keep the area open (the lamb will still be able to close her eyes to sleep). The stitches will dissolve over time and now we must give her a medicated eye ointment twice a day for the next two weeks. The prognosis is good and the vet believes she will make a full recovery. I was going to post a picture of her but she looks just awful with those black stitches weaving in and out of her skin and her big unnaturally opened eyes making the yucky yellowish brown ulcers even more pronounced, not to mention the abnormally pink puffy lids. I don't even want to describe it, so I won't. Here, this is a nice picture of her BEFORE she had the procedure. I look forward to seeing her well and I pray that will be soon.
