I've read several times about bring a sick kid, lamb, calf in the house where it is warm and dry. Where do you put it? On the carpet? THAT would go over REAL well with my wife. LOL I've never had anything bigger than a dog. How do fix a place for a barn animal?

-- Vaughn (vdcjm5@juno.com), April 15, 2000

Answers

Warm to us and warm to animals is entirely different. A heat lamp in a stall or back of a pickup will suffice. Make a thick bed of straw. In extreme cases and no power use horse blankets and your own body heat on small animals

-- Joel Rosen (Joel681@webtv.net), April 15, 2000.

First of all, it depends upon how big the animal in question is. A lamb or kid is small enough to be kept in the bathtub. (My husband really doesn't like this idea, but then we only have one.) A laundry room is big enough for a calf. These areas are high traffic, but they are also out of the way and has a floor that is easily cleaned. Again, warm to us and warm to them are two different things. You need to make sure that they are comfortable, AND your wife is willing to put up with the inconvience. A promise to do the cleaning should help. Annette

-- annette (j_a_henry@yahoo.com), April 15, 2000.

I use my shower with sliding doors. It can be cleaned easily and their urine can just run down the drain. I usually put a towle on one side. They also can't get out until I let them out. It works very well and until baby is out of the house we all use the other shower.

Little Bit Farm

-- Little bit Farm (littlebit@calinet.com), April 15, 2000.

We have a bathroom off our bedroom, which also doubles as a mud room as it leads to outside. When we have to bring critters in (we don't bring in anything larger than a small lamb, or a big cat), they get to use the facilities there. I can hear them, check on them without going far, etc., plus keep the room warm ( we have an electric heater under the counter heater in there).

Any adult animals stay in the barn, perhaps with a heat lamp or blanket, and get monitored by our $14 Radio Shack intercom. If they need more help, I will sleep in the barn.

-- sheepish (rborgo@gte.net), April 16, 2000.

Vaughn, I'm one of those people who bring baby animals into the house. they are either newborn and need feeding every 4 hours or they are in need of tlc. Usually they are kept in a large box next to the stove. I just remembered going to Uncle Buzz and Aunt Pearl's home on the farm, and they had a little pen around the heating stove with little baby pigs in it!!. Maybe that's where I got the idea? I think your wife will have to agree with having livestock in the house before you try it. Right now, I have a box of chicks next to the stove and a litter of puppies in the closet, sometimes I have baby goats in a box too. but then some people think I'm peculiar. karen

-- Karen Mauk (dairygoatmama@hotmail.com), April 16, 2000.

I'm with Karen, if I have critters in the house (lamb, kids) they are usually in a big laundry basket by the wood stove. Joel is right, they are fine with a heat lamb in the barn but I do it for my conveinience. Sometimes I don't like going out to the barn to check all the time! I guess I'm one of those who doesn't worry about mess, I just clean it up. Having said that, we did away with carpet. Kim

-- kim (fleece@eritter.net), April 16, 2000.

Boy, it's nice to hear I'm not the only one who keep bringing baby animals inside! Luckily my husband doesn't seem to mind as long as I keep it tidy. We just bought our place and are just starting buy animals so currently the only thing I have inside besides our cat and dogs is a small cage with 10 chicks in it, but as a kid I remember my folks bringing in goat kids, piglets, ducklings, etc. My chicks are in a cage with a solid botton lined with old newspaper. I change the paper at least every other day and I also have a small heat lamp over the cage for those cool nights. When my folks kept other young stock inside it was always because momma was ill (or dead)or that particular baby needed TLC. Usually a big cardboard box did the trick!

-- Elle (hotging@aol.com), April 16, 2000.

I ALWAYS have something living in our house other than kids! I keep an old playpen for most of the larger critters, i.e. goats, calves and large turkeys. (put plastic in bottom and cover with an old blankey or hay; works good for putting a heating pad under an animal) This I set up in the kitchen/diningroom. For smaller things, I use old bird cages or a wooden box.The up side to having a recuperating animal in the house is that they become semi-human and are very easy to handle for life. The down side is that because they think they are part of the family, if you leave your doors open, expect to have goats, chickens, or turkeys come waltzing in at any given time!! Blows the minds of visiting city folks!

-- sissy sylvester (jerreleene@hotmail.com), April 16, 2000.

Well, we had the kitchen sink stoppered and filled once because we were going to bring the new horse in. At the last minute, we decided that it would be safer to take the time to build her a stall in the barn instead of trying to bring her across all the ice and up a flight of stairs during an unexpected and bad ice storm. So downed ewes are the largest critter I've had in the house. Cold lambs go to bed with us-we don't have to stay awake, they're warm and one of us notices when they wake up and want a meal. Weak lambs actually do better on carpet, they can't get their footing on most other surfaces at first. Once they're up and about, they gambol through the house playing with the cats and dogs. WARNING just like toddlers, they figure out early how to go UP stairs, and you'd better be moving fast before they turn around and try the coming downstairs part.

By the second night, the lambs usually are ok in an old play pen in the kitchen. We put a big sheet of plastic in the bottom, then a layer of straw and cover it with sheets of plywood because the weakest lamb has no intention of staying out there alone. Usually we can leave a small opening that the lamb can't get out of but a cat can. I suspect the cat initially goes in to try out the neat new litter box, but they'll frequently stay and cuddle with the lamb. In any event, we sleep with earplugs.

As the lambs get bigger and stronger, I start taking them outside with me. At first I just set them out the door. As they get used to it, I start walking around a bit. We build up to one lap around the house, then every day add more laps. I find that if I march along flapping my arms and singing the Lambie Marching Song, they stay focused on me and keep following me. Eventually they start coming with me to do chores.

When the weather warms up, there comes a day when the lambs get put in a pen in a building. It does not go over well with them. It helps to have at least two. Occasionally a barn cat will take pity on a single lamb and wriggle into the pen with it. Otherwise, we used to put the rabbit in there. He raised a lot of lambs. We turn the lamb out when we do morning chores and often let it back into the kitchen for a while during the day, after all, we're the only family it knows and sheep are flocking creatures. Gerbil

-- Gerbil (ima_gerbil@hotmail.com), April 16, 2000.

Welcome Back, Gerbil!! You were definately missed! Now, could you explain the Lambie Marching Song? I went back to your posting several times just to be sure that was really what I read! Times like this a video posting would be a treasure (LOLLOLLOL)!

Thanks for the chuckle and the smile - I know I needed that! :-)

Judi

-- Judi (ddecaro@snet.net), April 16, 2000.

Boy, I sure would like to see that marching and flapping and singing thing you do! SO glad you're back.

-- Peg (jnjohnsn@pressenter.com), April 16, 2000.

I've always used playpens. Once I rescued a bunch of goat kids from a shelter. They were all sick and needed a lot of attention. My husband came home to the living room turned into a goat ICU ward filled with playpens. Keeps them safe and confined. I've also used large appliance boxes for other animals, eg: wild bunnies, domestic bunnies, chicks, kittens. I've also kept small barn animals in the laundry room when they were ill.

-- Chris Allen (cfallen00@hotmail.com), April 16, 2000.

I have kept new born lambs in the house and put them in a dog crate when they sleep. Most of the time I let them run around the house. I put diapers on them (had to cut a little whole in them to pull the tail through) and before you know it they think they are dogs! - Kathy

-- Kathy (jubilant@ncweb.com), April 16, 2000.

Our at risk or bottle lambs are in my kitchen. They stay from a few days to a few weeks. I put them in a Kennel Cage at nite mainly because it only takes 24 hours for the little squirts to learn how to get over/around barriers. But I feel like they need nuturing and they for whatever reason aren't going to get it from a mom. I have noticed that they do much better this way. And with the girls, they lead everyone else to me now when I go to the pasture. they can't get to Ma fast enough. I do tend to put twins in the bottle room sooner than singles. I usually don't have but one at a time tho. Now I know my house is still clean and you know it's clean, but I have friends who won't visit during this time. But by George, every little old lady at church is here as well as every one with a kid under 16. My English setter had her puppies on the sofa. It's where she slept. I kept pulling her into the birthing box and she kept getting back on the sofa. She won. I pulled the cushions off and crammed the old quilt under her. When the pups , now 5 years old, come in they head straight for that sofa. When I had my pygmy goat castrated, he live in a dog house by the back door. He couldn't get layed down right so I wrapped him in a towel, rocked him to sleep and laid on the sofa with him for a while. I had a lady helping with the house at the time as I was having a little problem with cancer. She almost died! She thought I was a sleep and I heard her tell her husband all about it. I told her I liked my animals more than I cared about her opinion. I have 94 sheep on the ground now and know each one personally. i don't name the boys of course as after a few months I will only have about 50 sheep. I also can't eat what I have named and bottle-fed. Cute story: This past lambing season we had 19 lambs in 30 hours. We were about to drop. So my dear friend Lalita, who had taken Thumper, brought us dinner one nite. Now Thumper was Bambi's twin brother and their mother died at thier birth. Our foreman, Sparky, had delivered them with me. I raised them in the house and later when it was time for the males and culls to go to St. Joe for sale, somehow Thumper didn't get put in. Now what am I going to do with a fixed male sheep? I certainly couldn't eat him. La called about that time and wanted to know if it was too late to get a lamb. As a matter of fact... Guess what she brought for dinner? I ate tuna fish.

-- Susie (goodartfarm@msn.com), April 17, 2000.

We've kept a variety of critters in large boxes. We like freezer boxes the best. We put down a large piece of plastic under the box to protect the flooring. In the box we put a thick pad of newsprint and cover that with hay. Hoofed critters will have trouble standing up on slick surfaces-including newspaper. We have found that if we cut visiting holes in the box the critter is happier. It can see out, my little kids can poke their hands and heads(if the hole got too big) in to chat with the critter. Noisey lambs will stroke their faces on the cut edges and they are more quiet. We also hang some sort of a surrogate mother(fabric) in the box. A lamb or goat kid will nuzzle into that hanging cloth like it's momma. I LOVE having a lamb in the house. We change the bedding every couple of days and air the box if possible. This last time we had 2 boxes-one in use and one freshening. With care these boxes don't get stinky and can be reused. Our house is all open-the critter box is in the diningroom where everyone that passes by stops to pat the critter. We used to have critter pens in the basement-but I like having them where I can keep a close eye on them. On nice days we do get the critters out to exercise. I've watched ewe and doe care for their little ones-I do try to copy some of that behavior-rubbing the back side, roughly lick(with a warm damp cloth) Weak lambs and goats perk up-it seems to stimulate them. I use a hair blow dryer to warm up a cold critter-then if it holds a steady body temp-I don't use a lamp. The house is usually warm enough. On VERY weak critters we fill 2 liter bottles with warm water and drape the weak animal over the bottle and cover with toweling. I would like to see the words and music to the Lambie Marching song also-we usually gather a flock of chickens, cats and assorted ducks as we march around, it becomes quite a parade.

-- Kathy Giddings (ckgidd@netins.net), April 20, 2000.

We bought baby geese & ducks last week & so far they are still in our livingroom in a child's wadeing pool! They have a heat lamp over them. We are totally enjoying it! My hubby & I seem to spend more time in there watching them. They will out grow the pool in no time-- as they are looking over the top at us already! The pool is easy to clean--& the baby runner ducks seem to love to run laps in it! ha- I clean up after them many times a day--& believe it or not they don't smell. I'm one who has felt I had to live in a clean & well organized home--some of my friends call me Mary Stewart /Martha's sister! Yes, I have a nice throw over the 50 lb. feed sack & grit bag. And a vase of fresh flowers next to the wadeing pool. And I have a tape player next to the wadeing pool & when they get tooooo wild, I play a tape of a babbling brook & bird sounds that seems to calm them & put them to sleep! But most of all we truely enjoy them, while we are able to have them in with us--as it won't be long & they will out grow us & our livingroom, wadeing pool. Sonda

-- Sonda Bruce (sgbruce@birch.net), April 21, 2000.