The vet met me this pm to remove Skye for a PM. We had a very close look at her and it seems she had suffered a significant bout of diarrhoea, and could have simply become dehydrated.
The vet wondered if it was the new grass, but she'd only been on that for a few hours. I wonder if she had been down for a few days and the move plus new grass had stressed her further.
The vet said she'd treated a few calves over the past few days for the same thing.
I recall that yesterday Skye's legs were muddy - on closer inspection it seems like she had dried in diarrhoea. So I am kicking myself about that.
Gerry did get close to her yesterday to urge her into the catch pen, but they all had muddy legs so we obviously missed hers being different. And it was so cold she didn't smell bad either.
Yes, I am beating myself up. And little wonder - she was a cracking breeding female in the making. Calm, and with the nicest bright, crimpy fleece.
We got blood tests back on four of the animals (a sample) to check the copper levels. They were on the high side of normal but still within the acceptable range.
As a precaution we're going to get the whole herd tested shortly.
Ironically, some of the other animals were skipping and kicking their legs up today. Not Morven - she had her sore leg inspected and it seems she has big wodges of crust stuck in folds of her skin, which could be causing some pain or awkwardness. She got antibiotic and antiinflamatory injections, sprayed with Frontline and vaselined.
Saturday, November 07, 2009
What to do? Another death
Oh dear, I hardly know what to say.
Sorcha and I went to feed the girls this morning and we found Skye, our orphan cria, dead in the field.
She had been hanging back a little yesterday during the move but she was eating alright and seemed fine otherwise. We thought she was a bit stressed by the move - we have another one who just freezes when you are trying to move them along and she is always fine after a few minutes.
Obviously Skye was not well. It is just so hard to tell. She has been a little thin over the past while but eating well, both grass and hard feed. Her skin had really improved too since the mite treatment, and when I looked at it today, all the scabs had come off even in her amazingly crimpy fleece.
So we've been talking about what to do - we are worried they are going to drop one by one over the winter... do we sell them or try to find a farm that can look after them properly with better facilities than ours?
We feel like we are constantly failing the animals. They are supposed to be hardy but we've not found that to be the case this year.
The sad tally of deaths for the year is: Strathspey King, Stroma, Slioch, Morven's cria, Sultana, Skye (all this year's crias) and foundation female Astra. Seven beautiful animals, all with lovely fleeces and at least one of them the best cria we have bred.
We have got on top of the mite problem and were feeling pleased about that, so this feels like a particularly hard kick in the teeth.
If anyone would be willing to take them on for us for a while through an agistment arrangement, please let us know. We are fairly desperate.
We are trying to do some calculations to enable us to do something like that - we have some lovely young intact boys ready for selling and three working males which can all stand at stud.
Sorcha and I went to feed the girls this morning and we found Skye, our orphan cria, dead in the field.
She had been hanging back a little yesterday during the move but she was eating alright and seemed fine otherwise. We thought she was a bit stressed by the move - we have another one who just freezes when you are trying to move them along and she is always fine after a few minutes.
Obviously Skye was not well. It is just so hard to tell. She has been a little thin over the past while but eating well, both grass and hard feed. Her skin had really improved too since the mite treatment, and when I looked at it today, all the scabs had come off even in her amazingly crimpy fleece.
So we've been talking about what to do - we are worried they are going to drop one by one over the winter... do we sell them or try to find a farm that can look after them properly with better facilities than ours?
We feel like we are constantly failing the animals. They are supposed to be hardy but we've not found that to be the case this year.
The sad tally of deaths for the year is: Strathspey King, Stroma, Slioch, Morven's cria, Sultana, Skye (all this year's crias) and foundation female Astra. Seven beautiful animals, all with lovely fleeces and at least one of them the best cria we have bred.
We have got on top of the mite problem and were feeling pleased about that, so this feels like a particularly hard kick in the teeth.
If anyone would be willing to take them on for us for a while through an agistment arrangement, please let us know. We are fairly desperate.
We are trying to do some calculations to enable us to do something like that - we have some lovely young intact boys ready for selling and three working males which can all stand at stud.
Friday, November 06, 2009
Finally, the frisky pacas move field
Phew! What a palaver we've had simply moving the herd across and up the road onto new grass. Everything seems to have been stacked against it happening, but today we got the alpacas shifted, and when we left they were tucking into a few inches of greenery.
We had a run of bad luck with illnesses etc and then we discovered the rhododendrons had grown right through the fence all along one side of the field. Gerry brush-cut those well back to make it safe.
We spent the afternoon yesterday making the new field ready; moving lots of run panels, putting in water and the hay feeder and fencing off corner where the rhodies couldn't be cut back for aesthetic reasons.
We couldn't herd the camelids along the road as there is a long pond right beside it which is ice cold just now and we couldn't trust them to stay on the straight and narrow. So it was decided that the trailer would have to be used.
Today we got the trailer manoeuvred into the gateway of the old field (not easy and I am a bit of a novice) and made a pen area to flush the llamas and pacas into, with feed basins to tempt them. That was the theory! Of course it's never that easy.
The pesky things sussed what we were doing and were laughing in our faces as we tried to coax them into the lovely welcoming trailer.
We made our pen a bit smaller and then enticed them back in with the feed buckets, but then we had a boiling mass of very suspicious camelids in a tight space, including the three very frisky and heavy llamas. We tried to flush the llamas into the trailer but there were legs, necks and heads everywhere and we were worried someone would either jump out or squash a cria.
So we let the llamas out for today and concentrated on the pacas. We finally managed to get all 13 loaded in - a bit of a squeeze - and drove them the two minutes along the road. On arrival at the new field I managed to reverse into the gateway but I then grounded the trailer as it was so heavy. We let the pacas out into a holding area. Boy were they relieved!
Thankfully the trailer floated up off the obstruction which was just an island of soft mud in the middle of the track. The pacas looked stressed but within 10 seconds were nibbling on the new grass.
Then we had to push them through a gate and another gate - which has sadly been hung completely the wrong way for this manoeuvre, leaving a huge channel into another field which could easily be used by an escaping paca.
Hayley, one of our foundation girls, could see what we were trying to do and marched on ahead showing the others the way. Great!
But two, a yearling and a cria, got stuck in the rather large holding area and would not be flushed out. We got Sheenie, the yearling, out into the field and that left the cria, Sidhe, who proceeded to throw herself at the fence in a very alarming fashion rather than walk round the long way.
Eventually Gerry caught her and carried her - screaming - round to the field. Her mum, Alba, was not bothered - too busy grazing.
So they are all tucked up for the night in their lush pasture. I have left the trailer in, open, in case they need the shelter, but somehow after their trip today I think they will opt for the line of trees by the fence......
Friday, October 30, 2009
Sis n bro
Do you see a resemblance?It has struck me this year how alike these two are: the sire of both is Rural Allianza Wiracocha.
First is Coire Alba, out of our Kara, and second is Coire Nevis, out of our Bella. Their bonnets and noses are carbon copies and their conformation and stature very similar. They are both aged two in the picture, although Alba is now three and has a cria of her own, Coire Sidhe. Nevis is an aspiring stud male.
Sorry they are both boring white!
Progress report - going well
Sorry I have not blogged for a bit. I've not been keen to take pictures of the herd in their current state and I don't like posting too much with no pics.
The girls are all vastly improved, but they have bald patches down their inside legs and on their bellies and noses and round their eyes and ears, so they're not as pretty as they normally are. I will wait till they have healed up a bit. But at least we now only have bare skin rather than crust. Most of the scabs have gone!
The Cydectin injections (we have used the 2% sheep, long acting) have worked very well for us so far, coupled with the Frontline treatment on the whole herd. All the sore eyes have healed now too thanks to the antibiotic injections and/or antibiotic/steroid drops. It is a relief that they can all see properly again.
The whole herd is behaving much more like camelids should, rather than miserable lumps on four legs (Gerry just said that last bit so I typed it!).
The three llama girls are particularly bright - racing about the field like young things. Rose is back on guard duty, Ruby is running up eagerly for her alfalfa+oats+garlic. And even Raspberry, who had very sore legs, is trotting and grazing normally. Phew!
Ruby has sparse fibre regrowth since shearing mid-mites, so I have had a super coat made by the Tack Room, made-to-measure of course, in a lovely dark green. So she'll be getting that on when it gets a bit cooler. Her fleece is starting to recover now so she may not need the coat on for long.
We've had two attempts to move the pacas and llamas to a new pasture that's been fenced off, but unfortunately we've been thwarted both times. The first time Finlay was ill and the second time we discovered a line of rhododendrons down the fence, which had grown hugely over the summer and was in grazing reach. Gerry has brush cut a wide channel down the outside of the fence today, so there is no danger of the pacas or llamas being able to reach them.
So the stage is set for the move - I will try to get some pics of that operation. It will involve trailering and probably lots of stress and swearing! I am still a bit of a novice at reversing the rig, but I usually get there in the end with some directions.
They will be in that smaller paddock for three-four weeks and then back to their old one for the winter proper, where there's a nice warm shed!
Next on the list is getting copper tests done, and getting our long overdue fibre samples analysed. They are going off to Aus to be part of the GIFT testing scheme of the Australian Alpaca Fibre Testing company. I had a very nice phone call from them the other day asking if we had forgotten to send the samples! No, we haven't, but things have been so hectic that particular job has slipped down the list.
The girls are all vastly improved, but they have bald patches down their inside legs and on their bellies and noses and round their eyes and ears, so they're not as pretty as they normally are. I will wait till they have healed up a bit. But at least we now only have bare skin rather than crust. Most of the scabs have gone!
The Cydectin injections (we have used the 2% sheep, long acting) have worked very well for us so far, coupled with the Frontline treatment on the whole herd. All the sore eyes have healed now too thanks to the antibiotic injections and/or antibiotic/steroid drops. It is a relief that they can all see properly again.
The whole herd is behaving much more like camelids should, rather than miserable lumps on four legs (Gerry just said that last bit so I typed it!).
The three llama girls are particularly bright - racing about the field like young things. Rose is back on guard duty, Ruby is running up eagerly for her alfalfa+oats+garlic. And even Raspberry, who had very sore legs, is trotting and grazing normally. Phew!
Ruby has sparse fibre regrowth since shearing mid-mites, so I have had a super coat made by the Tack Room, made-to-measure of course, in a lovely dark green. So she'll be getting that on when it gets a bit cooler. Her fleece is starting to recover now so she may not need the coat on for long.
We've had two attempts to move the pacas and llamas to a new pasture that's been fenced off, but unfortunately we've been thwarted both times. The first time Finlay was ill and the second time we discovered a line of rhododendrons down the fence, which had grown hugely over the summer and was in grazing reach. Gerry has brush cut a wide channel down the outside of the fence today, so there is no danger of the pacas or llamas being able to reach them.
So the stage is set for the move - I will try to get some pics of that operation. It will involve trailering and probably lots of stress and swearing! I am still a bit of a novice at reversing the rig, but I usually get there in the end with some directions.
They will be in that smaller paddock for three-four weeks and then back to their old one for the winter proper, where there's a nice warm shed!
Next on the list is getting copper tests done, and getting our long overdue fibre samples analysed. They are going off to Aus to be part of the GIFT testing scheme of the Australian Alpaca Fibre Testing company. I had a very nice phone call from them the other day asking if we had forgotten to send the samples! No, we haven't, but things have been so hectic that particular job has slipped down the list.
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