Posted by roo on February 27th, 2008 — Posted in Penelope
After an eventful week in Aiken and an extremely eventful weekend in Florida, I arrived home in Huntsville this evening with Jesse. Many pictures to sort through, much to tell. But first, a good night’s sleep in my own bed.
The above picture was taken on Friday afternoon when I met Jason after work at John’s house. I was leaving for Florida from there, and he was leaving for Alabama with Jesse from there, hence Moona being on the farm.
Moona’s paws had barely touched the grass as she jumped out of the Pilot to go into Jason’s car, when every single alpaca head shot up into the air and all ears pricked forward. As a rule, alpacas are frightened of dogs, which are a natural predator. But to my utter surprise it was a very confident Penelope who led the herd to the fence to meet with Moona nose-to-nose. The others became frightened and trotted off some distance, but Penelope stood her ground and returned her attention right back to Moona. Who would have believed it from a deaf alpaca????
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Posted by roo on February 17th, 2008 — Posted in Billie, Penelope
Joanie being bred to Fandango, Katie looks on
On Monday I arrived to find Billie in his own paddock, and obviously not quite sure how to take it. He kept wondering towards the far side, where it borders with his old paddock, so he could hang out with Dominic and El Patron. Even when Fandango was brought in to breed with Joanie next door, he kept his distance and didn’t show the least bit of interest.
Jesse, however, was quite interested, the orgling sound that Fandango was making probably fascinated him. Female alpacas ovulate in response to this sound. I explained to him very simply that Fandango was putting seeds in Joanie’s belly so that another baby alpaca would grow in there. He accepted this and after a while wondered off to play in the sand.
Billie’s first breeding was held off due to his disinterest, and we will try him for the first time this coming Wednesday, when another female is being bred to Fandango. To fuel the fire, John is thinking of bringing Winnie into Billie’s paddock on a halter, so that Billie feels the urge to claim poor Jazzabella first. I have visions of Billie ignoring Jazzabella and being more interested in finally having a piece of Winnie with who he’s been having challenge matches across the fence, but hopefully all will go well.
On Thursday morning I put the telephoto lens on my camera and walked around taking some pictures of the animals for John’s website. I finally managed to get some of Penelope with her ears up instead of laying on the back of her neck.
This coming Friday I’ll be driving to Florida with three ladies in tow - Letti, Carolyn and Dale. I’ll put the third row of seats up in the Pilot so that each has a place to lay down, and I’ve told them to bring pillows, blankets and DVD movies for the trip. It’s a 7.5 hour drive so I want to step on it with very minimal stops… only one if I can help it, and that will be to refuel and to pee (and to stock up on coffee). I can’t leave till 5pm, so it’s going to be a late night. Not unusual however, seeing I normally don’t get home to Huntsville till well after 1am when I drive home from Aiken on the weekends.
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Posted by roo on February 15th, 2008 — Posted in Fiber
In April is the big 7-day live in spinning course at the Alabama Folk School, and we were at a loss how we were going to do this - Jason take a week off work to take care of Jesse while I attended the course?
A few weeks ago I discovered that they were holding a fiber arts seminar here in Huntsville, and I was very excited when I learned about the teachers who will be here to do the classes. Imagine my disappointment however, when the teacher I was most interested in, Stefania Isaacson, was not teaching a beginners spinning class. This would have been the perfect alternative to the 7-day course.
Lo and behold! I just went back to the website to choose which class I wanted to attend during the seminar, and discovered that two days ago they added exactly that - a beginners handspinning course with Stefania. I almost yelped out loud and could not load the registration page fast enough… only 5 students will be accepted… what if I was already too late? I whipped off my registration electronically, paid via PayPal, then urgently emailed Carolyn and Dale in Aiken to see if they also wanted to attend.
Just now I got the confirmation that I have been accepted (wow, there was still a space for me) and I’m thrilled to say the least!!!! On 15 March, I am finally going to learn to spin. On a real spinning wheel. Under the guiding hand of a handspinning master. *sigh* Just in time for shearing season!!!!
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Posted by roo on February 15th, 2008 — Posted in Dee Dee
The vet came out on Monday and I presented her with a paper on the Meningeneal worm that was published by Ohio State, the authority on alpaca health and research. She was particularly interested in the spinal fluid test and the course of treatment, but wanted to do her own evaluation. I had not seen Dee Dee since Thursday when I left to come home, so it had been four days since her initial course of treatment had begun. We coralled her into a small area where the vet could easily work with her.
She asked John to encourage Dee Dee to move around so that she could observe her gait, and I was amazed to see that her balance was significantly better than it had been on Thursday. She could turn corners without falling over. Not that she had returned to full health mind you, she was still very stiff, unco-ordinated and obviously not at all okay. But the fact that her balance had improved was amazing to me. Usually with neurological damage you will not see any improvement for weeks, sometimes even months, and then sometimes never.
The vet physically examined her, inspecting her hindquarters and lower back very carefully and after some time declared that in her opinion this was indeed a case of meningeneal worm. I praised her for having suggested a course of treatment right away over the phone last week, and that this had probably saved her life. Not many animals survive this particular worm - it can be incredibly aggresive, sometimes killing an animal in days, sometimes it takes years.
Now that she was officially diagnosed with it, we could begin an even more intense course of action to ensure that worm was dead and would cause no further damage to the spinal cord.
AM: 0.5cc Banamene (anti-inflammatory), 500mg vitamin C, 200iu vitamin E (vitamins crushed in her food to aid in the soothing and healing of the spinal lesions)
PM: 2cc Ivermectin (dewormer, by mouth), 2cc Thiamine (vitamin B), 250lbs worth of Gastrogard (to protect the lining of the stomach from the heavy regime of wormer), 0.5cc Banamene.
I drove back and forth several times every day to administer the medications myself, nauseated the first time I had to give her an injection… I’m not sure who was shaking more, the nervous Dee Dee or the terrified me.
We separated her from the herd and put her in a small pasture, bringing Katie over to keep her company. Jason had observed Dee Dee following Katie around several times, even ‘cleaning’ her (knowing the food hog Dee Dee is she was probably just nibbling hay from her coat), so we assumed that Katie was her buddy. An alpaca should never be pastured alone because they can sink into a depression at an alarming rate and die. Having her away from the herd however, made it a lot easier to catch her for her medicines.
This particular course of treatment is safe for the cria. There is some debate about Banamene seeing it acts as a very low grade steriod, but the dose she is getting is only half a normal dose, and this half dose is split between morning and afternoon so that the level of the drug in her system is very minimal. Banamene does not cause the body to produce the hormone that makes it think it’s in labour, and does not cross the barrier to the cria.
Why are we so set on saving the cria? Firstly, I don’t want to transport Dee Dee all the way back to Ohio to be rebred to AGO Gustav. And secondly, it would take another year from now for the new cria to be born, meaning we have lost one year of productivity.
Several days after beginning this new treatment, I was delighted to see Dee Dee trotting in her pasture. It is obvious that she is improving at this stage. I’m beginning to suspect that perhaps most of the loss of use of her hind legs came from swelling rather than nerve damage, and that we caught this worm just in time. This could also be wishful thinking, mind you! She is still very stiff, but it’s a huge relief to see some improvement, especially at this early stage.
Jason, who has stayed behind in Aiken because he needs to work this weekend, is administering her medication this evening and then she will be done with it all… I am hoping that she will continue to improve. There is also a chance that she’ll suddenly do a sharp downward plunge - if this happens we will resort to a heavy course of steroids and cut our losses with the cria… after all, without her, there wouldn’t be a cria at all.
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Posted by roo on February 10th, 2008 — Posted in Billie
Joanie, the alpaca who gave birth to the first cria of the season, is due to be rebred to Fandango again tomorrow. I am excited about this, because John has decided to separate Billie from the herd of junior herdsires and give him a paddock of his own, right next to Fandango.
Since we signed the contract on Billie, there has been much interest in him from outside parties, almost as though now he’s no longer available, everyone is noticing him. One farmer stopped by and without asking for a price, announced that he was there to purchase Billie. Thank goodness Jason went with his instincts and secured him on New Years day. Billie has never been bred to a female, but the past few months has really developed more of a presence, likely due to the testosterone beginning to flow through his system. No doubt he can smell that there are now open females around, ready to be bred. He’s exerting his authority over the others in the small herd of junior herdsires, even standing up to his own brother Winnie, and Fandango. We all believe he is more than ready to be bred for the first time.
Billie, once stationed in his own paddock next to Fandango tomorrow, will get a front row seat to view the breeding, and we will be watching him closely. Perhaps you will remember that when we went to the farm to purchase our first alpacas, it was our plan to buy Dom and Jazzabella, but opted out of Jazzabella and purchased Penelope instead. Jazzabella is now of breeding age and has indicated repeatedly the past few weeks that she’s ready. John would like to breed her to Billie, but because they are both first timers, it can have devastating consequences. A female ready to be bred will cush for the male and wait until it’s all over. If a female refuses to cush and be bred, which is often the case when breeding for the first time, she can damage the fragile ego of the new breeding male. Therefore we had decided to wait with Jazzabella until Dee Dee had delivered her cria. Instead of breeding Dee Dee to the silver grey male I’ve had my eye on, I had made the decision a few weeks back to forgo that plan and use her as Billie’s first breeding mate. She’s older and will cush on demand, therefore giving Billie a positive first breeding experience to build his self esteem as herdsire. John however, has a strong opinion that Billie and Jazabella should be okay and tomorrow will be the indicator of that. Should Billie show signs during Fandango’s breeding that he is well and truly ready, John will place Jazzabella in the paddock with him.
This is very exciting news! Billie will have the opportunity to breed, and if he breeds successfully with Jazzabella, I will not have to use Dee Dee to ‘break him in’ so to speak. I can still breed Dee Dee to El Patron after all.
That is, of course, if Dee Dee can overcome her illness, which we will find out tomorrow also.
Who said owning alpacas was boring? My gosh… it seems as though there’s not been a dull moment since the beginning of this year!
Billie challenges his full brother Winnie over the fence,
a regular sight these days
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