Posted by roo on November 17th, 2009 — Posted in Fiber, Dee Dee
For those who follow me on Twitter or hang out at Ravelry, it is not news that Dee is ill. If you have followed my blog in the past, you are already a little familiar with Dee and her history. Here is what I posted in my Ravelry group yesterday:
__________________________________________________________________
When you visit an alpaca farm you are usually surrounded by soft, healthy furry creatures, usually ‘elbowing’ each other out of the way in an effort to nibble at the pellets in your hand.
Imagine your surprise then, if suddenly a tiny black, bony animal would appear out of the crowd, shoving her velvety lips into your hand, then raising her head to look up at you with huge black eyes and… a twisted bottom jaw that makes her look like popeye as she busily works her mouth before lowering it again to eat some more. What washes over you - a startled senstation? revulsion? an eeewwwww?
hello!
This little creature belongs to the small number that alpaca farms ‘hide in the back’ as they usher potential customers to the pastures of show animals.
Meet Dee, who, after intially startling first time visitors, will win their hearts with her broken little body and strong, yet sweet spirit. She is not for sale, my ownership of her is the end of the road for her. I purchased her two years ago after meeting her and seeing the amazing silver grey female cria she had recently given birth to.
Her jaw, I was told, was an old injury she sustained while boarded out of State, and although the cause of it was unknown the vets did rule out that it was genetic, hypothesising that it was a kick from another animal, or some other forceful blow. They recommended against surgery seeing she was getting by very well, surgery may aggrevate the condition. But her babies were so pretty and the price was very attractive, that I purchased her with the intention of never reselling her, to use her as a companion animal, a gentle teacher to first-time sires.
For the first time since her old jaw injury, Dee had her teeth filed down at shearing last year
and was able to fully close her mouth!
Cuddling with my husband Jason after her ‘make-over’
Sadly, two months after I purchased her and brought her down from OH to join the rest of the herd, she contracted meningeal worm. I noticed she was staggering, as if drunk, through the pasture when I came to visit her at the farm she was boarded at. She would fall and roll every time she tried to take a corner, walk around a gate, or simply turn. Somewhat alarming when her belly was swollen with an unborn cria that was due in 2 months! Even more alarming when you hear from the boarding farm that she’d been like this for two weeks! Immediately I ordered veterinary attention.
She underwent aggressive treatment, I stayed in town to administer her medications myself, not fully trusting that she would otherwise receive them. Although the worm was killed, the damage it did to the spine while alive cannot be reversed, and Dee was left with partial paralysis in her hindquarters. She walked stiffly, but was well balanced and later even learned to run. And to my delight, gave birth completely UNASSISTED to a healthy baby girl.
Dee and her cria Myra
She was truly a little fighter when it came to her spirit!
I moved the entire herd to a new boarding farm much closer to home (to Linda’s) as soon as I was able to do so. And last month (october) I felt that she was ready to be bred again. She was the healthiest I’d seen her in a long time, even gaining more use of her hind quarters from walking up and down hills.
Sadly, Dee began to lose weight after the breeding. We checked her fecals, there were no parasites present to cause this. Then a few days ago Linda noticed a small decline in her mobility, and when she found her in the pasture suddenly unable to get up or stand on Saturday it was time to take emergency action.
To cut a long story short, Dee is now at the University of GA, at their large animal hospital. The vets, who are unfamiliar with her, were alarmed at her partial paralysis and although I assured them that this was residual damage from a meningeal worm several years ago, claimed that the worm was more than likely present again. I argued with them, telling them that I strongly felt her spine or hip had been injured from her breeding.
She’s receiving an anti-inflammatory drug right now that she’s already reponsponding well to, she’s able to stand on her own now and even take a few steps unassisted. This tells us that thre was obviously an inflammation going on somewhere, but where? They want to do a spinal tap to check for toxins that are released in there in response to an m-worm breaking through into there, followed by radiology to check for trauma. Both are expensive procedures that can actually be performed by our local vet at a much cheaper price.
I am awaiting a call from the university, they can tell me what my bill is so far, and I’m going to see if I can scrape together the funds to bail her out of the hospital and bring her home. It will depend on what the local vet has to say about her current stable condition, Linda has a call in to speak with her.
I’ll keep you updated - please send Dee some loving thoughts, I’m sure she would appreciate them right about now 
Dee in the pasture at Linda’s
__________________________________________________________________
Yesterday I checked Dee out of the hospital to bring her home. I felt that the procedures at there were far too expensive and that they were concentrating too much on the residual effects of bout of meningeal worm she had almost 2 years ago, rather than focusing on what the problem is NOW, which I feel is trauma (the sire bringing her down for breeding may have dislocated or inflamed something in her physiology, maybe she fell and hurt her back). She’ll be transferred to our local camelid vet this afternoon for further treatment. Although Dee is able to stand and support her own weight when helped up, and is able to take a few steps now, she still needs to be helped back down into a cushed position. Her body is responding positively to an anti-inflammatory drug (benamene) at this point.
Much still needs to be done. Ultrasounding, radiology, perhaps therapy. It is very expensive. With the help of my friends and customers, I’ve been able to scrape together the funds that were needed to check her out of the hospital and settle the bill there. But I do not know what is yet to come. Hence me following in the footsteps of a very caring lady who ran up huge vet bills in order to save her beloved dog, I am creating a big fiber raffle to raise funds for Dee’s veterinary care.
1st prize:
Membership to the 4 month moonbeam club that is kicking off in January
as well as Membership to the 3 month handpainted bamboo club that is kicking off in January
as well as 2 ounces of Dee’s fiber (which I can provide raw, or washed and carded, your choice)
Please keep in mind that Dee is an older girl, and although her fiber is soft, it is not baby quality.
2nd prize:
Your choice of a Membership to either the 4 month moonbeam club or the 3 month handpainted bamboo club, both of which are commencing in January
3rd prize:
4 ounces of handpainted milk protein fiber
4th prize:
4 ounces of handpainted bamboo fiber
5th prize:
2 ounces of moonbeams
Tickets are $5 each and can be purchased here:
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=34705062
POST EDITED TO ADD:
To avoid concerns from the Etsy team, I have changed the listing a little. You will actually be purchasing a bookmark which features Dee and has a tuft of handspun yarn on it - the proceeds of this will go straight to her vet bills, but I will also enter all purchases into a ‘drawing’, the prizes are listed above and remain unchanged.
4 Comments »
Posted by roo on March 11th, 2009 — Posted in Fiber, Julia, Marius, Billie, Dee Dee, Penelope, Demi, Dominic
Myra’s necropsy results came in recently, and I stared at the cause of death, which was not a single cause, it was three causes:
1. Bacterial Fibrinous Peritonitis
2. Necrotizing Fungal Bronchiolitis
3. Intestinal Coccidiosis
And I really had to cry. Cry for that poor alpaca that so needlessly died without giving any indication that something was wrong.
In layman’s terms, the first cause of death was a bacterial infection of the membrane that surrounds the stomach - this infection is usually caused by fluids from the intestinal tract getting into the abdominal cavity, this is the infection doctors fear when someone’s been stabbed in the abdomen. The fact that fibrins were present indicates that it was in the very last stage of severe, chronic infection and that it had been present for quite some time.
The second cause of death was fungus, and lots of it (they had a report attached) in the bronchial tubes of her lungs, the tissue was decaying (necrotic). Fungus is normally only present when the immune system is almost completely non-existent.
So looking at those two causes you would wonder what the hell caused this, and I guess that’s why they included a third cause of death, coccidia infestation in her intestines.
Coccidia is a terrible parasite, it eats the intestinal lining of its host. The first sign is diahrrea, the second is diahrrea with blood.
When I talked to the vet about this, I suggested that because the infestation of coccidia was so severe (she had tapeworms too, BTW, like Marius), not only did it bring down her immune system so that fungus and bacteria could set in, but it gave the parasites clear passage to fully eat through the lining of the intestines, allowing the fluids to seep into the abdominal cavity. She agreed with me.
The underwriter will no doubt be very skeptical of all of this, the adjuster is already doubtful that any payout will be made. I put together a large package consisting of the claim papers, purchase agreement for Dee (Myra’s dam), sire listing for Gustav (Myra’s sire), her original ARI certificate and that lovely photo that I took of her the last time I saw her alive. And most importantly, a letter containing the events that led up to her death, the vet visits, the deworming schedule. Oh, fingers crossed…
Marius went back to the vet last week on Tuesday, Linda also took Dee to be ultrasounded. Dee, just to refresh your memory, is pregnant with our first cria from Billie.
Marius’ foot is healing, his body is making new tissue. This was a sign that his liver function was improving, and the blood test revealed that yes, it has improved! His bloodcount is still low, but it’s coming back up. A fresh fecal showed that the coccidia is dead, although the vet has warned that he will now be susceptible to coccidia for the remainder of his life. Linda reported that he is in great spirits and shows a great deal of curiousity. He will continue on his weekly shots of B12 until his body has healed. The vet expects him to make a full recovery. Oh, thank GOD!
Dee, on the other hand…
Her anaemia had gotten the better of her. The ultrasound showed no cria, so she’s open. We’ve waited almost a year for Billie’s cria and now it turns out that she’s not pregnant. To make matters worse, she had a weepy eye and a large soft lump right under it, which the vet checked out and found it to be an abcess. It had to be lanced and drained, I won’t be graphic, but it turned out to be a lot larger than expected, and now Linda has to flush it every day until it heals from the inside out. The cause? It could be several things, but the most likely is a weak immune system from the anaemia, and bacteria had the opportunity to lodge themselves there. The abcess has been there for quite some time.
Very worried about our small number of babies this year, I called Rachel in Ohio to check on Mazara. She is due at the beginning of April, and I was terrified that perhaps she was also open because I never had her ultrasounded when I bought her (the person I bought her from is a vet who does her own ultrasounds and assured me she was pregnant, and besides, when we tested Mazara with a male, she wanted nothing to do with him). Rachel told me that Mazara definately looked big. Phew! Okay, so at least she’s on track and we can expect one baby there. Soon. And one baby from Julia. That’s it. No babies from Dee or Penelope. *sigh*
Dom and Billie have left their quarantine pasture and are in with their herd of sires. Apparently the introduction went quite well. The dominant male approached them, chased them for a few minutes, then everyone resumed grazing and all has been well since.
Penelope and Demi have left their quarantine pasture and are in with the big herd of females. Penelope hung around the fence and waited for Julia, who had to stay behind with Marius, but eventually gave up and joined the big herd, Demi at her side. Julia since then has joined them.
Marius and Dee have to remain close to the house so that Linda can give them medical care every day. Linda also discovered that Marius is not eating pellets, has not eaten them since they arrived. He’ll eat grass and hay and drink milk from Julia (who has plenty) but no pellets. The plan was to wean him as soon as possible so that he can learn to eat pellets from his peers.
Today I visited My Sweet Alpaca for the first time since dropping off our alpacas there the day we moved them from SC. It’s been a crazy few weeks, so it was nice to take some time to visit and see how everyone is doing, especially Marius and Dee. And for the first time in over a year, I was absolutely THRILLED with the condition in which I found them.
I saw Dee first. She had rounded out a little, looked slightly more solid, but more than anything, her face no longer had the strained expression she normally wears. For the first time, I saw a peaceful expression in her eyes, she carried her head high, stood to attention beautifully, and trotted with excitement when Linda entered the pasture. Trotted as if there was no stiffness in her hindquarters, and after observing her for a while came to the astounding conclusion that the stiffness had in fact been greatly reduced. She’s receiving a lot of special care and extra nutrition, and it definately shows. She is no longer the little broken alpaca that I brought to the farm - she’s proud, she’s happy, she carries herself with purpose and determination. I had to give Linda a hug, I was so amazed at what I was seeing and so grateful for the care she and Mark are giving her. (psst… I noticed that Dee has Mark wrapped around her little finger… he sneaks her handfuls of food and calls her ‘darling’…)
Is that MARIUS???? I exclaimed as we approached a pen containing two young alpacas. His fiber has grown so much that he’s disappearing under there and again I felt that stinging pang about the discovery of the extra bone in his tail. Although he looked solid enough, when I laid my hand on his back he still felt so dangerously thin, just a hard backbone, then nothing, you have to grope around for the rest of him, I found this very disturbing. Of course he is slowly improving, but right now it is estimated that it will probably take about 6 months to get him to where he should be. I can still hardly believe how close we were to losing him. His foot has lost the hair around the bacterial infection site, but the skin that’s growing there is healthy and pink. He is sharing the pen with a very young female about the same size, and she has already taught him to eat pellets and cracked corn.
In the main pasture I found the three girls, hovering together in their own mini-herd away from the others, I guess they haven’t quite gotten comfortable enough to join the big herd. Penelope is putting on weight with all that green grass she’s got access to, Demi has always looked really good, and Julia is in great shape too. Linda gave me the ultrasound picture that the vet took of the cria she is carrying.
The boys are doing great too, although I’d really like to see Billie put on just a little bit more weight. He is within range, but I noticed back in January that he had lost condition, and he hasn’t quite come back from it. No doubt he will get there!
Today I also secured a breeding for Julia to Linda’s gigantic sire ‘Go Boy’, a Dracula son from Magical Farms. She was kind enough to extend her Southern Select show special to me, and I’m over the moon that we’re adding the Dracula bloodline to our herd!
Right before I was planning to leave, Linda showed me a bag of extremely soft baby cria fiber, she had washed it and was afraid she had felted it. It was a lovely dark brown with copper and gold tones, and after pulling it apart a little I told her it had dried that way, it would have been better to fluff it as it dried seeing it was so fine (at least, this has worked for me in the past). It came apart easily when pulled and teased, and I offered to put it through my drum carder when it arrives (this Friday) to make it into a set of four lovely batts. This stuff is of royal baby grade, like Marius and Myra’s cria clippings, it will form an angora-like halo when spun, just amazing.
When I mentioned to her that I was out of fiber, she pulled me into the loft of her barn and pulled out bags upon bags of amazing fiber! And so clean, like Rachel’s fiber! I almost didn’t know where to look first :) We decided that the best thing to do would be for her to provide the fiber and for me to process it into batts and rovings with my new carder, and we would share any profit we make from it. What a great opportunity to get some serious work done with my drum carder before shearing this year. I opened a second etsy store this evening called Pacos, solely for the purpose of listing the wonderful spinning fibers I’ll be creating from the treasures I discovered in her barn.
No Comments »
Posted by roo on March 10th, 2009 — Posted in Fiber
Jennifer from Desert Garden Farms ordered some of my handcarded fiber - some Amethyst roving balls and some Hematite rolags. It is amazing how time consuming hand processing fiber is, and as a result I have very little time, if any, to spin some of it myself. The handcarded roving balls I submitted for the February Phat Fiber sampler box have brought me more business than I imagined, and with our tax refund coming in I bit the bullet and invested in a drum carder to speed up production a little bit. I’ve just been informed by Brook from Twisted Fiber Yarn that it’s being shipped tomorrow… yay!
However, in the meantime I am being treated to visions of my fiber spun up into yarn by the enthusiastic handspinners that have posted photographs, Jennifer being one of them. Look how incredibly pretty her yarn turned out when she spun up the fiber she bought from me:
You can read her full blog post about it, and see more images by clicking here.
No Comments »
Posted by roo on February 19th, 2009 — Posted in Fiber
In anticipation of the February Phat Fiber box arriving in everybody’s mailboxes over the next few days, and people getting their hands on my mini roving balls, I’ve been dyeing fiber and carding rolags so that I can commence on the full sized ones. Here are some pictures of the first ball I completed just now, it weighs an ounce:
This incredibly soft ball began as a raw first shearing from Sergeant Major (above, owned by Buena Vista Alpacas) which I dyed purple with grape Koolaid, then washed with woolite to get all the dirt and dye out. I brushed staples of this lovely soft lilac coloured fiber until all the debris was gone, then carded it thoroughly into soft batts with purple firestar and silver angelina. Rolled the batts into tight cigar-shaped rolags, then pulled them into a roving that I made longer by overlapping the rolags as I drafted the fiber. All the fiber is aligned for spinning worsted, it is just beautiful and ready to spin! I’ll be listing this in my Etsy store shortly, unfortunately I have only one of these until I order more purple firestar from Wind Rose Fiber Studio.
More roving balls will follow as my supplies come in. Right now I am awaiting black suri roving from my friend Belinda at Southern Oaks Alpacas for the Gypsy Girl and Vampire’s Kiss balls.
2 Comments »
Posted by roo on February 8th, 2009 — Posted in Fiber
The lovely surprise was when Dani (from danido.com) posted a photograph of the yarn she has spun from the handcarded mini roving ball I sent her a few days ago. She is an amazing beginning spinner!
Over the past few days I’ve been spinning up a mixture of Dominic’s and Harlow’s seconds that I dyed shades of mossy greens and gold, and last night I pulled out the polyclay to play with some colour scheme for matching beads. Yes, remember the alpaca fiber knotted bracelets I posted about quite a while back? I am about to start official production of them. Come March you’ll be able to buy them in my store or if you are lucky enough to get your hands on a Phat Fiber sampler box, you may find one hiding in there.
No Comments »
