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 April 17th, 2009 — Posted in Serious, Mazara, Demi
How did my little girl grow up so fast? Our first born cria, Demi, is ready for her first breeding. I’m taking her to Ohio tomorrow to be bred to one of Rachel’s boys, and I’ll leave her there until she’s confirmed pregnant. She’ll ride in the van with me, just her and I, the long 10 hour haul north.
I’ll stay the night with Rachel, then on Sunday morning we’ll load Mazara and Serious in the van and I’ll be making the trek back with mom and baby. Serious, from what I’m hearing, has developed serious attitude and he may turn out to be a handful in the van, which is why I’m doing the trip alone, not with my 4-year old in tow, lest Serious jump into the back seat and hurt him. Initially I was going to take Penelope up with Demi as a travel companion and bring her back with Mazara, but I’ve decided that Serious may feel far more at ease if it’s just him and his mother, so Penelope is staying home.
I’m excited to see our new cria, can’t wait to get pictures! I’m nervous about Demi, fingers crossed she’s ready for breeding and that she’ll have no problems conceiving. Tonight I had better get an early night 
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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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Posted by roo on September 15th, 2008 — Posted in Marius, Julia, Demi
Last Friday, when I was in SC to pick up Jason, I visited our alpacas. It was my intention to pregtone Julia, and I was nervous about it. With good reason. Driving an alpaca halway across the country for a single breeding and then back again is a sure recipe for failure in the pregnancy department.
Demi was the first one I looked at, seeing she was nibbling at the remains of their morning feeding in the holding pen. I had been disappointed with her wool at shearing. Although it was a lovely colour, a mix of medium fawn, light rose grey, and creamy cria tips, and it felt very soft to the touch, her histogram came back at 26 microns. This was shocking news to me. While I digested it, I stored her blanket away for later use, and have sent a small handful of samples to fiber artisans who placed orders for a substantial amount of fiber. About a week or so ago I was preparing an order for a lady and decided to send her 4 ounces of both Dom’s and Demi’s blankets as a complimentary something extra. Dom’s fiber had come in at 24 microns, which is certainly not bad for a grey, and considering his age. It was the first time that I had Dom’s and Demi’s blankets next to each other, and it struck me how much softer and finer Demi’s blanket was than Dom’s. Again, that nagging doubt… did Yocom McColl make a mistake? Or was Demi’s fiber sample for analyis taken from the wrong part of her body? We will see in the spring, when I will personally bag her sample and we’ll see what the count comes back as. But here she was, just a month short of being a yearling, standing in the holding pen. It was the first time I’ve handled her since shearing, and everybody’s wool is growing in nicely right now too. So I parted her blanket with my hands and my mouth just dropped open. Her rose grey colour has now fully developed and is nothing short of stunning! Solid light rose grey is such a pretty colour, soft tangerine with swirls of light rose, strawberry, cream and grey. Her staple length also surprised me, it was longer than I expected. Oh, I just cannot wait to see her blanket when shearing rolls around in the spring!
A small footnote if you are a fiber artist: I retained both Demi’s and Dom’s blankets for myself this year, although I have given small samples of it to a couple of people. Next year I will be offering their blankets for sale, but it will only be through advance reservation (before shearing). I will retain whatever is left at shearing time for myself. If you are interested in reserving fiber (minimum amount: 4oz) please email me and I can either put you on the mailing list, or I can reserve it for you now.
Marius, who was also in the holding pen, astounded me - he’s developing so well, his front leg that was a worry for me has completely straightened out and he is certainly not limping on it. His wool, however, is what bowled me over, it has grown back just as soft and lusterous as the wool he was born with - it’s very plush and unbelievably silky, it’s like placing your hand in a bag of silk or angora rabbit. I’m very excited about him.
Ahhh… and then the pregtone testing of Julia. I rubbed the oil on her lower abdomen - it was so dry and tense down there, her skin absorbed the oil as I put it on, so I gently massaged it to give her a moment to adjust to having someone touching her under her belly, and to make sure it was sufficiently lubricated for the echo device. She’s such a goodnatured girl, made no attempt to kick at me, spit at me, or even snort her disapproval. John was comforting her as I pressed the pregtone against her belly, my heart pounding somewhere in my throat, expecting with an already sinking feeling a mere silence from the machine. And there WAS silence, for what seemed like forever. And then, the first beep. Loud and clear, and as I slid it in the correct position, consistent beeps, rhythmic like a heartbeat, over quite a large area of her belly! I blinked, surprised, not quite wanting to believe it, and after entertaining myself with the sound of the beeps for a few minutes, switched off the machine and straightened up. It was hard not to smile, but I still could not believe I was hearing beeps. John, seeing my reluctance, suggested doing a spit test with Fandango.
He was sick, the poor man, he and Letti both, but he bent over backwards to assist me, and he prepared Fandango’s pasture for Julia’s entrance. As soon as she entered, I knew she was pregnant. She fought him off with everything she had, first avoiding him by outrunning him and ducking away from his attempts to bring her down, then turning and spitting at him, great resolute showers of it, even kicking at him. I was beaming, I was so proud of her.
She is my miracle alpaca! She has the best fleece out of our entire herd, she is also the best mom, delivering her first cria completely unassisted and then being very watchful and loving of him, and now it turns out that she follows in the footsteps of her mother (SA Delilah) when it comes to her ability to reproduce. Easy conception, strong, stable pregnancy, smooth delivery. I knew the risk I took, taking her on a 10 hour drive for a single breeding to Captain Black… but my suspicions about her were right and I am glad that I listened to my inner voice!
Of course we are not out of the water yet, but I am just thrilled that she conceived and managed to hold on to that fragile embryo all the way home! Fingers crossed she will retain the pregnancy until delivery time.
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