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 July 28th, 2008 — Posted in Marius, Mazara, Julia, Billie, Dee Dee
On Wednesday we spit tested Dee, and I was worried about her weakened hindquarters. Worried in that she may feel intimidated by Billie and cush even though she may be pregnant and give us a false indication that she is not. There was no sheepish waiting in the corner this time, as soon as Billie was let into the pen he began orgling and attempting to get her down. Dee, in turn, immediately began avoiding him like the plague. Not spitting at him, but definately not interested in breeding, focusing all her attention on staying out of Billie’s way. When Billie managed to corner her and began forcing her to the ground, I saw Dee’s hind legs give way under the strain, having no way to escape from him, and I intervened, stopping Billie from bringing her all the way down, and allowing Dee to get out of his way, which she gladly did. It was obvious that she had no intention of cushing for him, and therefore I can safely assume that she is pregnant, due around the 15th of June in 2009 with Billie’s second cria. I was proud of Billie, taking charge as soon as he entered the ring this time, and not taking no for an answer. He is becoming more aggressive and domineering when it comes to breeding, exactly as I had hoped. I did, however, have to save poor Marius, who was Billie’s next target as soon as Dee was taken from the pen *grin*.
Jazzabella, the female who is carrying Billie’s first cria, recently had a progesterone test done and was declared pregnant, should be delivering around Valentine’s Day of 2009.
Marius was no disappointment. He’s tall, he’s got presence, and he’s got the softest fleece I have ever felt on an alpaca. Yes, he’s just a cria, but when you compare his wool to Myra’s, the difference is miles apart. If he maintains his height and solid build, and develops the fiber that I have high hopes for, he may just have a place in our breeding program to contribute the fineness from his accoyo and alianza backgrounds to Billie’s offspring! During the course of our trip to Ohio I got to know Marius on quite an intimate level.
I’m not going to lie, I was terrified to take Julia and Marius on the road. Not only did the sole responsibility for their safety and wellbeing fall on me, I had them in an entirely unfamiliar situation, both for them and for me. Luckily, they loaded easily into the back of the van, and John gave me a bucket of hay to put in with them. Very slowly I pulled out of the driveway of Buena Vista Alpacas and headed for the freeway.
The humming in the back of the van was loud and consistent for about 15 minutes, after which Julia fell silent and became occupied with looking out of the side window with her face pressed against the glass and her ears pricked forward, much to the amusement of drivers around me. It was entertaining to stop at a light and see people pointing, no doubt asking fellow passengers, ‘what is THAT?’. She soon discovered the bucket of hay and settled down to eat. I put on a movie for Jesse and sighed a big sigh of relief. All was well.
Marius stood up from time to time to look around the van, hum, and climb over the top of his mother. He was terribly bored, although he spent the majority of his time sleeping. The 10 hour drive took 13, because I had to make stops what seemed like every hour. I had to get fuel, Julia had to nurse, Jesse needed the bathroom, I had no cash for the toll booths, we had to get lunch, dinner.
I say Julia had to nurse, but what it really meant was me hanging over the backseat tugging on her halter, encouraging her to stand up without success. She nursed the first time we stopped for fuel, but refused to get up after that even though poor Marius was frantically and VERY loudly humming. After 6 hours of not having nursed her cria, I looked around the van and my eye fell on my clipwand. I was able to pry it underneath her belly, creating enough of an annoyance for her to cause her to stand up. Marius happily dove underneath her.
We were perhaps two hours from Rachel’s farm when Julia finally couldn’t hold her bladder any longer and peed. I had lined the back of the van with two pieces of carpet and a tarp between them, but the pressure of holding it for so long was too much and she sprayed the back windshield. I cringed. How on earth was I going to clean THAT out? Luckily it was the only time she did anything in the van, because on the way back we moved a lot faster and she held it the entire time.
Julia and Marius shared Mazara’s pasture that evening, and early in the morning we were off to Zenith. Captain Black exceeded my expectations. His photographs on Alpaca Nation by far do not do him justice, but then how do you photograph presence and macho-ness? This boy was the size of a pony, broad chested and heavy-set, and if he’d had hooves on the end of his legs I would not at all have been surprised. He was obviously the king of his pasture, and I was thrilled to have the opportunity to breed Julia to him. And breed they did, the entire time I was there… about 2 hours I guess. Brad had to separate them in the end because he wanted them to breed again that evening so that Julia had a good chance of pregnancy, and a nice long rest period before undertaking the journey back to South Carolina.
During the breeding Marius entertained himself with a chicken, sniffing it and running after it, completely engrossed in his new feathered friend.
When I returned to Rachel’s farm I spent some time meeting the alpacas there, including Julia’s sire Accoyo Merlin, Marius’ sire Dakini AOC, and little Myra’s sire AGO Gustav. Time flew, and before I knew it it was morning and I was loading the van with our suitcase and my sleepy child, was saying goodbye to Rachel, and was underway to collect Julia.
She loaded easily and immediately settled down to eat her hay, ears pricked forward. I watched her like a hawk for several hours - was she stressed? Each time Jesse shrieked with delight at something in his movie, I reminded him to be quiet because Julia had a new baby in her belly and we didn’t want to lose it. Soon I relaxed because Julia was not at all stressed, in fact, she travelled better than she did on the way up there, even standing each time we stopped (without pompting) to nurse Marius. She had learned the drill. Marius was such a comfort to her! If he wasn’t sleeping, he was constantly grooming her, nuzzling her, or rubbing up against her neck, and Julia returned the gestures constantly. It was amazing to see those two behave so intimately and emotionally, and to realise how close mother and cria really are.
How happy they were to arrive home! Myra came to greet Marius immediately and together they ran through the herd, Marius kicking up his heels and pronking and jumping, Julia heading straight for the poop pile and accepting the gentle nuzzling from her herd companions. Fingers crossed that she is pregnant and stays that way, because this is not a breeding I can repeat.
Of course I finally had the chance to meet Mazara, too. I bought her unseen, and was definately not disappointed! She is amazing on a halter, almost as though she has been show trained. This girl leads like an attentive horse, and carries herself with grace, agility and pride, consciously showing herself off. She’s extremely photogenic and LOVES to tease the boys. So much so that Rachel and I both strongly suspected she was open. But a spit test with Merlin soon proved her not to be, she had no intention of letting Merlin anywhere near her. She’s got some bare patches on her face and ears, and a piece of her ear is missing from a suspected bite from another animal, but aside from those cosmetics she is very lovely. She’s got incredibly soft and fine fiber, and is also surprisingly tall and solid for a 1/2 Chilean. Definately well worth the price!
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Posted by roo on July 2nd, 2008 — Posted in Myra, Billie, Dee Dee
Little Myra was just 11 days old last Saturday, but with the blazing South Carolina sun, it was necessary to shear her to keep her cool. In fact, she was the last out of a handful of crias on John’s farm that was shorn.
Jason carried her to the table and we strapped her down… what a strange feeling it was to restrain such a small helpless animal, but it was for her own safety. John was shearing Myra himself - this round of crias was the first time he had ever wielded the clippers and he was nervous. But he did a great job! Jesse was at Myra’s head, stroking her and talking to her, and although at first I thought this may make her more anxious, it actually calmed her down and I had to ask him to continue doing this as John John sheared. I worked like mad to collect the golden fleece that fell from the blades - it was so fine that the wind carried it to the edge of the table (and in a lot of cases, over it) before I could catch it and stuff it in a cloth bag. Each time I opened the bag some pieces of wool would escape. I had no idea how unruly it was *grin*
Myra handled the shearing well and without much of a struggle, but when we put her down to rejoin Dee I expected her to wildly make a run for it. Instead, she stood still for a moment, then made a beeline for ME, humming a ‘I’m lost, are you my mommy?’ question. I had to lead her back to the herd, where she found Dee and proceeded to nurse happily.
I couldn’t wait to spin Myra’s wool! Of course it was a complete disaster. It was so short that I had trouble carding it, but I managed to make rolags out of it. However, when I pulled on the first rolag to make it into a roving, it fell apart in my hands. Not easily dissuaded, I spun it anyway, but although I managed to make yarn out it, it did not do the cria fiber any justice at all. It was prickly and and had fibers sticking out of it everywhere. Jasper is shedding his angora coat right now, so I decided to blend Myra’s wool with the longer angora (Jasper’s coat is about 2 inches long right now) which was very successful! It allowed me to pull the rolag into a roving and it was relatively easy to spin. I just need to ply it now and wash it, and see what the end result is.
Yesterday it was time re-breed Dee again. I wanted to give Billie another opportunity to breed this year, so John freed a small pasture for the two of them (and Myra). It was almost funny, the way the two of them ignored each other when we put them in together, each grazing on an opposite end of the pasture, not even throwing each other a glance.
Myra, on the other hand, was most curious about this big black male, and repeatedly approached him with an outstretched nose, only to jump away from him with her little tail in the air when he returned the gesture. After this had been going on for close to half an hour, a strange happened. Myra actually LED Billie calmly to her mother, and things began to roll immediately. He had Dee down almost immediately, and I called to John that things were underway. ‘Get her tail out of the way,’ he called back from the pasture he was in, and then it sank in fully that I was in charge of this breeding myself. Wow. My own two animals, my first own breeding.
I crouched down next to them and leaned down to peer underneath Billie to find Dee’s tail. Before we put her in the pasture I had put a knee high stocking on it, of course it was black, and almost impossible to see. When I did locate it, it was wet, and very carefully pinching an edge of it between my thumb and index finger, managed to pull it out of the way. It was then that Billie was able to get in position properly and breed successfully. He was at it for an hour, each time Dee got up he brought her down again, and I was very impressed with his level of competence compared to his first breeding with Jazzabella. Although I had doubts that his first breeding with Jazzabella was successful, it actually WAS. And we only ever saw him breed with her for maybe 5 or 10 minutes.
Assuming the breeding with Dee took yesterday, we can expect a cria from them around the 17th of June. How exciting!
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Posted by roo on April 22nd, 2008 — Posted in Billie, Demi
WHO is this little thing??? It’s Demi! Right after she was shorn… doesn’t she look cute? But the biggest surprise of all, now that her adult wool is growing in… we discovered, when holding her fiber up against the Alpaca Registry’s colour chart, that she is not a medium fawn at all. She’s a solid LIGHT ROSE GREY! We are just delighted!
Our other big surprise? We pregtoned Jazzabella when we sheared her. And she’s POSITIVE! That means our beloved Billie is indeed capable of breeding and going to be a father for the first time. The cria is due in February 2009. Dee Dee and Julia are both going to be bred to Billie later this year when their crias arrive. Demi’s full sibling is due in October of this year. Penelope will go back to Fandango again for a third cria from him. Especially seeing the big surprise Demi gave us when she emerged from her cria wool like a butterfly!
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Posted by roo on March 1st, 2008 — Posted in Fiber, Billie
And so it came to be that on 20 February 2008, Billie finally had his first chance at breeding. For a first time breeding, he did really well, but John accidentally dislodged him while trying to pull Jazzabella’s tail out of the way, and neither of us had the feeling that he managed to successfully complete the breeding after that. However, time will tell and in a few weeks we’ll put them back in together and see what happens. If Jazzabella rejects him than chances are large she is pregnant and we can go ahead and do a pregtone on her. If she cushes, well then we’ll have to start again from square one.
It can be tricky with maidens, especially when the sire has no experience either. In May we will be breeding Katie to him, and if that proves unsuccessful too (Katie is picky - she rejected her first sire… something about him she didn’t like I guess, because she cushed immediately for her second one) then we will bring in Dee Dee as a last resort, who cushes on demand and will be easy for Billie to breed to.
We had to help Jazzabella cush because she didn’t know what to do
this picture was taken by Jesse with my camera while I was busy!
Alpaca porn… two in one paddock, two in another
Getting the tail out of the way and Billie slides off slideways
Back at it without assistance this time!
On the 22nd I loaded up the ladies and we headed to Florida for our camelidynamics clinic with Marty McGee Bennett. It was an ungodly hour when we arrived, somewhere around 2am, and even though Carolyn had booked the room weeks ago, they had the gall to tell us there were no non-smoking rooms left. There’s nothing like the smell of stale cigarette smoke penetrating your hair and clothes, especially when paying more than $100 a night at the Holiday Inn Express. But we were so tired none of us complained and we all promptly fell asleep. The clinic exceeded my wildest expectations! Camelidynamics is based on taking away an alpaca’s fear and in turn finding that it will co-operate fully with you once it no longer fears the situation. We were taught special ways of catching, haltering, leading, even being shown how to trim their feet and give medications (including injections) without restraining the animal. I won’t bore you with all the details, but it was a fantastic experience to see that it is possible to treat your alpaca with kindness and respect instead of having to physically herd them into a corner and doing a superman dive, throwing your arms around their necks and wrestling them into submission. I bought some equipment to take back with me (including Marty’s book ‘The Camelid Companion’ which she signed for me).
I did have a small moment with Billie upon our return, who was wandering around his pasture with his halter still on (a big no-no, they are not like horses). Using the techniques I had been taught, I managed to get him into a herding pen with Dale’s help and I used a catchrope on him. ‘Bronco Bill’ was a name he was given for a reason… he can be rather wild and unruly when handling him. And yet he stood like a little lamb without restraint as I did TTOUCH on his neck and head. He would not let me touch his face, which was not surprising although it did make it difficult to take off his halter. In the end he flung it off himself as I undid the buckle, but at least it was off. And I was elated that the technique had worked so well!
Jesse and I are home for a few days. I’m trying to get work done on the house because by the end of this year we’d like to have it ready to be placed back on the market so that we can go looking for a farm.
Discovered a little fiber store just outside of Huntsville where I bought some carded fiber (sample bags of alpaca, yak and silk) and a drop spindle. With the help of a book that I borrowed from their library, I managed to spin some yarn, but geez… in some places it’s really thick and in others super thin like thread. It will take lots of practice to get it even, but I can already see why handspun yarn is so popular! It’s not rough like machine processed fiber. Using the drop spindle is interesting and fun, although I can’t wait to use a spinning wheel in two weeks when Carolyn and I attend that spinning class!
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