Family Members

Conrad

A brave, resilient wether with a strong will to survive.

Conrad was saved in 2016 by long standing ALV rescue team member Steff, who went on to establish her own rescue, Little Miracles Animal Rescue Inc.  Below is Steff’s recount of how she found and rehabilitated Connie, that she so affectionately called him, compiled from her posts at the time.

Found at approximately 1yr old, on his own, wool blind and emaciated in the hot sun, Conrad was near death when he was swiftly rescued.  At only 18kg, purely wool and bone – no muscle or fat, Conrad was so light that Steff just lifted him over her shoulder and carried him back to her car.  On his first night of safety, Conrad would not eat, but had a large drink.  It took days to get poor Conrad to eat anything other than Apple and rose leaves, but he slowly progressed to eating hay, pellets, grains and chaff, as well as fresh grass.

The day following his rescue, the most horrific sight was discovered when clearing some of the urine-soaked dreadlocks on his underside. There were maggots crawling out of his penis and around it.  As his wool was parted, Steff discovered the worst case of fly strike she had ever seen. Conrad’s entire underside was infected with maggots amongst rotting skin and wool.  Conrad was in a very bad state, fighting to keep his eyes open and in a great deal of pain. It took over an hour to shave the affected areas with a surgical blade and to pick away the hundreds of maggots, gorging themselves on his flesh before cleaning the area thoroughly.

Unfortunately, the infection was so close to killing him that he was unable to stand and to preserve his energy for vital functions, Conrad’s body had started killing off follicles resulting in him losing his wool, in the middle of winter.  He had to be kept warm to prevent his fragile vitamin deficient and blood poisoned body from succumbing to pneumonia.

To ensure his legs didn’t cease up, they were stretched daily before gentle rehab began to start to develop his muscles.  The first two weeks Conrad couldn’t hold any weight at all, but with the help of his sling, he progressed to holding some of his body weight whilst stretching out his tight joints and ligaments and sitting up on to his knees. 

Against all odds, after 8 weeks of recovery and painful rehab, where he grunted and panted in pain, but refused to give up, Conrad started walking.   His new follicles started producing brand new, silky soft fleece and he gained 10kg.

It was onwards and upwards from here for the courageous and determined Conrad, arriving at Liberation Sanctuary in October 2016 with Chia, who was also rescued from the same property.  Since his arrival, Conrad had spent his time in the outer paddocks with the rest of the flock, a sheep free to be himself and roam the 45 acres as he pleased.  That was, until he went missing in December 2022 and his strength and resilience once again shone through.

Conrad was found stuck in a deep, muddy sinkhole that had been created from all the rain running down the hill from the nearby road.  A team of 7 staff and volunteers who just so happened to be at the Sanctuary that day, quickly got to work to get Conrad out of the hole and up the big hill to our special care shed.  It was very touch and go and we weren’t sure Conrad was going to make it.  He couldn’t stand on his own, and required regular time being physically lifted onto a hay bale and having his legs moved and massaged whilst receiving regular pain relief prescribed by the vet.  Our annual shearing had not taken place yet, so we got our husbandry man out to trim some of the excess wool weight off.

Conrad’s strong will to survive kicked in, and the following day, 2 days after being rescued from the hole, he stood up!  It was up and up from here with Conrad soon moving into our special needs sheep area where he is the only male amongst our beautiful special needs ewe’s.  He has formed a nice friendship with our oldest Ewe Mary, and Jesse who came to the Sanctuary September 2022.

We are so thankful to Conrad’s Steff for all her love and care, saving ‘Connie’ and nursing him back to health and that he pulled through his second rescue.  We look forward to many more years loving courageous Conrad.



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