The 4-H program gets a lot of attention around here but it is because of the really cool things they get to do. As an example, all the lamb kids got to do a physical on their sheep with the help of Wagner Farm veterinarian Dr. Brian Gerloff. The exam stared with palpitations of the rumen then listening to the animals heart. Next the group worked on collecting fecal samples from the lambs to test them for parasites. Worms are a consistent threat to grazing animals since their mouths are so often close to the ground where the parasites live. Once the sample was taken Dr. Gerloff set up a lab in the classroom and the kids got to prepare slides from the samples taken. As it ended up, our sheep did have signs of parasites that could be seen under the microscope. The kids then treated all of the lambs for worms and we were done. This is just one example of the neat things that our kids are getting to try. Maybe we'll have a future Veterinarian!
