Posted by roo on April 7th, 2010 — Posted in Unreal, Arabella, Serious, Julia, Demi, Penelope
Unreal and the two young males that Pam brought back from the AlpacaRosa have been quarantined in a pen in the barn since their return, to ensure that nobody was introducing unwanted parasites to the rest of the herd. Their fecals revealed nothing of interest, so they were released from the pen to join the other juveniles. What a joy it was to watch them run and pronk with excitement, happy to feel the grass under their feet and the wind in their ‘hair’.
When Serious was in ICU at the vet recently, and we had to reintroduce him to his mother Mazara who I brought as his companion, I was struck with how highly emotional alpacas truly are. He was so relieved, so surprised, so comforted, when I led her into the stable where he was cushed, depressed, in a corner. They hadn’t seen each other in months, and yet they immediately resumed their roles as mother and child.
The way in which Unreal and his new friends behaved when released from the pen was also a display of emotion, one of pure happiness and excitement. When observed closely, and in many different situations, it becomes very clear that alpacas are delicately balanced creatures, who absolutely thrive only when herd relationships are maintained.
In another pasture, 4 of my girls were grazing together. My intention was to get some ‘belly’ photos of Penelope, but I got sidetracked because I wanted to take in the peace of of their private little herd, and because I can’t help but be impressed by the amount of fiber that Arabella is carrying around. After they posed for some pictures, they dismissed my presence as thought I wasn’t even there. Just the way it should be.
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Posted by roo on March 31st, 2010 — Posted in Julia, Penelope
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Posted by roo on March 30th, 2010 — Posted in Unreal, Julia, Farm Entry
Naomi, Pam’s juvenile female that took the championship at Palmetto, is going on the show circuit up north, and therefore we needed to take her up to Don and Carolyn Marquette from the AlpacaRosa (Don, BTW, is the inventor of the tooth-a-matic) so that she can travel with them. Unreal came along as Naomi’s travel companion.
I’ve done the trip many times, but always with adult animals, never with juvies… and what an experience it was, it’s similar to travelling with children! Barely an hour on the road they began to get antsy and we decided that perhaps they needed to pee, so we pulled over into a parking area and got them out of the van. Normally I don’t take anybody out of the van while in transit, but that’s because I’m usually on my own and don’t want to run the risk that I can’t get them back in the van by myself. And it’s amazing that the adults can travel from AL to OH without messing up the back of the van! Juvies, not so.
So we pulled over, I open the back of the van to clip on the leads, and here is Naomi, grinning ear to ear, peeing a river onto the piece of carpet they were riding on. She was done by the time she jumped out, and had no interest in doing anything else but eat grass.
Unreal, not understanding why we were getting out of the van and what he was supposed to do, joined her in munching on the grass, they loved the little knolls of deep green tufts of grass.
But as much as we loved to stay and let them enjoy it, time was ticking and we needed to get back on the road. Of course within half an hour of being back underway, it occurred to Unreal that he needed to go potty after all, and proceeded to make a terrible mess through which both animals happily paraded back and forth and once again we had to pull over, this time at a Walmart so we could get supplies at the same time.
Pam walked the animals along the grass to clean their feet while I scrubbed the carpet as best as I could, soaking up the liquids with paper towels, while curious shoppers stopped to look at the animals. Making to wish as few stops as possible so that we could get to OH at a decent time, I decided that Unreal should wear a diaper - Naomi was letting us know she needed to go by pacing and humming, Unreal was not. Pam laughed so hard she was crying, Unreal was not at all impressed, but so be it.
Adults in transit will rarely eat or drink, in fact I’ve given up offering any animal in transit water because all I get is a dirty look before they turn their noses away. These two juvies however wanted to be treated exactly as they would be at home, and they were pulling at the haybag, spilling hay everywhere on the backseat, onto our wheels and fiber, and into the goodie bags for the girls at Magical. Before taking off again Pam squeezed the hay bag behind the seats and filled a container with grain, after which the youngsters cushed happily and relaxed. Putting on a CD for them also relaxed them, we discovered that the Cure had a particularly soothing effect on them!
Of course we did need to stop to change Unreal’s diaper… he was the laughing stock for quite some time, but at least we had no more messes! It was hard to get them back into the van though, they wanted to run and play instead. Thank goodness they are still relatively small, when the grinding of the heels kicked in we could pick them up and load them that way.
We had hoped to be arriving at Magical Farms around 11:30pm OH time, instead we rolled in well after 1am, completely exhausted. They had prepared a stable for the animals so it was easy to get them ready for the night (thank goodness Pam had thought to bring a coat for Unreal, he was shorn and it was literally freezing cold!). We set the alarm in the guesthouse for 6:45am, and at 2:30am I still found myself staring at the lit up numbers in the dark, I was way too wired from the journey and way too excited about our meeting with Tripp in the morning. At some point I fell asleep, but was awake again well before the alarm went off. Amazing how much thinking goes on in your head when you are alone and can watch the sun rise through the window.
If you’ve not visited Magical Farms before, you should if you have the opportunity. It’s a very friendly place, you’re treated like a friend, not a customer, and they’ll unselfishly share their knowledge with you. To me, it’s an incredibly inspiring farm on many different levels. It’s a good thing I don’t live nearby, because I’d become a familiar sight, roaming through the pastures and raiding their fleece room.
We discussed breedings, and my Julia will be travelling to Magical in the fall to be bred to MFI Peruvian Grindstone. I’ve also agreed to teach a workshop there in the fall, I’ll release the details once the planning is over. My desire is to teach beginners how to dye their fiber with koolaid, show them simple carding techniques with dog brushes, introduce wonderful blending fibers and sparklies, the world of Etsy, and perhaps, if time allows, show them how to felt fiber into yarn.
They invited us so very kindly to have lunch with them. In all honesty, we shouldn’t have stayed because at this point we were already so far behind schedule that I was afraid we’d have to postpone one of our other farm visits until another trip, but it’s hard to pull myself away from Magical once I’m there. The recluise in me was overwhelmed by the gathering of staff as we all ate lunch together, but they are such a nice bunch of people, it was like a family coming together.
The visit to stud row after lunch was a special one. Tripp’s relationship with the males was amazing to watch - there was no chasing the animals around with hands waving, no excitement, nervousness or frustration. From my camelidynamics view I was both impressed and surprised. I learned that you can predict the style of the future adult fleece on a cria by looking at the style of fiber in the back of their top knot. What you see there is a concentration of the adult fiber that’s coming in. The adult fiber will have HALF the contentration of the top knot. Below is Powder Keg’s top knot (left), and his blanket fiber (right) - of course he is an adult, but it shows the comparitive crimp levels.
The highlight for me was laying my hands on Black Mesquite and to feel his breath on my skin, a small intimate moment with the well known son of one of my favourite alltime herdsires, Matador.
Reluctantly we loaded our animals back into the van and said our goodbyes, pulling out of the driveway in the direction of the AlpacaRosa and Zenith.
We decided to hit Zenith first seeing our stop there would be brief. My thinking was that once that was out of the way, Pam could spend as much time as she wanted to at AlpacaRosa without feeling rushed.
Both Brad and Gary met us at Zenith and presented Raine to me. Oh, what a sweet natured alpaca she is!! Her fiber astounded me. Brad had said that she was very black and very fine, but in all honesty, this statement is so personal and depends on taste, and I wasn’t really sure how she would rate in my own book. It WAS really black, and it WAS really fine, she’s got amazing staple length… and she’s quiet, sweet, and she’s Unreal’s cousin from the same farm his mommy Halo came from. I couldn’t help but feel delighted with this newcomer and am very grateful to both Brad and Gary for their generousity for offering her to me at a pittance of a price to replace my loss of Halo.
We were in and out of there like the wind blows in and out, I had to leave her behind as the clock was ticking…
The AlpacaRosa is a gorgeous, manicured farm on the edge of a subdivision. Driving through the streets you wonder how on earth an alapca farm could be situated there, but let me tell you, this farm is a little piece of heaven. The pastures are so green and rolling, the barns smell of nothing but hay and warmth and are immaculately clean, the animals are friendly and of outstanding quality, and the whole production is run by two wonderful people who are very knowledged and confident in what they do. I thoroughly enjoyed my visit there (saw a gorgeous dark silver grey older dam I just wanted to stuff in the van and take home), both with the animals and with the owners, Don and Carolyn. Pam got to spend some time with her beloved Sasha that is over there incubating a cria (due in June). Sasha will be coming home to AL in October, once the dreadful heat of the summer is over.
We ate dinner at a wonderful Amish restaurant where I tried chocolate and peanut butter pie for the first time… actually, Carolyn ordered it, the last piece, and when I had trouble deciding which pie to order for myself after being told this, she so graciously offered it to me so that she could have strawberry pie instead. She also prepared a concoction of things for Unreal to stop his runny poop (nervousness) and expertly dosed him. They have so many incredible products for alpacas up north that I’ve never even heard of.
With Naomi settled in, Unreal back in the van along with a suri that was coming home for Pam’s son, and a young accoyo male that needed a new home, AND an almost flat trailer tire fixed, we said our goodbyes for the so maniest time that day, and headed into the dark, late hour, to Cincinatti, where we were spending the night with Pam’s friend Demitri.
I’m really not sure what time we got there… was it 3am? 4am? All I know is that we were exhausted and I was so glad to drop into bed and sleep. I awoke to the smell of a potato skillet and sausages, and of fresh coffee brewing. A moment of normalcy and peace, as we all sat and ate breakfast.
The alpacas had spent the night in the garage - while I cleaned it, Pam took them onto the lawn to graze and seeing we were well and truly in the city it did not take long before cars pulled over and people came out to touch the alpacas, to call their friends excitedly on the phone, to snap pictures.
The drive home was long, but filled with deep and intense conversation about our experiences, the animals, the people, the hay we had collected from two different farms on the trailer that I was pulling (that was getting quite wet in the downpour even though we’d wrapped it well with tarps), and most of all, the plans and projects that we’d have to make room for in our busy lives as a result of opportunities that arose during the trip.
The suri was up on the hour every hour, I think, to pee… and pee… and pee… oh geez, the entire carpet was soaked by the time we pulled everyone out of the van shortly before midnight on Sunday. At 1am I finally arrived home in Huntsville and dropped into bed.
Another roadtrip out of the way…
And yes, I have scrubbed and shampood and hosed the piece of carpet and the tarp that was under it, much to the delight of my son Jesse, who stomped and jumped on the soapy carpet and who shrieked with delight in his efforts to help 
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Posted by roo on March 12th, 2009 — Posted in Marius, Julia
After ARI (Alpaca Registry, Inc) rejected Dakini as Marius’ sire because their DNA markers did not match, we were left scratching our heads, profoundly confused. Of course Dakini was the sire, Julia wasn’t bred to anyone else! For weeks his registration has been sitting in the ‘pending’ status with ARI as Rachel scrambled to gather new blood samples from Dakini and to study Julia’s breeding records a little closer. As a last resort she submitted almost every single breeding male she has access to, and a small note on the records reminded her that for Julia’s very first exposure to a male, she had put her in with none other than Myra’s sire, OGA Gustav. Although the note says that Julia was ‘not interested’, she obviously was while no-one was looking, because ARI notified me today that AGO Gustav is indeed Marius’ sire!
AGO Gustav is owned by Alpaca Gsellman Originals of Old Willow Farm
The comment was made more than once about Marius and Myra being the little brother and sister, and how cute they were, and although we thought they were not actually related in any shape or form, it turns out they were INDEED the little brother and sister team.
A little snippet of example why registering alpacas with ARI is so important, you know exactly through DNA testing, the lineage of your babies :) And also note that this is something that happens quite a bit and is certainly no reflection on Rachel’s record keeping *wink*
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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.
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