Coire Alpacas

Almond up and about, and even running!

2012-01-02T15:24:00.000Z

It's been a long three and a bit weeks nursing poor Almond through her rickets episode, but I am pleased to report she seems a lot better if not totally back to normal.

I checked the alpacas today and she was sitting down when we got there, but she soon got up when Sorcha approached her and trotted over to the feeding area with three other crias who were sunbathing (it is cold but the sun WAS out!).

She has been needing daily milk from us but she's now back on her mum Choccie with great gusto so we are tailing off the milk. She was not keen on it at all today and went straight on to mum after taking a little. Her mum has also had a Vit ADE shot and lots of extra feed rations, so she is putting some weight on.

Almond is thin now but we hope she'll build up again over the next while with some TLC. She certainly seems bright-eyed and happy enough.

We've jabbed all the crias and are going to do the adults in the next few days, just to make sure everyone is fully topped up with Vit D.

The other pacas are fine. The two boys in residence just now, Mac and Ashby, were having a good old ruck this afternoon, screeching and chasing all around the field. Business as usual.

Almond laid low

2011-12-13T15:21:00.002Z

Almond in November.

We are treating the lovely wee Almond, Choccie's 4-month-old cria, just now for suspected Vit D deficiency (rickets) or Vit E/Selenium deficiency (white muscle disease).

Our vet thinks it's possibly white muscle but we are not sure, as she is showing signs of both problems. We think her mum Choccie has become depeleted and is not passing on many or enough minerals for Almond. The crias are not yet eating pellets so she's not been taking in her vitamins that route.

We have given her a multivit shot and some probiotic/vitamin oral paste, and we're waiting on some injectible ADE arriving shortly. Meanwhile, Gerry is just now injecting her with Vit E/Selenium as per the vet's theory.

Poor little girl is stiff and sore and finding it hard to walk around. She's in the shed with mum just now who is also getting fed extra vitamins and feed and will be injected too to give her a boost.

I hope she has a speedy recovery. She is such a little cutie. These very short days and darker alpacas do spell deficiency, so we are reminded how important it is to supplement them up here in N Scotland.

The crias are growing

2011-11-01T19:07:00.000Z

Here are some updated shots of our crias, minus Aigan, who is beautiful but failed to stand still for long enough!

Arran, Askival and Angus.

Avon.

Ailsa

Angus, Avon and Arran.

Almond

All the crias wtith Tannara and Choccie.

More health stuff

2011-10-27T12:24:00.000+01:00

It's pretty quiet with the herd just now. All are fine (dare I say it!).

The crias are growing well and now it's hard to tell some of the white fluffies apart. Almond, the brown one, is easy!

Yesterday we spent the afternoon checking them and giving their annual Lambivac booster (against clostridial diseases). The youngest cria, Askival, was due his second booster, so we used the rest of the vial to vax the adults. All went well, just the usual spitting and growling when they were being handled.

As we're leaving most of the herd open till next spring, some of the girls are - to put it indelicately - gagging for it. Every time we're working with them they think a male is about to be produced, so they either stand like a rock waiting for his ministrations, or drop to the floor. This can be quite handy when doing vaccinations, but not great if you're trying to move them about the pens!

We think we have three preggos - Bella, our big Alianza girl who did not have a cria this summer, maiden Sidhe and Hayley, who just doesn't act right if open so was mated in late summer. All are to Ashby our black boy, as our main stud Groove was not available at the crucial time.

Choccie had a swelling on her udder last week, so I caught up with her to have a good look, and it seemed on inspection and feel that one teat is just much more developed than the others. I took warm cloths with me suspecting a blocked duct, and put those on, massaged down towards the teat, and I think perhaps there was some yogurt in there which came out, which would indicate a blockage or small lump, although her udder felt soft and not lumpy. I also picked a small lump on the outside, which was pusy, so I think maybe I caught it all in time. She is fine now and certainly plenty of milk was skooshing out, and Almond is feeding fine from her.

Tannara's abscess continues to improve. It is still not totally healed over and still a bit scabby, but I picked off most of that yesterday and it was not oozing any pus. The swelling on her bone has gone down too. We'll continue to keep a close eye on her over the colder months.

Speaking of which.... we've had a couple of frosty mornings, but this week's been much milder and the girls have been sunbathing in their alternative field - their main one with the proper field shelters is being rested for a few weeks ready for winter.

That's it for now.

Husbandry morning

2011-10-03T16:29:00.001+01:00

We did a bit of husbandry today, including abscess checking, microchipping and vaxing the last of the crias with Lambivac.

We had the vet out to check on the progress of Tannara's abscess. She picked off a scab and there was a bit of cheesy pus still coming out behind that. The cavity left was flushed out with water and a bit of Hibiscrub, followed by a skoosh of penicillin.

It seems that daily shots of antibiotic have helped the jaw bone swelling, leaving the remnants of the abscess underneath the skin on the outside of her jaw. The vet said she could see healthy pink tissue underneath that should help heal the area.

Overall, though, Tannara has improved a huge amount and is being very friendly - when not being held for procedures! She has put on weight noticably and has a nicely rounded tum now.


Tannara having her abscess treated.

The next job on the list was microchipping our crias, two yearlings and one two-year-old, who had not been done for some strange reason. We got the vet to do them as the needles are HUGE and we didn't feel very confident. She managed no problem as she's so used to it. A couple of the crias bled a little but all seemed fine and dandy, and we got a reading on the scanner from each of the chips. The vet inserted them just by their ear.

Almond being chipped.

The crias don't really like all the milling about and being handled, and they stuck close to the adults trying not to be seen. I love seeing how their cooperative caring arrangements, with one or two adults doing the babysitting.

Choccie and Morven looking after all the crias.

Goodbye Advie

2011-09-21T16:09:00.001+01:00

I have not even got round to telling you about our last crias of the season and yet today we have lost one.

Advie was born to the fesity Iona and sire Groove 10 days ago, a beautiful big very light fawn girl. We also had Askival, a big white boy out of Kara, putting in an appearance three weeks ago.

Today, very sadly, we found Advie dead in one of the sheds, with mum Iona hovering heartbroken over her little body.

We are totally gutted. We have no idea what's happened. She appeared a little hunched yesterday but it was quite chilly and she was not acting oddly apart from that. So to find her dead today was a terrible shock

Unfortunately we've had a family emergency so we've not even been able to get her body off to be PMed in Inverness as we would normally.

I had not even uploaded a picture of her, and I feel awful about that. Even though she was around for only a few days, we loved her like all the other seven. I don't have my pictures with me today, but I will upload one of her as soon as I can, and some of Askival.

Every alpaca owner faces losses at one time or another and it is always very hard. It's at these times we feel that we are not cut out for owning and breeding livestock.

I just hope the wee girl is at peace now and pronking in the afterlife.

Angus and Almond join in the fun

2011-08-22T18:26:00.001+01:00

We got some nice pics of Angus and Almond today now that they are leaving their mums' sides for a little while!

Angus is 6 days old and Almond 5. Almond is quite a leggy and delicate wee thing but she is now gaining strength and joining in with the rest. Angus has been with his mum a lot - she has vision problems and she has been careful to keep him close at hand. Both crias have been feeding a lot and well.


Almond


Running with mum


Meeting the gang

Angus, left, with Aigan and Arran

Watching the fun

Wow! Cria overload

2011-08-17T16:12:00.005+01:00

Two new crias have been born. The first is Angus. He was born yesterday at about 11am. He was finely covered in membrane but Gerry got it off him and sprayed his navel.

His mum's Alba who has vision problems but she can smell and feel and hear him. He is white and quite big. We didn't coat him because it was a really nice day. He's feeding fine and was pronking round the field for ages.

Next was Almond, who was born today at about 10am. She was quite small and couldn't get up till she was 2-3 hours old. Gerry sprayed her navel and again didn't coat her.

Her mum is Choccie, who is brown, and she's brown too! She's feeding fine, and isn't pronking yet but she will, probably tomorrow.

Also Iona is looking like she'll have her cria tomorrow and the males will be over after our last 2 crias are born.

by Sorcha

Cria pics!

2011-08-11T19:21:00.004+01:00

We took some cria photos this afternoon. Here they are:


Athfhinn running

Athfhinn and Ailsa

Rafa and Athfhinn

Rafa and Athfhinn again


Ailsa, Aigan and Arran running

Athfhinn

Ailsa, Aigan and Arran pronking

Ailsa

Aigan and Arran tired after a huge pronk

By Sorcha.

Hummy is now a MUMMY!

2011-08-11T11:44:00.003+01:00

Our always-humming Accoyo Kilawasi daughter, Rafaela, has had a cria and she's a white girl! She is our fourth cria this year and our second girl. She was born late last night or early this morning - she was all dry and running about when we found her. She's a big girl like her mum.

Gerry put a coat on her and looked for her placenta but he couldn't find it. Rafa has a big udder which should indicate her milk is in and therefore has not retained the placenta. Gerry did see a congregation of crows at the other end of the field, so we wonder if they've had a bit of a feast. We don't like not finding the placentas but sometimes they do get eaten.

We decided to call her Athfhinn (pronounced Avon, with the A sound in 'apple') after the famous river, mountain and loch near to us, and with a nod to our friends in Australia, Glenavon Alpaca Stud, where some of our first females came from, including Athfhinn's gran, Kara. The River Avon actually flows right past the fields where our alpacas and their llama friends live.

Pictures of her soon.

Sorcha (and Lucy) xx

Two new crias

2011-08-08T12:07:00.003+01:00

We have two new crias now and they're both boys. No, they are not twins. First of all is Aigan. He is the second cria of Selkie. He was born on Friday at about 1.30ish. We went over for the afternoon and found him cushed beside his mum. He looked about 1-2 hours old and was very big. We coated him and checked that he was feeding.

Aigan

The next day (Saturday) Gerry went over to check the Alpacas and found that Morven had given birth to a white boy. Gerry coated him and found that he had a blue eye. He stayed to check that he was feeding ok, which he was. We called him Arran after the island.

Arran

They're both doing well and are running about with our other cria Ailsa.

By Sorcha.

A is for Ailsa, abscess and anxiety

2011-07-28T13:56:00.003+01:00

Ailsa Craig and a mucky Hayley.

Sniff, sniff.

The theme for just now is 'A' - the letter we have chosen as the initial one for our cria names this year.

So we are pleased to announce little Ailsa Craig was born a week ago, a sturdy white cria to Hayley, now mum of FIVE girls in a row! Dad is In the Groove, and baby is shaping up nicely in the fleece department.

We were on the letter 'T' last year but we decided we couldn't think up enough names beginning with U, V. W, X or Y so we skipped right on to the start of the alphabet instead.

Anxiety comes in to it too -- Ailsa was very shaky to start with and was not up and nursing quickly, while Hayley seemed pretty disinterested in her. However, after being penned together for a while, Ailsa latched on and is going like a champ now, running about everyone and generally being a lively, bouncing cria.


Tannara just after shearing.

Big, big worry with Tannera too, our 11-month-old grey girl. We spotted an abscess during shearing, on her jaw, and started her on Nuflor immediately. The vet came and said she thought it had pretty much all drained out but that there was still a hard swelling on the bone.

Unfortunately after a couple of Nuflor shots she seemed to be getting worse, so the vet suggested we swtich to pen C daily shots, which we've done. Tan responded well to that and was on the up... until yesterday....

Gerry got a call from the estate to say she had been spotted lying out panting in full sun. He rushed over and sure enough, she'd managed to get heat exhuastion. The vet was called, and meantime he got Tan into the shade, righted her and put out some cold water for her. She had a huge drink and seemed to perk up a bit. The vet took her temp, which was up a bit, and said she probably did indeed have HE and to keep an eye on her.

Gerry left her in the shade, seeming much better. It was a very hot day for us and she has dark grey fibre, and we think she'd just got stuck in the sun not feeling too well, and then lacked the energy to get up and move to the shade. He also gave her a spray with some cool water.

Poor wee girl, and what a horrible shock for us. Later on, she was much better and had a good hearty feed of alfalfa and more water.

Today the news from the field is that she was up grazing with her sister, Morven. Great to see!

We have been sick with worry about her all week, not helped by the fact that I have been away with the kids for a break near Edinburgh!

Meanwhile, we have six more crias ready to show themselves, so we're still on tenterhooks. Will keep you posted.

Visit to Cairndinnis Alpacas

2011-07-07T19:31:00.003+01:00

We popped over to see Carole Christian and John and Bill Smith of Cairndinnis Alpacas, by Elgin, today and had a really lovely time chatting paca over lunch, visiting the herd and stroking their lovely three-week-old cocker spaniel pups.

It was really nice weather and we had a great tour of their amazing house and land, which is currently being fenced very professionally by a local firm. The fencers have the added bonus of being stared at very closely by the Cairndinnis males!

Sorcha was delighted to find some chickens which have just been added to the farm and are just starting to explore the garden a little after moving in.

Here are some pics of the main female herd and some adorable crias. I hope you will forgive me if I do not remember the names of the alpacas and babies - they are lovely to look at all the same.

Deep in paca chat.

Curious girls!

A lovely brown cria.

More lovely dark crias!

John takes a call... a great office, eh?


And some very cute light ones!

We also had a good chat about fibre and oohed and aahed at Carole's beautiful collection of knitting yarns and knitted and felted items - hats, scarves, bags and even jewellery. They are all made from their own alpaca fibre and for sale on the Cairndinnis website.

Thank you for having us and thanks for the lovely lunch! We hope to see you over our way soon.

Waiting for crias, shearing and lunch

2011-07-06T12:53:00.000+01:00

Sorry for the long absence, which has been caused by nothing much happening! It's nice to report that after our hectic couple of years.

The alpaca mums are all fine and around 5-6 are pregnant. Gerry reported that he saw some in utero crias moving about in the bulging bellies today. The births are expected in a group from the end of July onwards.

We had James Dixon, the Aussie shearer extraordinaire, scheduled to come three weeks ago but it turned out to be a wet period so he's now planning to come a week on Friday. Thankfully it's not been too hot and the girls have been fine and comfortable. That is one of the benefits of living in the north of Scotland!

We can't wait to see them all revealed again, particularly the crias, and most particularly Tannara, our lovely grey almost-yearling girl. Her fleece is medium or dark silver grey at root but has very bleached out cria tips, so she looks a bit light fawn at the moment. She will soon look very grey! I will post before and after shots at the time.

Tomorrow we are going to visit Cairndinnis Alpacas, who have moved from East Lothian (near Edinburgh) to Mosstowie, near Elgin, about 18 miles from us. They have invited us for lunch and to see their pacas, so we are very excited at that. We will try to take some photos and blog about it soon.

Two blog posts in a few days - can you cope?

Camelids on the rampage!!!!

2011-03-23T20:12:00.003Z

Rasberry - the leader of the pack!

Yes, really - on the hoof, in full gallop, on the rampage indeed!!!

After yesterday, I know the following about camelids:

- they love food, but it is NOTHING compared to freedom
- they laugh at the notion of humans owning them
- humans cannot outrun them
- they are extremely intelligent and far too crafty for their own good

Are you guessing what happened?

A mighty escape bid through an open gate... a chase... two humans on the verge of a heart attack as they watched their entire life's investment rushing off....

We were moving them - just across a small private drive, which we have done before - to another field. But one of the llamas had other ideas. She got spooked by a small dog on a lead (or maybe something else) and shot off up the drive!

The others, being the perfect herd animals, trotted dutifully after. Did I say trotted? No, galloped like mad things!

OH MY WORD.

I saw them go, Gerry running after them, and just like that, they were out of sight. I ran to get the 4x4 to try and - well I was not sure exactly - head them off somehow, only I didn't know how to get into the very long drive from the opposite end.

Luckily a quick-thinking neighbour appeared just on cue and offered to do just that. I don't know how he just appeared like that but he did, and we are so grateful to him.

Meanwhile, driving up the drive, I found three stragglers munching at the vergeside - Hayely and her cria Tiree, and Alba, who has vision problems. They were just about to tuck in to some daffodils but I made sure there was going to be none of that by distracting them.

I walked up to them thinking I could somehow herd them down a side lane into a field nearby (which was thankfully empty) but they were having none of it.

They took off up the drive to join the others, and I followed. Luckily they were quite a slow group, and I managed - God knows how - to spring over to a gate, open it, rattle the feed bucket and catch Hayley's attention, all in about one microsecond.

She looked at me - she is one clever alpaca - and looked at the open field, a huge one, and made the right decision. Look at all that space, she thought, and belted into the field. Her cria and Alba dutifully followed. I was so relieved I literally went weak in the legs.

Three secure, I'd almost forgotten about the rest. I was keen to fasten the double gates, as you can imagine, and I'd just done that when a horde of galloping llamas and pacas appeared in the corner of my eye....

I fumbled and fumbled with the gate lock, which was particularly tricky.... and... it was a race against time like in one of those dreams when you try and try but can't get something done.... I don't know how, but I swung them open just in the nick of time, rattled the feed, shouted 'paca, paca, paca'...

The leading llama looked at me with wild eyes and I could see a moment of decision - she was confused by my appearance and by the other alpacas being in the field. She kept running, but at the very last minute she sheered off and galloped into the field.... the others followed, with one or two wondering if they'd go back down the track. They saw sense and came back to join the others.

Gates shut.

Well.... Gerry and the neighbour drove up - they'd managed to head them off and were pushing them back down the road, thinking they'd go all the way back down to the other field. But I got them in there and that was all that mattered to me at that moment.

I am NEVER ever ever ever going to do that again. We've done it before with no problems, but that's it. The alpacas will be trailered even for the shortest trip over the road. The llamas, you see, don't like the trailer and are unloadable, so we normally walk them.

Thankfully the field we chose for the emergency securing of the herd was empty and is a sheep field with lovely grass and a water supply. So we did OK in the end.

We'll transfer the pacas down to their other field tomorrow and then run the llamas down to join them (with lots of helpers!) when our hearts have stopped beating out of their chests!

Camelids - who'd have them? Humans - how stupid are they? Feed buckets - how utterly dull are they when there is a whole world out there to tempt you?

Great weather for pics

2011-03-05T19:23:00.000Z

I am a bit confuzled... we've been having really nice weather for a fair few days now. What's going on? Isn't there supposed to be snow at this time of year? Last year there was. Better stop complaining or it might come back.

I've had the camera out now that the pacas are less bedraggled (some still manage it - there are always one or two).

I was hoping to get some posing shots of our young male Saligo so we can get him on to the market shortly once his fleece sample's been tested.

Would he stand? Would he put his ears up? He is one of the ones that manages to look a bit messy even when the conditions are good. It's just his personality - he rolls in things and manages to get all sorts of VM (vegetal matter, don't you know) in his fleece. He's dense and grows a l..o....o....o...o...t of the stuff so there's no chance of him looking pristine.

I got one shot of him that wasn't too bad (apart from cutting off his lovely feet - be assured there is nothing wrong with those but bad photography!).

The rest are just shots of some of the others who were looking good in the sunlight.

Saligo, son of EP Cambridge In the Groove, and a Ruffo grandson.

Sal's head - ears up boy!!!


Enigmatic Bella, a fine Rural Allianza plantel girl


Young stud Nevis, Bella's very nice son.

Tannara - fleece limits vision!

With mum, Kara

General catch-up

2011-02-11T19:33:00.002Z

It's been busy on the non-alpaca front - Finlay, our son, had four days of tests in hospital in Aberdeen last week for his ongoing neurological problems and developmental delays. He managed to catch a hospital-grade cold which has been running for eight days so far, a really nasty one.

Meanwhile, Gerry and Sorcha tended the herd and llamas and all was fine.

Groove, our light fawn stud, has recovered from an eye infection. We are not sure how he got it but I had flushed it out twice and found a piece of grass the first time and some fibres the second time, so it could just have been any of those rubbing on his cornea. He had an ulcer on the cornea, but it's cleared up well and he is back to his usual perky self.

He does not really enjoy all the attention but he is patient when we have him in the bracelet hold and are working on him. He stood like that for over an hour once when his ear was stitched up after being ripped in half by Ashby, our black stud.

Aaaaaarrrr, this haylage is tasty!

The girls are all fine, and appear to be getting bigger as their pregnancies start to show. We are going to do some spits soon to check what's what with whom.

The two '10 crias are fine too - Tannara is growing masses of what looks like dk grey fleece underneath her lightened cria tips. Tiree is a wee scamp with a cute face. Both are still quite small, being autumn babies, but I am sure they will grow well when the spring grass comes along.

They have been enjoying the haylage and other rations we've been giving them over winter, as have the adults.

Next job for us is to Cydectin everyone, check them all carefully for any signs of mites, and trim some toenails. Then we'll be getting Saligo micron tested and on the market, along with several other young males from previous years.

We finally have more or less snow-free fields again, although there is more forecast for this weekend. I don't think it will be too bad as it's not that cold.

At home we are planning to hire a mini digger to excavate the footprint of a polytunnel so we can get growing salad leaves, chillies, tomatoes, cucumbers, courgettes and anything else that we fancy. Can't wait!

Montana llama rescue

2011-01-22T19:36:00.021Z

Facebook page

Llama rescue organisations in the US have been fighting tooth and nail to rescue these poor souls and rehome them. Thanks to a herculean effort, most of them have been shipped out to temporary farms where they will be brought back to health and eventually rehomed.

It's quite an upsetting read with various terrible injuries, overgrown feet, matted fibre, skin problems and all manner of other issues.

We love interacting with our three llama charges - with their gentle and clever natures - so we felt terrible reading about the neglect of hundreds of 'rescued' llamas across the pond.

Some links you may find interesting regarding the story are:

Llama Love Rescue website - details and a fantastic auction of llama/alpaca goods to raise funds for the staggering food, transport and medical bills associated with the rescue.

Southwest Llama Rescue, Inc, website - details of the rescue and PayPal button.

Gayle Woodsum's daily blog from Montana.

SE Llama Rescue website - PayPal button and links to moving personal accounts.

Llamas of Weir World blog - llama owners who have taken llamas in.

Royal Ranch blog - and another.

Booty for the Cause - stud services donated by various farms for the rescue effort.

Montana llama rescue Facebook page

It's just an amazing effort that's been put in by the llama and alpaca community. It is heartwarming to see what people will do to help the animals and each other out in times of need.

Eye problems

2011-01-19T17:19:00.000Z

Groove in summer.

Not what you want at this time of year - eyes have been giving us problems, right when there is sheet ice in the catch pen areas, making handling difficult.

Groove has had a seeping right eye, which has been flushed out with saline several times. The first time I washed out a blade of grass, and I was sure this was the problem, but a few days later it was gunky again, and this time I noticed he had a small ulcer on the cornea.

We called in the vet and he's now under treatment with antibiotic eye ointment, which seems to be working.

The other eyes causing problems are those of one of our main females, Alba.

We have noticed that she appears to be disorientated at times. She can keep up with the herd well and seems to know where everything is when it's at close range, but it's become obvious that she has some sort of visual problem.

We are really worried about her and the vet is going to have a look on Friday when she comes to check out Groove's eye.

Sorcha feeding Alba last winter.

Alba is one of our favourite girls and we would hate anything to happen to her. She's had no obvious external eye problems at all, so we're a bit mystified.

Any thoughts on this one are welcome. She's had a small light 'fleck' in one eye since a cria, but we don't know if it is related to her visual issues or not.

Fingers crossed she'll be OK. Time will tell.

Farewell 2010

2010-12-30T19:43:00.005Z

As the year draws to a close, I thought I'd share a few pics from a day the sun came out last week. The girls were happily spread out over the field and just going about their paca business.

This is a typical trip to the field, and it always makes me feel great just to be moving about with these special creatures.

I love watching both the pacas and our llama charges and seeing them relaxed and doing their thing with no stress or problems. They obviously enjoy being together and are a very tight-knit herd.

Tiree, Hayley, Rafa, Tannara and Kara head back from the watering hole.

They join up with the others and follow me to the feeding area.

Tiree and Choccie at the trough.

Tannara. After feeding time comes posing time!

Tannara and mum Kara.

Tannara again.

They've all come back now. Hayley and her cria Tiree.

And Kara and cria Tannara.

The general melee of pacas and llamas.

Frosty Rinnes, Groove and Nevis wait for their feed.

We wish you all a happy and peaceful New Year and may your 2011 be full of fine, crimpy, dense, female crias, with a few stud quality boys thrown in!

Still brrrrrraving the cold

2010-12-22T19:31:00.000Z

Since I last wrote there was a huge dump of snow, then a few days later a thaw (-ish - the snow didn't disappear completely), then some more snow and now it's bleeping cold.

It was -18 when we got up this morning, for example, and I don't think tonight will be any better. Looks like it will get a little 'warmer' after tomorrow just in time for Christmas Eve and Day.

We have just been lying low doing the minimum needed to get along. Obviously the animals are top priority and they get seen to in the morning when the girls get their warm mash of alfalfa, oats, Camelibra pellets and garlic - the highlight of their day - and the boys the same plus two sacks of haylage and some fresh water. The girls drink out of a nice flowing ice-free stream, lucky souls!

All are fine, despite the cold. The boys have a bale shelter to hide under and the main herd has a nice deep bed of composting straw to sit on, although I don't think it is generating much heat just now as it always seems frozen when I check.

The crias are always a worry in the cold, but they have the longest fleeces just now and are coping fine. I suppose they do get some nice warm milk from mum when they feel chilly. They are both growing well and - to my biased eye - are both very beautiful girls.

Poor Groove (main stud male), who has really long eyelashes, had one eye almost stuck together with ice today, but he could see through it. That's what you get for looking so alluring! He was not for being caught and messed about, so we left it, and it will thaw when it gets a bit warmer if not before.

We are all set for Chrimbo - got the organic turkey from M&S yesterday and a few more bits and pieces today. If I have forgotten anyone's presents there is always Amazon for vouchers on Xmas Eve!

We have not had such a bad year this year and we are hoping the next one is even more of an improvement. We have a few plans including getting our fleece processed, printing a Coire T-shirt, oh, and having lots of healthy crias!

Merry Christmas to all our online friends, or Guid Yule, if you are so inclined!

Alfalfa Christmas kisses from Coire Iona xxx

Snow surprise there then!

2010-11-25T19:46:00.001Z

We were expecting it, 20-30 centimetres, and it has come. It is now winter. Snow comes every year and we bed in for the cold months ahead.

Last year we had snow cover for five whole months and very low temps. So far it's not been too bad, apart from the drivers on the roads with no snow tyres blocking the traffic.

Coire HQ is looking festive and the pacas and llamas are eating their supplementary feed (alfalfa, oats, Camelibra and garlic flakes) heartily, with some warm water mixed in for good measure. The crias have discovered that food is nice too (but frozen water is not!).

Rafa, Sheenie and Tannara.

Oh, some water...

Wait, what's happened here?

Tannara's greyness on display

Boys, car n castle

Cria pictures

2010-11-15T15:53:00.001Z

I took the camera today, but of course the pictures are not very good due to the frost/damp/wet.

Anyway, here they are:

Tannara

Tannara and half-sister/half-niece Sidhe

Mum Hayley with cria Tiree

Mum Kara (chewing!) with cria Tannara

Tiree

Getting ready for winter

2010-11-14T18:43:00.001Z

I was resisting doing a post as I have no photos to put up - I apologise, then, if this one is a bit dull, but I thought I'd update you on what we've been up to.

We've had a long spell where Gerry's been doing the paca duty every day due to various things - usually it's easier for him to choose paca duty than Finlay duty! Finlay has been ill for a couple of weeks, and before that, I was really busy making preparations for Halloween, including sewing Sorcha a mermaid costume, and managing the house, which is no mean feat.

Quite often Gerry is not able to do very much other than check the animals as he's still suffering the after-effects of the swine flu/pneumonia he had this time LAST YEAR!

Anyway, today I did a big catch up at the herd. Firstly I checked all the girls, looking them over individually, and spending a bit of time talking to them and smiling at them, and of course paying special attention to the lovely crias.

It was sleeting very heavily just before I arrived at the field and the poor girls were soaked. This did reveal just how dark young Tannara is - I'd say dark silver grey. Her cria tips are light, but those had been obliterated by the wetness. She is such a handsome young thing, with brown ears, a brown snudge on her nose and a kind of lighter halo round her eye area. Otherwise she is a solid (modern) grey.

Young Tiree, who's been a bit smaller than Tannera, has more or less caught up in size. She has a fawn tinge to her tail but seems otherwise to be white now! Time will tell. Both crias are nursing and eating well.

All seemed fine, so I proceeded to clean out the shed in preparation for the winter deep-bedding. I hauled out a fair amount of poo and old hay and filled the bottom of the trailer with it. It's going to be transported to our garden another day this week for composting.

Slight technical 'hitch' though - last time I was attaching the trailer I decided to do a last minute adjustment of the car, and when I drove it forward I ripped the electrical connecters apart - oops. Now, there seems to be a very clever release mechanism inside whereby little plugs come out of little sockets, so it is possible just to replug them - if only I could work out IN WHAT ORDER!

Googling how is going to happen soon.

Once I'd done all that, I loaded up some hay for the boys in the field over the road. Mr Groove does like his fresh hay!

I got over there and the boys all came to see me and have some pellets and garlic. I was tipping out some water from the feed trough when Groove started doing a big choking episode. Not sure what had happened but there was some spitting between Nevis and himself and it looked like he'd inhaled some spit or something. Either that or he'd choked on some hay. His lip was hanging anyway, so I suspect spit was involved.

I hate it when they choke - it is scary. It is normally self resolving, and this time it was. I waited with them till he was ok and able to eat some pellets. He seemed fine when I left. My heart was beating fast!

That's about all the excitement I can take for one day, so it's over and out for now. I am going to take some more snaps of the crias next time I go, honest!

Best pals growing up

2010-10-19T23:12:00.004+01:00

Sorry we've not been blogging, but I had what we'd call a 'scunneration' of all things web. Strange, I just felt I'd had enough, like I'd been gorging on chocolate cake and couldn't face another bite! I have been checking email and doing a daily Facebook update though!

Now I feel like I've really missed blogging and reading all the other blogs, so prepare to see me around once more.

We've also been busy with one thing and another, mostly matings, which we've stopped now due to the lateness of the year. The thought of a cria being born this time next year fills me with dread - today we've had our first sleet and hail of the winter, and the gritter has just been past the house.

The two crias are fine. Tannara is huge at only two months, and Tiree a more 'normal' size. Both are, in our biased opinion, quite beautiful.

They are also inseparable. Usually they hang around with Kara, Tan's mum, but often they're just off snudging around on their own.

I don't have a bang-up-to-date photo, but these were taken about three weeks ago - as you can see, the weather was better then!

Red faces all round

2010-09-09T18:53:00.003+01:00

Oooooops! We must confess to having been a bit stupid. We were double checking the mating notes from last year, and realise that Tannara's dad is not in fact Groove, but solid black Inca Ashby.

That's why she's grey then. That will be a mating we'll repeat, as Kara's mum was grey and Ash is obviously able to bring that colouring out, even though Kara is white/cream coloured.

I guess that's why we keep detailed notes! We transfer the hand-written ones in our husbandry book on to our software, but sometimes there's a time-lag with this, and we hadn't read the notes till the other day.

This year, though, we are covering everyone with Groove so that we have a good collection of his crias (fingers crossed).

Saligo, his yearling son, has turned out to be lovely and will go on sale in the near future. He looks so like his daddy and is a spirited wee man. He will make a very nice stud male for someone, we hope.

Next year there will be no confusion over who's the daddy!

Grey thoughts

2010-09-04T16:21:00.002+01:00

I've had an interesting time of late contemplating the future of Tannara, and it's thrown up some new avenues of exploration for me. Alpaca breeding is never dull!

As you know, Tannara is grey, but what we didn't expect was to part her fleece two weeks down the line and see most definite silver grey fibre. We had thought she was rose grey, but it seems her tips have simply been bleached by the amniotic fluid. At root she is an amazing solid slate colour - we think probably medium silver grey.

She is dense too and very soft to touch. We haven't had a close enough look to confirm that she has no spots, but we haven't seen any. She just has some lighter shading on the very front of her face. She seems to have fawn points - her ears and around the head area, perhaps feet, making her very unusual indeed.

I would love to see her shorn, but we're not going to do that just now - we won't, sadly, be able to show her and we would not like her going into autumn with no fibre, knowing what our weather can be like. Can't wait till James Dixon gets his clippers on her next summer!

Anyway, given her colouring, I've been chatting to some grey breeders over in the States, where there are some stunning unusual solid ('modern') greys, without white faces or tuxedo pattern ('classic'), which are throwing beautiful grey crias. Many of these have black or dark points, making them look very unusual.

These solid greys include Ante Up of Graceland Farm. He is just beautiful, and his owner Laila has been advising me on what to think about when breeding greys. (Thanks Laila!)

There is also GreyBeard of Full Moon Alpacas / Chase Tavern Alpacas, and Grayback of Nayla Farm Alpacas / Gunhouse Hill Alpacas. They are worth a look to see what is possible.

Obviously we will repeat the Kara-Groove mating every year from now on to see if we can winkle out another grey. Ideally we'd love to put a solid grey male over Tannara, all being well, but we are not aware of any nearby us or even in the UK. If you know differently, let me know!

Failing a grey mating, we have our solid black Inca Ashby, a strong contender, who might throw an interesting cria or two.

I know I am getting a bit carried away, but alpaca breeding is all about the long term vision, isn't it? And anyway, I deserve a bit of a dream...!

Groove orgling

2010-08-27T23:12:00.002+01:00

We think he has a rather fine orgle! Bella is under there somewhere...

It's a tough life, Mr Groove

2010-08-26T20:48:00.003+01:00

This week we've been doing matings with Groove, and so far he's covered two females.

He's such a keen worker and such a gent with the ladies that I thought I'd do a series of pics. They are entertaining as our girls are always very keen to be around the big fella!

Yesterday Gerry did the matings and he forgot the camera, and he also forgot to pen the girls first, so there was a huge melee of eager females throwing themselves to the ground all around the great man, in the middle of the field!

Groove simply had to choose one lucky winner, and it was Hayley, mum of Tiree. She is consistently the keenest girl and she develops a very strange mode of behaviour around males, rubbing herself seductively along the fence before thumping down invitingly beside him - she's not fussy who it is either, as long as he's got the goods!

Today she was locked out of the loafing area to give someone else a chance, and she lay with her entire body flattened to the ground with big lovesick eyes, as she watched Bella, this afternoon's lucky girl, having her 'date'.

Anyway, here's the action:

Running the gauntlet of the llamas as he heads towards the pen area.

Striding out. He's seen the girls!

I asked them to stop for a pic.

Are all those for me?

We let a few in - Bella is who he chose and she's under there somewhere, quite happy!

A queue of future dates, all keen!

Oh Groove, do you have to go now? Yearling Sidhe was very interested in him.

Off back to the males' paddock.

OK, I asked for a pic as there are very few of me on the blog!

Back in the field, with Rinnes.

Back to normal with absolutely no fuss - true gents, Groove, Nevis, Rinnes.

The boys are back in town

2010-08-24T18:25:00.001+01:00

Today we drove over to Ardo Alpacas in Aberdeenshire to pick up three of our boys, In The Groove, Nevis and Rinnes.

Groove and Nevis have some 'dates' lined up with the girls. It's Nevis's first year so we hope he does the business. He was spectating last year and will possibly remember what it's all about. But of course he might need some help from us!

We are putting Groove over most of our girls and hoping for some more Tanneras next year! Groove has the uncanny ability to 'let through' the dam's colour genetics so he's a great male to use if wanting to preserve colour and breed in some fineness, density, crimp and conformation. We are so pleased with him - can you tell?!!!

Rounding up the boys at Ardo - weather vile and all looking wet and not at their best!

Arrival - now they can dry off! L-R Rinnes, Groove, Nevis

Haughty Groove (R) with Rinnes

We have brought 08 male Rinnes back to be a companion for our 09 boy Saligo. They are going to team up in the field while Groove and Nevis get to work. Saligo is Groove's son, so it will be interesting to see what they make of each other. Saligo is so like his dad in manner and looks.

And Tannera - I took a few pics of her in the sun (when it came out). Who could resist? Groove is also her daddy!

While the females were having their pellets, T went for a run on her own round the field, followed by Sorcha, who was a bit worried for her. T was using Rose, the matriarch llama, as a safe base, going back to her every time she'd been off for a run. Course, I had to take a short video of that.

Getting to know everyone

2010-08-23T17:07:00.003+01:00

Tannara is doing well - she is bigger than Tiree and the two of them are quite a formidable team, sprinting round the field together and confusing the llamas by running up at them and splitting off in different directions!

I will take more photos of her when the torrential rain stops and her fleece is properly dry. She is, it would appear, solid rose grey - light or medium, we're not sure.

I've posted some photos from day one and two because I like the way they show herd life. When you are born into the hustle and bustle of an extended 'family' of camelids, you don't get a moment's peace - everyone wants to sniff you and find out who you are! And everyone is ready to help take care of you and keep a look out for danger.

If this gets too much in the very early hours after birth, we separate the mum and baby, but Tannara seemed fine despite all the intense attention from her aunties and friends, so we just let things roll.

Sniff sniff - everyone has a smell and nuzzle of the newborn.

Neck-wrestling from high-ranking Iona ... come off it, she's just taking her first steps!

Sniffing by Choccie - but staying close to mum's side.

Sniffing by Sidhe, her yearling half-sister-niece(!!), who adores her and plays with her.

Biggest and wee-est - sniffing by Rose, the matriarch llama.

Quite a day - tragic news and a new cria

2010-08-18T21:09:00.002+01:00

It's been a day of mixed emotions here at Coire HQ today.

We were startled by a Sea King rescue helicopter flying very low over our house at around noon. I went out to see what was going on and it appeared to be searching the river - we live right beside the River Spey.

Fearing that someone was in trouble I headed down the bank so see if I could be of any help or at least spot something for the police, leaving Gerry with the kids.

There was nothing, but the river was particularly swift after all the rain we've had. I noted it was very brown and obviously had a lot of water in it from the hills upstream.

I took a photo and headed in for lunch.

After that I was scheduled to do the afternoon Kara check. She has been looking like she was going to birth for a few days and we've been constantly checking her. Gerry had checked her earlier and was having a bit of time at home.

I took Finlay to his grandparents' house, and Sorcha and I headed down to the field to check on things. We had a good look, and I felt that Kara was going to give birth today, although she was still acting as she has been for the last few days, coming in for her feed and spitting off the other girls at the trough.

But it looked to me like she was 'nesting'; she was scoping for a place to give birth, I thought. She just seemed to be in a slightly different mode. The herd were hanging around her including little Tiree, above.

We had a drink and an ice cream from the castle coffee shop and it was then I heard that a fisherman had been swept away by the river near the castle. I felt terrible for him and his family and really hoped he would be ok. Sadly, a body was later found a few miles downstream.

Sorcha and I had to leave the castle for a bit, so we called Gerry and he was going to come over and check Kara shortly.

However, before he could get there, we had a phone call that a visitor had spotted a newborn cria with its mum!!! Fast work Kara! So we all headed back to the field and there they were sitting neat as you like.

She is a wee girl, Tannara, and she seems to have very unusual mottling of grey and fawn. Gerry thinks this is just the tips being bleached by the amniotic fluid and that she will be solid mid or dk grey underneath, but I'm not so sure. We will have to wait till she fluffs up fully to get a good look.

Gerry hung about till we were sure she was feeding well, and coated her for the night. She is so big she is having to kneel at the milk bar!

Of course, the entire herd had to check her out immediately, and there was much toing and froing and clucking from the alpacas and llamas. One thing's for sure, all the girls just love having a new baby.

I made sure Gerry brought Kara a big bucket of fresh water - mums just know these things! She was grateful not to have to trail to the burn for a drink with her newborn.

This birth means a lot to us as Kara was really down this time last year. She was badly hit by mites and emac, and at one point she was stumbling around blind as her eyes had puffed up when the mites burrowed into the skin around them, causing an infection. She was a terrible, sorry sight and we were very surprised she pulled through. She still has some hair loss on her inner thighs, which is slowly growing in again.

We rested her last year from birthing as she has given us three girls and a boy and was really needing a year off. I am so glad we did that, and that she's been able to give us the lovely Tannara, who seems strong and healthy so far (fingers crossed - I never assume anything after last year!).

Tannara's dad is our In The Groove (light fawn). Kara's mum is grey, so that could be where the colour has come from.

Tannara is the Gaelic version of an island off the coast of Wester Ross (Tanera Mor, the largest of the 'Summer Isles').

Tiree is born

2010-08-01T17:48:00.005+01:00

Our first cria of the year, a light fawn girl, was born to Hayley today. We've called her Tiree - we are on 'T' this year, which is one of the easier letters. As regular readers will know, we use Scottish names, in this case a beautiful Hebridean island, famously home to the UK Wavesailing Championships, the Tiree Wave Classic.

She is beautiful, shaded very pale cream to light fawn and her mum is doing a really good job. She lost her cria last year, Stroma, after a couple of days, so we are very pleased for Hayley. Dad is Ashby - our black stud.

Here she is:

Big sister Alba sniffing.

Meeting the herd.

Half-sister Sidhe.

And, Toffee, one of our ex-battery rescues, has had four chicks, so it's babies all round!

Pastures new

2010-07-09T20:30:00.000+01:00

It was time to move the girls and yearlings onto fresh grass yesterday. They went in to a small paddock beside their main one as it was sprayed a few weeks ago, and we didn't want to take any chances with the pregnant females.

What's this? It's a trailer girls!

What happens now? The two pregnant dams, Hayley and Kara.

I am not looking out for a bus stop, but in fact leaning on my pitchfork after lining the trailer with some spent hay for the girls' comfort. Supervised by Finlay (he can't walk yet so is piggy-backing).

Noone ever wants to go first and there is lots of milling about. We have to do two trips over to the other field, so they always have a discussion about which trip they'd like to go on.

The first load out - look grass and our llama friends! Lots of sniffing and tails aloft, then heads down for some serious noshing.

The second load, two mums, Alba and Selkie, and their yearling crias, Sidhe and Saligo.

And again, much excitement as they run to greet the other half of the herd. They've been apart for all of 15 minutes!!!

Big bellies!

2010-06-25T16:04:00.002+01:00

The paca girls and yearlings are loving being shorn and there's been much galloping around and rolling in the dust.

The flies were terrible today - another reason they are keeping on the move! I gave them extra garlic in their feed to try and repel the wee blighters.

It would appear we have two obviously preggo girls, Hayley and Kara, both foundation imports. They've both been great mums over the last few years.

Neither had a cria last year (Hayley's premie Stroma died) so we're quite excited about them giving birth again - well maybe not the giving birth part but having the crias around!

There are another couple of girls we're not sure about, but it looks like just those two. If so, we can get on with our matings, which is a good thing as we can reset the clock for births next year. Our matings last year were very late and we considered not doing any at all due to the herd having been hit by mites and emac.

It will have worked out quite well. I was hoping some of them would have had a bit of a rest. They have all done so well to recover their condition and seem very happy and healthy now. That's the main priority.

Pregnant Kara in the background with Choccie.

Hayley, also with big tum.

Bella, relaxing.

Ever-curious Alba.

I got a bit of a flutter of excitement when I saw the cria shape inside Kara and Hayley. I have been enjoying seeing many pictures of other crias, but there's nothing like having your own. They are due at the end of July, but who knows.....?

Shearing day - at last the herd is naked

2010-06-22T21:06:00.003+01:00

Waiting...

The girls and their crias have been eagerly awaiting the ministrations of James Dixon our Aussie shearer for some time now, and he finally arrived today with assistant John and got to work stripping off oodles of lovely soft fleece.

James and John had a very ambitious day today covering most of the north of Scotland, but finally they had to admit defeat and call it a day after our herd, continuing on to stay the night with Robbie and Shirley of Tigh Mhor Alpacas near Inverness. I hope they have a good rest tonight and a good shearing day tomorrow!

The poor pacas were suffering a bit under the uncharacteristically warm sun - it's always hot when James arrives - and glad to form an orderly queue for the clippers. It did seem a bit like that! The quiet girls lined up at the front of the pen and offered themselves for a haircut. I could swear that one or two of them were positively enjoying it.

The screamers stood well back and shuffled around nervously, occasionally drinking some cool water. They obviously know fine what is coming. Some of them don't mind the shearing but don't like their toenails being clipped. Honestly!

I'm always a bit worried about the young ones who have not been shorn before, but they were fine. Saligo is possibly the dirtiest alpaca James has sheared this year. He did remark about him. Little wonder - Sal has spent all year rolling in mud and sand.

I like to get a good look at their undercarriage, and this year it was nice to see that our mite infestation has cleared up really well. One girl has a little crusty patch, but we'll manage to zap that now she is naked.

We seem to have a few preggies, but some others who obviously are not. We have not had our males nearby to do spits so we have been relying on how the girls look and behave. I will have to update you on how many crias are hiding in there as time goes on. Some of the girls don't ever look huge, so it can be deceptive.

Kara, one of our Aussie foundation females and multiple ribbon winner, is looking big. She didn't have a cria last year because we felt she needed a rest, so we're happy she's going to be a mum again. She throws lovely quality offspring and is very experienced.

We also hope to get In The Groove, our top super stud boy, over shortly to do the business on any empty girls and the two maidens.

We feel a bit left behind this year because our matings were later last year, because we had so many difficulties to cope with. It'll be lovely to have even one or two crias pronking about.

Selkie was first up.

Sidhe and Selkie inform the others of what's to come!

Sidhe.

Last in the queue, Sheenie!

Keeping cool at the water bucket

2010-06-04T22:18:00.000+01:00

The pacas have been enjoying the sunny weather. They are a bit hot and are often found drinking.

Gerry got a fright today when he was filling the bucket with fresh water. The pacas had drained most of the water but there was a ....... dead crow in the bottom! Yuck!

We have no idea how it got there, and it looked fresh, so we hope the pacas will not suffer any consequences of crow-flavoured water.

Alba - she's got the best topknot! Hayley in background.

Alba, Selkie and Saligo

Iona

You'll notice our herd is still woolly. We've had to arrange for a stand-in shearer to come as James Dixon has had to return to Australia unexpectedly. We aim to have them done by the end of June. We've not had totally scorching weather yet, and there's mostly been a nice breeze to keep the pacas cool.

Sheenie relaxing, the others heading up the field after their minerals

Ups and downs

2010-05-02T19:12:00.001+01:00

The alpacas are all fine. We have been trying to work out by eye who is pregnant! We don't have a scanner, and with no males on hand just now to do spits, it's guesswork. There's one who is not pregnant, as we found a foetus by the hay bale in the middle of winter.

We think around five look 'big', but as they're not due till late Aug early Sept it is hard to tell. They have quite a full fleece now and that makes is easy to hide a cria in there.

All will be revealed next month when James Dixon comes to shear them, or before that if we get our males over to the castle for a visit.

On the domestic front we've had a bit of a rocky time. Finlay is to have teeth taken out under general anaesthetic tomorrow. He damaged a front one a while ago on the side of the bath, then a few weeks later fell on to a table edge and developed an abscess. It flared up twice and caused him to be quite ill, so the tooth and its neighbour, and a further damaged one, have to go. As he's a bit small for sedation, it has to be a GA. I'm feeling a bit jittery about it, but I'm sure he will be fine.

We also lost one of our bunnies this week - our doe Honey. She was not eating and I found her dying in her run one day. We were very sad, not least Sorcha.

And to top it off, I accidentally ran over a chicken's leg today - normally they run away from the car when it starts moving but this one didn't and even though I was going very slowly, just reversing to get out of the drive, she got caught. I felt horrible - it was Sorcha's favourite one. I couldn't feel worse about it, I can tell you. Gerry had to do the deed as she would not have survived.

The sun is now shining and we are hoping it gets warmer - it was 6C yesterday!

It must be spring, the daffs are out

2010-04-17T16:34:00.000+01:00

We've had beautiful spring weather here - today is a bit cooler and windier, but the field has dried out nicely for the animals. I can't actually remember the last rain - I think it was that heavy snow in fact (which is not rain, but ukwim). So far we seem to have avoided the volcanic dust!

The daffodils are out at the castle, which is a glorious show as usual, just in time for visitor season starting. Gerry spotted a few growing in the main field and pulled them up yesterday, just in case any got nibbled - they are toxic. We had dug most of them up last year but must have missed a couple.

My mind is on things toxic after the dreadful news from Knapper Alpaca in Norway of the loss of two of their imports from yew poisoning. Our thoughts are with Rolf and Nina - we of all people know how it feels to lose animals.

I think it's a good time to remind ourselves of the list of toxic plants. We have rhododendrons over the fence in one of the paddocks, which we cut back last year very carefully. In the autumn some horrible smelly fungus grows in the main field too, which we remove.

The camelids had Cydectin injections this week. All seem fine. We've been watching them carefully for mites and signs of emac, but all seems well. They smell lovely in the warm sun and have been frolicking about.

We are looking forward to shearing day in early June, when Aussie shearer James Dixon is returning to denude the Coire herd.

On the home front, we are really pleased to have honey bees again. Ours died out in the winter and we've been given a nucleus (young colony) by a beekeeper friend in exchange for some work Gerry did for the local beekeepers' association. They seem happy in our garden and are foraging for pollen for their young just now.

These are local dark bees, and G is hoping to raise some queens from them to sell to other beekeepers. He is also putting some bait hives out in the area to try and capture some bees living wild.

Oh no...

2010-04-10T22:09:00.001+01:00

Raspberry in 08, with Rose's cria Rowan behind and Sorcha feeding Rose

I had a horrible heart-stopping moment today when I approached the llama/paca field.

Regular readers will recall how we had the horrible misfortune to lose some alpaca crias and a dam last year. Well, quite understandably, my stomach lurches to the ground if I see anything out of the ordinary now.

And today was one of those days. As I drove up I saw a dark brown shape on the ground on its side, and most worrying, there were two crows perched on top... I assumed immediately they were pecking at the eyes of a poor dead beast.

A quick look about showed that everyone was up on their feet waiting to be fed except big Raspberry, the most flighty of our three llama charges.

Oh no.... I had visions of breaking the sad news to the owner of the llama and arranging for a post mortem and removal of the carcass. It's amazing just how much detail goes through your mind in a few seconds.

I just hate these moments....

I jumped out of the car to race over to assess the situation, and with a huge surge of relief, Raspberry sprang up and the two crows flew off to the woods.

Camelids do this unnerving thing when the sun comes out - play dead. I think she was so fast asleep in the warmth, and her coat is so thick that she didn't even feel the crows' feet!

Raspberry gave us a huge scare in the summer - going down in the cush position and not getting up. She had mites, along with the rest of our herd, and they made her legs so sore she couldn't stand properly. We thought for a while we were going to lose her, but we managed to get her back to fitness.

So I'm really relieved she's ok now and don't want anything bad to happen in the near future!

Weeeeeee, thump!

2010-03-31T15:34:00.001+01:00

This just about sums things up here just now.

That's the sound of a load of spring snow being dumped on Coire HQ, and most of the north of Scotland, and it seems to have arrived that quickly!

Apparently it's 'summertime', but I'm afraid half a metre of snow or more says it's really not. I am estimating the depth as I didn't have to venture out today to feed the alpacas and llamas - Gerry did it and I was on children duty.

G says the road was the worst he's ever been on. He almost got stuck in the 4x4 and saw numerous stranded cars and lorries. It's not helped by the horrendous wind and drifting snow. It's been a total blizzard all day. And, yes, we do have snow tyres.

The A95, the main trunk road in the area.

Thankfully G got back here safely with some provisions, minus bread as it was sold out... always happens when there's a lot of snow.

I am not planning a trip out till the wind goes, but tomorrow I am going to get some xc skiing in for at least half an hour along the old railway line.

Oh the joys of spring!

Hopping bunnies and mitey good news

2010-03-24T18:33:00.000Z

Our bunnies are now enjoying some time outside now that we have made a run on the "grass" (dead brown stuff) from spare chicken panels.

They have to take turns in it, but we'll shortly be arranging things so they all have a space to hop around in.

It is a big improvement for them; previously they had snow all around and only their hutches to hop about in. We are big on animal welfare so it's important that they have a happy life as Coire Angoras.

Manuka in the run, as Lindt and Honey look on.

Bunny hi-rise - Lindt on top and Honey in the basement!

The observant among you may notice that Honey's hutch is minus a door - Gerry is yet to finish it. And we've still to paint the wood. And, yes, we do feed them. Their hay racks were just about to be filled! They also enjoy carrots and other veg, and rabbit pellets.

Meanwhile, the alpacas and llamas are fine. They have all had a dose of Baycox Bovis to kill off Emac, and there were no ill-effects - not that we were expecting any, but you always worry.

We held off doing their Cydectin injections (for mites) on the same day, so they were not overly stressed.

The vet did some skin scrapes to check for mites, and these were clear. So it looks like the mite problem is more under control. She is going to do a few more just to be sure. We are so relieved after our mitey 09.

Our vet, Gaby, has also been on a camelid course in England with other vets. She thoroughly enjoyed it and said she was pleased she was able to contribute to the proceedings thanks to our various problems of late.

Dalriada pics

2010-03-13T16:35:00.001Z

The good folks at Inca - Tracey and Tim Hey - have emailed us pics of 09 cria Dalriada, jointly owned by Coire and Inca, who is out of our black female Coire Maya Gold.

Maya, the daughter of our foundation female Choccie, is currently agisted at Inca in Dorset, so she can have crias sired by their impressive line-up of black stud males.

So far she's had two - a very nice dark brown male, Coire Inca Cardhu (who is currently for sale!!!) by Canchones Witness of Inca, and Dalriada by ATA Cambridge Centurion.

We are very pleased with what Maya is producing and we hope she has another high quality cria this year. She's pregnant again to Centurion.

Here's Dalriada with Tim. Looks like she has a nice social life with all those other coloured alpacas!

If you are wondering what her name means, you can read all about it on good old Wikipedia.

Hey ho and on we go.....

2010-03-08T19:54:00.002Z

Me doing poo flicking duty with Finlay watching.

See the deep bed inside the shed waiting to be dug out? Lovely.

Yaahhooooo!, the snow is going and the weather is nearly springlike! Some brown tufty stuff has been spotted beneath the melting snow....... grass, or what's left of it. The whole place looks a bit like the Arctic tundra just now with not a hint of green in sight.

The local roads have been left pockmarked by giant holes. It's like driving in Ireland in the 1980s (well maybe not quite that bad!). I doubt if the local council will manage to find the funds to make all smooth again. Those days seem to be in the past and I'm sure they've spent all their cash on salt and grit this year.

The alpaca / llama field is still under a lot of snow but there is some melt round the trees and next to their burn, so the camelids are having a bit of a tentative nibble here and there rather than being solidly parked round the bale of hay, which they have been since November!

I was a bit worried today as we seemed to be one girl short - Rafaela (Hummy) - but she'd gone on an extended foray up the field to check out the grazing situation. She didn't notice us arriving (Sorcha and me) but soon came cantering up when S shouted our usual call: "paca paca paca!" It's not like her to be away from her mum, but she seems to be quite mature now and less anxious. She is two this year after all!

I have not taken any piccies as I am frankly fed up of the amazing views. I have taken my camera out a few times but it's been so unremittingly nice that I have somehow lost the urge. But as soon as things change snow-wise I will post some more.

It's been a very hectic time here for me and the family. We've had some major issues with Finlay's medical care - long story, so I won't bore you - and it's taken a lot of sorting out. I've also been really busy doing all the alpaca business and taking care of the house and family (well, as much as is possible!). Gerry is still feeling off-colour some days as he's still recovering from his h1n1 bout and pneumonia. It is going to take months until he is fully better. Until then, things will remain challenging.

So all in all, I have not had much time to blog or to enjoy being out in the field doing alpaca things. As soon as the snow melts that will change: we have to muck out the two field shelters which have 'deep beds' in them, and pick up lots of little presents that were thoughtfully left between snowfalls!

I also have a full afternoon of husbandry lined up for Wed (everything allowing), with, I hope, Gerry to help. I am so glad our crias are not due till around August this year!

Springtime coming, but still snowy

2010-03-01T19:21:00.000Z

It does feel like spring is on the way - the witch hazel tree in our garden is flowering (they do flower first mind you) - and the mornings and evenings are getting ever lighter.

But we still have a fair load of snow on the ground - now frozen into a concrete slab.

Today I was able to walk over the top mostly, dragging the feedbag along with me while I had Finlay on my back. Gerry has been off colour with a bug, hence the one woman multi-tasking show!

It has been fantastically sunny and perfect skiing weather. Our local hill, Cairngorm, is having a record year, but I've not been able to get up there once. Never mind.

We took the camera out today as it was so bright, and got a few shots.

This had me in stitches - Ruby the hungry llama. Have I eaten too much hay?

Bella babysitting our two crias - she is a great 'mum', sadly losing her own beautiful boy last summer.

Sorcha doing the water.

Look, ice. Hardly any today as it was +1C.

Nice place for a rest.

Food? Chocolate Gold, mum of Sheenie (below).

Sheenie, who had to miss the Futurity intermediate brown class. How would she have fared against the Mighty Patou Amelie and Amiryck Cinnamon?

Fin and moi!

Finally, we'd like to congratulate the Patou and Amiryck herds, and any others who had success at the Futurity at the weekend. We are sorry we missed the event and the chance to meet some fellow bloggers. We'll get there one day!

Coire Angoras!

2010-02-17T17:47:00.004Z

Manuka (buck)

Lindt (buck)

Honey (doe)

We have branched out into rabbits, big fluffy angora ones!!! >(:x)

Two bucks, one white and one golden, and a golden doe arrived at the weekend and have settled in to their new quarters.

They are four months old and already have a crop of fluff to be harvested. They need daily brushing and cut about every three months or so.

We are going to blend the fibre with alpaca on our drum carder and sell it to hand-spinners. Sorcha is chief bunny manager!

They are so soft and have a micron count even finer than an alpaca wool. The colour genetics look really interesting so it'll be fun working those out.

PS - we have more snow :-(

Blogger's block

2010-02-04T14:16:00.001Z

Hello folks. Sorry for the lack of posts, but I am suffering from a dose of blogger's block! There just isn't much news, and more snow is not news here...!

I always have a bit of a blue period during January, and this year is no exception. After a very hard 09 and the daily grind continuing into 2010, there isn't much excitement to tell you about.

The alpacas and llamas are all fine. They are fed up of not seeing grass and having to chomp hay all the time, but life goes on.

I am always a bit depressed when the futurity comes around and we realise just how unable we are to attend these events. We'd love to show a couple of animals, but we can't due to: 1/Finlay, 2/mites and attendant bald patches, and 3/emac.

We are trying to breed the best we can, but we do feel cut off from our fellow breeders (not virtually but physically!). I hope in time this changes.

We can't start halter training yet as the pens are inoperable due to snow. It is hard enough catching up with the animals to do basic husbandry. I did start digging out the hurdles but the snow underneath is rock hard and I just didn't have time.

On the bright side, I did manage to do the tax returns on the 31st January (online filing of course!). Just in the nick of time.

Snow going, grass appearing

2010-01-21T18:59:00.002Z

Finally our snow is melting away, but quite slowly as it's been frosty every night. The roads have been very icy, with water seeping off the snowpack and freezing in a sheet over the surface in patches - so driving has been a bit difficult for the last few days. I think the salt supplies have been so cut into that we're not getting as much on the back roads as we would have done otherwise.

Anyway, there was general joy at the paca/llama field yesterday as the first areas of grass, round the big trees, appeared and the girls and crias were able to have a nibble on some very squashed frozen blades. Some of them opted to stay parked by the bale of hay, but at least they can walk about a bit more now.

They had made two or three survival paths during all the snow - one to the bale, one to the feeders, and one to the water (although this was a step too far on the very coldest days and I was hauling water up to their shed for their convenience). Now the paths are very hard and icy so it's not very easy going even for four-footed creatures. But we hope that this will also melt shortly.

The herd is fine, and they are looking like normal alpacas again after the ravages of last summer's mites. We are going to drench them this week with Baycox to treat our EMac problem. I have been waiting till the weather gets a bit better just to minimise the strain on them, and so that we can actually use the catch pens, which are under very hard snow.

We are so looking forward to spring now!

Snow on snow...

2009-12-31T12:17:00.005Z

You may have guessed from the title that it's been a snowy time for us. It started snowing on Dec 18th and has not let up since.

I think we've had some snowfall most days, but today has been terrible so far, with several inches falling in a very short space of time, and now as I look out of the window, more enormous flakes are coming down. The only saving grace is that there is only light wind.

I'm very glad I have already been out to feed the alpacas. The roads were possibly the worst I have ever driven on in so many years of snow driving here in the North of Scotland. I took the 4x4 as I would not have stood any chance in the car, despite having snow tyres.

Digging out the Sorento - fun!

Today the snow is of that sticky, squeaky type that is perfect for building snowmen and making snowballs. It's only -1C so it has changed its nature from the dry, sparkling powder that we've had. It has been very cold since the snowy spell started so I am relieved to have relatively mild temperatures for the poor alpacas and llamas.

It's often said that people indigenous to the Arctic regions have lots of words for snow. I have often thought about that when I have been out in it over the years, walking, clearing it away or skiing. You get to know all its ways, particularly when you live in a place with unpredictable weather that changes quickly in the space of one day.

Sometimes we have depressions coming over from the North Atlantic and bringing rain, snow and storms, sometimes we have polar air whooshing down from the Arctic, and then there's the high pressure periods - less common - which is what we've had recently giving sun, no wind, and plunging temperatures. It can get wild when two weather systems have an almighty battle and produce lots of snow. That's the fun of living on an island that pokes up into the Atlantic Ocean!

Every day on my travels to and from the alpaca and llamas I see the changes in the snow and how it sometimes makes driving more difficult. I prefer it when it's really cold as there's a dryness to everything that makes it much easier.

Well today is not one of those days. It's heavy, claggy and hard-going.

On the road, just about to pass Kirdelbeg farm.

Descending to the bridge over the River Spey at Blacksboat

The llamas and pacas were fine once I got there. They were happily chomping their hay and galloping about in the "warmth" of the day!

The llamas noshing

I think they had mostly been shed-lurking before emerging for their food, and I couldn't blame them as I'd spread a really thick layer of straw out for them yesterday. It is nice to see their indentations in the straw and to know they've been cosied up together for the night.

On this Hogmanay we wish everyone near and far the most peaceful of New Years, and a happy and prosperous 2010.

Festive greetings

2009-12-24T14:29:00.002Z

Happy Christmas!

We've had a terrible year, and as we head into the next one we have received the difficult news that our herd has E-Mac, coccidia specific to camelids.

It explains our losses of the summer. Now we are working on a plan to get the herd as free as possible from it.

We have had some excellent advice and we'll try our best. I'd rather meet it head on, tackle it and get on top of the problem than just keep quiet about it.

I suspect it's a bigger issue than we know, and I don't like the fact it seems like a bit of a dark secret in the alpaca world. I mean, ours has come from somewhere, and I think more openness would be helpful in early spotting of this terrible affliction.

Anyway, despite the latest setback, we are staying optimistic. The girls and two remaining crias are doing well despite the cold - minus 16 last night - and we just want them to get through until the spring when they can enjoy some new fresh grass again.

I'd like to thank our fellow breeders for all their support over the last year. We have learned so much and feel like we are in a stronger position now.

Cheers!

Solstice photos

2009-12-21T13:04:00.009Z

The castle doocot.

The castle.

Feed us!

The girls' watering hole.

The burn.

Hauling water for the girls.

Moi!

Next year's Xmas card?!!!

Trees.

Snowy wonderland at Coire

2009-12-20T18:52:00.004Z

Arriving at the alpacas and llamas today - beautifully dusted trees

We've had our first bout of proper snow and it's all looking very festive. Just in time for Christmas - looks like it will be a white one as the temperature is going to be under 0 for the rest of this week.

The pacas are fine. They don't mind the snow too much, but they don't like wading through it for their breakfast, which is what they had to do this morning.

When it's cold I make up a mixture of feed and soak it for a few minutes in some warm water, so they get a boost to start the day, and some warm liquid inside them. Otherwise they have a cold stream to drink from which can't be that nice in sub-zero temps.

All the girls and crias seem alright just now. They are using the shelters more than usual because of the heavy snow showers, so I've been kept busy cleaning the beans out each morning. The llamas produce so much!!! I have amassed a huge dung pile which will be great for fertilising our garden and perhaps the castle's.

This morning the road had been ploughed out to a point, but I had to walk the final 100m with the feed bucket.

This gave the girls plenty of warning of my approach and several galloped over. A few sensible ones waited in the shelters.

Here we come!

Heads down for breakfast.

The llamas, Ruby, Rasp and Rose have a gossip by the rain butt.

Abscess, vaccinations

2009-12-04T18:00:00.006Z

I've been far too busy to post, but I don't like it when my last blog entry says "over a week ago" on other people's sites, so here goes. A lot has been going on and I may not be able to cover everything, but I will try.

First off, the girls and crias are doing fine (touch wood). I have a slight concern just now about Choccie, who has suffered an abscess on her leg in some crusty folds that were left from when she was very mitey.

Choccie

A few days ago I noticed pus coming out and I squeezed the area and gently got out as much as I could - she was tender but not lame and seemed to be acting normally otherwise. She kept bending her leg and cushing, which was quite good as it helped to pump more of the foul cheese out.

I washed it as best I could and called the vet. The vet was out the next day anyway so she gave her an antibiotic shot and a painkiller.

That day I had the vet out to help me to jab them all with Cydectin for the ongoing mite eradication push and their annual Lambivac shots.

I had worked really hard to get the catch pen set up, trailing lots of panels over from the main field to the temporary paddock. I even got the Alpaca Easy Pen set up.

This was no mean feat as Gerry is still in Glasgow with pneumonia and Finlay has been having seizures for the last week on and off.

All the girls were fine after their jabs and inspection. Some had a bit of Vaseline applied to residual crust round the ears, muzzle and on the leg joints. These areas are the hardest to shift the scabs. Some of ours have a bit of loose skin too, which does not help.

Choccie is still a tiny bit down but I have checked her today and she seems to be acting more or less normally, eating well and looking alert.

The other drama that happened this week was with Choccie's daughter Sheenie. She was shivering the other day, so I decided to put a coat on her. She is quite small and perhaps just feels the cold a bit more than the others. She also has some bare skin from the mites.

I put the coat on and she went berzerk!!!! She belted off to the other end of the field and I thought, oh no, there is no way on earth I will get that coat off. She obviously thought she was being predated upon by a puma!

She was doing amazing mazy runs worthy of a rugby centre and scaring the pants off the other alpacas. The crias didn't know what on earth was going on! Saligo had his wee tail up and was assuming a sort of macho territorial pose... he is such a wee sweet soul it was funny to see him trying to be a big boy.

I was so worried about Sheenie getting herself tangled up or dying of stress that I went to the field in the dark, but I couldn't catch up with her at all. I did find the coat on the ground though - she'd obviously outrun it finally. She can't have had it on for long as it was only a couple of hours later I went back.

She was totally fine this morning, grazing as if nothing had happened. There's never a dull moment with the Coire herd.

Gerry, meanwhile, is improving well but is as weak as a kitten. He had a bath this morning and had to sit down for a bit to recover! He is keen to get back and see the herd again, not to mention his family.

The Ballindalloch llama girls are also doing really well. They had a delivery of a large lump of finest hay (the hay from the estate land is really beautiful), and they've been parked by it since then, for a couple of days!

They seem a bit lonely without their alpaca friends - they have been temporarily put into a smaller paddock too - but they will be reunited with them soon.

I am glad there have been some hard frosts so it should mean the normal large field has had a good clearout of bugs.

I must say, I really look forward to seeing the llamas every day. They are very gentle and knowing, even if they are a bit less easy to handle than the alpacas. But I like to think I am forming a good rapport with them, even Raspberry, who is more guanaco than llama! The vet and I certainly managed their jabs really well this time.

Flu and camelid news

2009-11-23T16:27:00.022Z

Things have not been the best on the flu front - Gerry has ended up in hospital in Glasgow with viral pneumonia.

He has not been well at all and has been on oxygen for over a week and now is being treated with the antiviral drug Relenza.

He is slightly better but I can see his recovery is going to be long and gradual.

I have not been able to go down to Glasgow as the kids both had flu and of course the alpacas needed tended. So it's been hard for me and I have had to temporarily move in with my parents to get some help with the domestic stuff.

The alpacas have thankfully been fine during this period. They had moved field just before we were struck with flu, so I've had to set up the field like it should be with its catch pen etc on my own.

I have been moving hurdles on the top of the car and trekking back and forth with other gear in the limited times I have between looking after the kids.

I have a few hurdles to move, as well as the alpaca easy pen, which makes husbandry easier for one person.

I will do that when I can.

Meanwhile the pacas and llamas are doing well. I took some photos the other day as I felt they looked reasonable enough to be viewed by the reading public!

The fibre is starting to grow back on the mite affected areas. Their noses are more or less recovered, but their ears and legs are taking longer and a few have large bald areas.

Ballindalloch llama Rose.

The paca herd waiting for their food!

Foundation girls Hayley, left, and Bella.

Choccie.

Rafa (aka Hummy).

Saligo, our male Groove cria.

Sidhe, our female Ashby cria.

Now swine flu

2009-11-17T09:42:00.004Z

Since my last post things have been chaotic as the whole family has come down with flu. At first we thought it was seasonal flu, but Sorcha, who is an incredibly healthy girl, was laid so low that did wonder about what we'd caught.

Then Finlay (our three year old who has underlying health problems) developed breathing difficulties and I decided to get him to hospital. We were locked in isolation for two days while they got swab test results back, which showed he had H1N1 or swine flu.

Finlay sometimes suffers from croup during a flu or cold bout, and needed some help with his breathing. It was a relief to be in a protected environment and he was given O2 and nebulised. His larynx was swollen but it did subside well and he was more comfortable.

Meanwhile at home, Gerry had developed the flu badly. I also had it all the while but had to carry on as the others needed nursed. Thankfully I have a strong immune system so I was least affected, but still, it's a nasty bug.

Gerry managed to check the pacas each day till I got out of hospital with Finlay. I had to decamp to my parents' so I could look after the kids and the pacas while he concentrated on getting better at home.

However, he has got steadily worse and developed a lung infection. He's in hospital now being looked after properly. I cannot visit as I am infectious so I am phoning to check on him regularly.

Meanwhile, on planet alpaca, the girls and crias have been fine throughout this trying period. I was happy to see them rolling in some earth yesterday and kicking their legs up.

I have had poo samples in the car for a week to be tested for emac, but I will have to get fresh ones when I am able as I don't know how viable those ones will be.

Last week, when I was feeling particularly rubbish, I had concerns about Morven's leg - she was limping - so I had to call the vet out.

We checked her over, and we concluded that she had some residual mite crust tucked deep into skin folds on her joints, which had become infected and was causing pain.

We sprayed her legs with Frontline and rubbed emollient 50/50 cream well into the crust, and that has really helped. She also got anti-inflammatory and long-acting antibiotic jabs. She's seemed better over the last few days.

On the flu front, Sorcha, Finlay and I are in the recovery phase - which itself is not pleasant as we feel unusually exhausted but a relief anyway. Gerry is more comfortable in hospital now and off his O2. I am not sure how long his recovery will be but we'll take each day as it comes.

Update on Skye

2009-11-07T17:34:00.004Z

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.

What to do? Another death

2009-11-07T12:06:00.006Z

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.

Finally, the frisky pacas move field

2009-11-06T18:48:00.004Z

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......

Sis n bro

2009-10-30T16:55:00.005Z

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

2009-10-30T15:55:00.006Z

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.

Cria!

2009-10-19T10:12:00.004+01:00

Tracey of Inca Alpacas has sent me some pictures of Dalriada, born recently to our Maya Gold at their farm in Dorset and half owned by Coire and Inca.

Maya is down there for three years having dark crias to their impressive line-up of stud males.

Sire this time is ATA Cambridge Centurion.

We're back, with news

2009-10-17T12:34:00.005+01:00

Hello everyone. I am back! Yes, I know, I didn't manage to stay away very long while contemplating our future.

I think we've calmed down a bit, and focusing closesly on the problem has helped us feel more positive about things.

Copper

The main news is that we had a postmortem done on Astra and it was found that she had died of copper (Cu) poisoning. Wow. We had thought we were in a Cu-deficient area, and we could be, but somehow she's taken in more than she could handle.

The obvious source is the feed, and we've done a bit of digging around and are having it tested by a lab to see how much Cu is actually in it. We had not been over supplementing, but following the instructions on the label.

After asking around, it seems that many feeds simply have too much Cu. I am not saying that ours does, but we'll see after the test results come back.

There is also the water, grass and hay to consider. Any of those could have elevated levels, so we're arranging for them all to be tested.

The other concern is the fence. It has preservative in it and I am worried Cu has been leaching out on to the grass, or that the pacas have been licking it. We'll get the grass under it tested too.

This discovery is a good thing (despite our awful losses); we will have a sound scientific basis for formulating our alpacas' intake to make sure they get just what they need. We'll not be relying on guesswork, but on actual data. I feel bad that we didn't get everything tested at the start, but we didn't think that Cu would be an issue for us.

We've withdrawn the pacas' hard feed and are giving them our own composition for the moment - alfalfa pellets, a little crushed oat and garlic flakes.

We've had another paca blood tested as a sample. It showed up slightly high Cu, but all the other nutrients seem to be at a good level. We are going to get the rest of the herd tested to see what the situation is - serum to get a snapshot of how things are now and whole blood to find out what's been happening over time.

We will possibly need to build back in some supplementation of the other vitamins, A-H, and the various minerals - selenium, manganese, zinc, copper, cobalt, iron, calcium, phosphorous, magnesium and so on - but we can do that by getting a custom supplement or feed (which will be tested first!)

I have, in my usual fashion, been bashing the keyboard to find out all I can about Cu. It's a hard one to get right - too little can easily be pushed over into too much by supplementing or drenching.

Too much over time is often fatal. In addition, Cu needs to be in a particular ratio with Molybdenum (Mo), and if that ratio is out, Cu poisoning can occur. So we need to think about lowering the Cu level and/or adjusting the Cu:Mo ratio, which ideally should be 6:1 to 10:1.

I have identified the foremost expert in this field, Dr Van Saur of the University of Pennsylvania. He has written lots about camelid nutrition and given seminars in the States and Australia.

He has written two excellent articles about the role of copper in nutrition which you can download:
http://vbs.psu.edu/ext/resources/pdf/small-ruminant/Copper-Nutrition-in-Camelids-Part-1-May08.pdf
http://vbs.psu.edu/ext/resources/pdf/small-ruminant/Copper-Nutrition-in-Camelids-Part-2-Jun08.pdf

*****I recommend everyone reads this before supplementing/drenching.*****

His list of publications is also available at
http://vbs.psu.edu/ext/dr.-van-sauns-extension-publications

It has also been suggested that I send details of our case to him for his analysis, which I will do soon.

Don't say I'm not thorough!!!! Acutally, I'd like to thank the many people on alpacasite who helped me out and provided me with excellent information and ideas.

We don't know if all our losses this year are due to the same problem; they may well be. But at lest we can now move forward and ensure the Cu issue is not a factor for us.

Mites

I also read that Cu is very important in immune function. So it could be that our girls were more susceptible to the effects of mites than they would normally be. Perhaps that's why we had such an explosion and such a dramatic response from them.

On that front, the herd has been treated twice with Cydectin for sarcoptes mites and sprayed with Frontline to kill chorioptes - yes, lucky us, we have both. The PM of Astra showed up sarcoptes, which was another surprise. We had been focusing on chorioptes as they were found on a scrape sample.

The Cydectin is working very well indeed and we have ditched Dectomax totally as it was doing nothing. So that's good news.

We also had a big scare with one of the lovely llamas we look after for the castle. Raspberry, the biggest, leggiest and most difficult to handle girl, damaged her leg somehow and was unable to stand - we thought she might not make it.

The vet was over - yet again - and gave her the works. The next day she managed to get up, albeit stiffly and shakily, and she's been gradually improving. She has also had a full mite treatment (not being able to move was a boon for us in doing this!) and is looking much happier.

Crias

Astra's cria, Skye, is doing really well. She has hooked up with Alba and her cria Sidhe and seems very calm and content. She is a little darling and looks more like Astra every day. She was taking some milk from us but the content has decreased and she seems to prefer solid food. She is doing fine on it - she's our biggest cria despite being the youngest. She had an ulcerated cornea too, but that is healing nicely. I will try and post some pics of her soon. We do so want her to grown into a lovely dam who has her own family group.

And finally, I should tell you, the reason we were so upset before was because our lovely little dark brown cria Sultana died. We don't know exactly why (perhaps Cu?), but she had pneumonia at the end. We didn't get a full PM done on her which we probably should have done. So we now have Sidhe, Saligo and Skye left - and all seem fine just now.

Poor little Sultana - I am so sorry you had to go.

Last post for a while

2009-10-07T10:34:00.003+01:00

I am sorry to say that this will be our last post for a while. Things are not going at all well and we just cannot face spreading bad news again and again.

We are taking stock of everything and deciding if we have a future in this business. It's not gone at all as we'd hoped this year.

I am sorry I can't be more specific, but I just can't bear it.

We will no doubt get back to you when we decide what we are going to do.

At the moment we need to get the herd back into shape whatever the outcome, so we are going to concentrate on that.

So it's farewell for the moment, folks.

Easy Pen success!

2009-10-04T18:30:00.005+01:00

We were over at the pacas putting up the Alpaca Easy Pen and trying it out on one or two animals. Note to selves: it is not a Llama Easy Pen! Raspberry managed to jump out of it.....

But it will be fantastic for the pacas - you can hold them in securely and just go ahead and jag or treat as you wish. It will make it much easier for us to do things on our own.

I did take the camera over but I forgot to take it into the field, so I will try to post some pics soon.

Gerry also did a bit of mucking out and clearing up and the usual feeding. The girls are now enjoying alfalfa and a little crushed oats for breakfast, their normal hard feed for dinner and the usual grass and hay in between times!

Shortly they are going to get some Yeo Valley yogurt, some apple cider vinegar and some crushed garlic, which I am told they love. Not all in the same mixture though - that might taste vile. Just a bit of each mixed into their feed over a few days.

Their eyes are improving after their antibiotic injections, but they are still a bit miserable. Here's hoping they pick up during the week as the antibiotics and Cydectin take effect. We will be continuing our Frontline spraying and cream application to dissolve any scabbing.

Second blog for the day

2009-10-02T22:02:00.005+01:00

Had a really positive treatment session of the herd today with the vet. We have decided to try Cydectin as an alternative to Dectomax as we've heard good reports about its efficacy. So that's what they all got today. Along with any antibios as needed.

Jagging the llamas is always entertaining especially big, scary Raspberry (ah she's a sweetheart really!) - Gaby the vet was a trooper and managed to inject them as they circled the inside of the shed with me trying to hang on to them as best as I could.

Preliminary post mortem results show Astra had sarcoptic mange, which we are a bit bummed about as we have been acting on the basis that they all had chorioptic (after we had a skin scrape done on one of them). So it seems that there might be various mite combos affecting different animals - a bit more complex than just chorioptic, then. There might be more to Astra's death but we don't know any more than that yet.

I have become Skye's scary new mummy. The one that jags her and squirts nasty chemicals on her and then offers her some nice milk! We are both adjusting to our new roles!

Gerry

Skye doing well, vet coming to check herd

2009-10-02T09:29:00.003+01:00

We are all still feeling horrible about Astra.

Her cria Skye, however, seems to be braving things well. She rejoined the herd easily, still looking and humming a bit for mum, but obviously really glad to see her aunties, little brother and the other crias. I think the time with mum helped her to accept what had happened.

She's been taking milk from us and grazing like there's no tomorrow - a great sign. She also eats pellets every day and some hay.

We're now worried about Kara, Astra's sister, as she has infected eyes due to mites. She has had antibiotics injected into the eyelids (ouch!) and is continuing to have eye drops, so we are keen to see how she is today.

We have also arranged for a visit by the vet today to check all the animals' eyes and skin, and to enable Gerry to Decto and Frontline them all.

The mites seem to be really concentrating on the area round the eyes just now and it's difficult to treat that bit, as obviously we don't want chemicals in the eye. Sadly, most of the herd's eyes are now affected to one degree or another.

The worst cases may need stitches like Bella had, which worked a treat.

So we hope this makes a difference.

The cold weather is making things more miserable for the girls. They do have a nice field shelter but it's not the same as a heated barn. We are thinking of ways to rig up some heat in the even colder weather.

I wondered about lining the shelter with insulating panels, so I will have to investigate that one.

Some days it really feels like we are alpaca farming on the frontier - it makes me wish we had a more industrial alpaca set-up and easy access to a university hospital facility. Oh well.

Astra has gone

2009-10-01T10:17:00.003+01:00

Astra and Rinnes

Astra and Skye

I am sitting here crying for the loss of Astra, one of our foundation Aussie girls. She has just slipped away in the trailer in the garden after a visit by the vet to put her to sleep. It was all we could do.

Her cria, Skye, is wrapped around her with her head on her body and is humming and keeping up the vigil that she started yesterday for her poor mum.

We found Astra on her back in the field yesterday unable to move. Skye was beside her, and very worried. We managed to get her into a cush position and she hummed weakly. We offered her some hard feed and she nibbled at it a little.

The vet came after a phone call and gave her IV glucose and fluids, as well as shots of steroids, vitamins, calcium and antibiotics. After that she perked up a bit and managed to eat her feed and was showing more interest in things.

She had become slightly hypothermic, so we loaded her into the trailer and brought her back to the garden with her cria, where we set up a heat lamp, placed hot water bottles in some hay and banked the hay up around her. I also put a jumper and fleecy coat over her. She ate some more.

Gerry checked her twice in the night and she was still alive but gradually deteriorating. We called the vet first thing and he felt she was past the point of hope. She was comatose and totally crashed. Skye was still wrapped round her and humming.

So, very sadly, we had to let her go.

She has given us three lovely crias: Ossian, Rinnes and Skye (as well as Suilven, her first, who died). The three Astra boys and girls are all beautiful with lovely fleeces. Skye is very like her mum and we really hope she can go on to become a great mum herself.

She is 3.5mths old, so we are giving her cow's milk from a bottle. She is taking it no trouble. I think she had not had milk for a few hours. She also eats grass, hay and hard feed, so I don't think she will struggle nutritionally.

I am so worried about her, though. I hope she manages to get back in with the herd and find comfort with her aunties and cousins.

Astra was the most patient and stoic mum - she got on with things with no trouble and was a quiet and easy girl to handle. She had a horrible jaw abscess last year and recovered really well from a tooth extraction.

I know it sounds silly but I would like to thank her for the lovely crias she has given us since we imported her from Australia five years ago. We will really miss her quiet presence in the herd.

Coire herd cheats death, Groove attacked - phew!

2009-09-22T18:45:00.006+01:00

Well, with a dramatic title like that I hope you are all slavering to hear more!

Yes, it has been a highly charged two days at Coire HQ. Last night an enormous tree snapped in half and crashed down into the field in the high winds we had for several hours.

By a stroke of luck none of alpaca girls or the Ballindalloch llamas was injured despite the tree falling right where they usually sit, round about the hay feeder.

I think they must have been in the shelter as it was so rough. I can only imagine how frightening it was for the poor things.

Here are the pictures we took today.

The llamas and Sorcha give an idea of the scale of the disaster!

To add to the drama, Groove has also suffered a horrible attack by fellow stud Ashby. He's had his entire ear ripped in half, and it was hanging in two bloody strips. Gerry got the vet out this morning, after cleaning and treating it himself late yesterday.

When he and the vet arrived at the field, the first thing they saw was the giant tree down, so they had to check underneath all the branches in case of casualties.

Gerry said his heart was in his mouth, but amazingly, considering our luck this year, no llama or alpaca was dead or even injured. We are so relieved that both our and the castle's animals are all fine.

The vet took an hour to clean Groove's wound, give him a local anaesthetic and stitch his ear carefully up the middle. She's made a fantastic job of it. Groove looks terrible, all spattered with blood and quite shaken up. But he will be fine, I think. He is a tough guy!

Ouch!

Ashby has been put in "prison" - into the loafing area with hay and water. Unfortunately he's not able to be with the other boys just now. He's been fine till recently, but he's become quite aggressive and macho!

Groove and Nevis are hanging out together - they get on famously well and are both very calm animals. Poor Nevis doesn't quite know what is going on. I hope he doesn't get the idea that fighting is an everyday occurrence.

Groove (behind) showing off his best side!

Groove and Nevis sharing their feed with two resident ducks.

Bella better, mites, matings

2009-09-11T18:53:00.005+01:00

Bella's eyes have healed amazingly well. You may recall that we had the vet put a stitch in each lower eyelid to pull the eyelashes out of her eye as they were scratching the corneas. This was due to thickening of the skin round her eyes by mite scab.

We managed to get her skin back to normal with Frontline and emollient cream, and the stitches held long enough for her eyes to heal, with the help of some antibiotic cream.

So she is looking much happier and much more "bella" than before. She is a lovely animal with beautiful conformation and a dense fleece. We got her as a substitute after one of our Aussie imports proved to be infertile. She had been imported by Alpacas of Wessex from Rural Allianza, and she had a lovely male cria at foot (I love that expression, cria at foot) when she arrived at ours. He has since grown into the gorgeous Coire Nevis, our in-training young stud boy.

The other fabulous thing is that Bella has become the most docile and easy to manage girl. She is a sheer joy to work with. She will stand for you and barely needs held - we only use the bracelet hold anyway - but one person can now hold her and check her eyes. Previously she was very nervous and stand-offish. I don't think she had been handled much in Peru or after import.

Thank you, thank you Camelidynamics and Marty McGee Bennett. For that one hold alone we are most grateful.

We are still battling with the mites, with mixed success. We've had yet more great advice from people but it seems many of us have been affected this year.

We are getting lots of the scab off which is making the herd more comfortable, but we need to do an intensive day of Frontlining to zap the critters.

We're just waiting for a new paddock to be fenced off in about a week's time, then we're going to blast them all.

Groove and Bella - she's resting her sore eyes, not completely asleep!

Meanwhile, we've been trying to get our matings finished. We've mated everyone except Iona (she lost her cria this year, Slioch). She is keen on the boys being around but just will not sit. She hangs around the fence and looks longingly at the studs but when it comes to the action she's not quite sure what to do. Poor Groove has been trying to ground her from all angles, gettting himself into a bit of a tangle!

Gerry has managed to strain a muscle in his neck/shoulder with all the manhandling he's had to do. We really hope all the matings have taken so we can get finished off for another year. We've had one spit so far and will spit the rest next week.

Oh, and how could I forget, our Alpaca Easy Pen is in the post! I will give you all a full report when it arrives.

Not quite ready for mating

2009-09-02T16:39:00.004+01:00

No comments for the last three posts - I could get paranoid! Is it because the males are just not as interesting as the females? Certainly there is less drama in matings than in crias being born! No worries.

Today we had a funny time of it - we decided to try and mate our two yearling girls, Roisin and Rafaela. We had lined up Ashby for Roisin (black + dk brown) and Groove for Rafa (lt fawn + white).

So we had them penned up and Roisin did sit, but then she got up and went back down awkwardly. She was clearly not ready, so we got Ashby out of pen and released her back to her mum and sister.

Roisin in April

Groove was let in with Rafa, but she started acting like a cria, clicking and humming for mum. She is quite a big girl, but she is psychologically still quite immature. He was not at all interested in her - obviously her behaviour was just not right to inspire a mating.

Rafa in May

So next we let him in with the experienced Astra, but I think his ardour had cooled by that point and he was not for having any action. He's been a very busy boy of late so I don't think a day off will harm him at all.

So we'll leave the yearlings till next spring.

Damn! It's the other guy blogging this time!

2009-09-01T22:52:00.003+01:00

Like Little Ern to Lucy's far funnier and more interesting Eric here I am with a meagre offering on today's goings on at Coire Central.

Day two of the great "stud male experiment" and all is going well.

Boys are doing great and getting along fine together. Even though the girls are just over the fence there's only been the odd spit and nothing worse between Groove and Ash. Mated Bella to Groove yesterday which went swimmingly.

Today we got cocky and mated Groove and Ash with a girl each at the same time. And what's more young Nevis (or Neville as we've started calling him - must be the Harry Potter book I'm reading Sorcha influencing me!) gave us a bit of a surprise.

We penned him with Kara while the boys were busy with their girls and he looked a little confused for a few minutes. We turned our backs to watch the boys and noticed a muffled sort of gargling noise from the pen.

Wouldn't you know it but Nev was sniffing Kara's back end, trying to orgle and climbing on to her back. What was even better was that Kara gave him a few definite spits! So she is most likely still pregnant.

Unfortunately the rest of the girls were busy grazing out in the field and couldn't be persuaded to come back in or Nev might have got his first mating - maybe tomorrow who knows!

So there we have it - big boys doing their thing, wee boy starting to get it together and the chance of another cria this year. Groan!!! After recent events why the hell am I pleased about this last one? You'd think I'd have had enough of those cute wee faces for one lifetime but hey ho!

The studs are in town

2009-08-31T18:02:00.006+01:00

EPC In the Groove (left), Coire Nevis and Ashby's back

Inca Ashby

Ashby and Nevis

Here they are, the Coire studs. They have settled in to their new paddock and seem very calm despite the proximity of lovely girls on the other side of the fence.

Groove mated Bella today (a repeat of the mating that produced Strathspey King this year, who died), so we're pleased that went well.

Groove, or Snoogums, as we've been calling him - Raelene of Mariah Hill who looked after him in quarantine told us he was called that by her daughter Elyse! - did the job brilliantly. He did try to ground Bella's front end but a bit of assistance sorted that one out.

Raelene, he's not much of a Snoogums now!

Sorry the pics are not very good - only Ash would put his ears up for the camera.

Bye bye yearlings, hello big boys

2009-08-30T17:22:00.006+01:00

We've had a productive day today. Lorna of Ardo arrived with the studs, Macusani, Groove and Ashby, and 2-year-old wannabe Nevis, who is in training.

Mac

Mac mated Selkie, who was moderately keen to sit. He was then loaded back in the trailer as he's going back to Ardo for a while. He was delighted with the work. He does so enjoy his job!

The other lads were locked into the girls' loafing area (minus girls!) while we penned Rowan the llama yearling and treated his mites with Frontline and some tar mixture. We also sprayed Rinnes the alpaca yearling and the two of them were loaded into Lorna's trailer - first time for both and much cajoling required!

Rinnes

Rinnes will go into the field with our other young males over at Ardo - Ossian, Calgacus and Tamdhu - and they will shortly go on to our sales list. Watch this space! Rowan will be kept on by Lorna and we hope she can use him for stud duties as he is a very fine boy indeed.

We are keeping Nevis just now, who is out of our Rural Allianza Bellissima and the legendary Rural Allianza Wiracocha of Wessex, to see how he makes it as a potential stud. He is an absolutely lovely looking boy, very like his dad Wira but also with a resemblance of mum.

After all the work - the above makes it sound very straightforward but of course it did not go quite that smoothly! - we retired to the castle coffee shop for a bowl of home made soup and a cake.

It is nice to know we have one in the bank, so to speak. OK that mating might not have taken first time, but it's a start. And already we're excited to think of next year's crop of crias! You can't put us down for long here at Coire HQ!!!

Hero-worship

2009-08-28T16:39:00.005+01:00

Amid this gloom I thought I would share a little story with you all about our top stud boy In the Groove.

He had a visit from four girls from another farm for matings and spit-offs, supervised by Lorna of Ardo Alpacas, where he is currently staying.

He's quite the gentleman, so we felt it was fine to leave him in the field with the females and one male cria while Lorna was away for a bit.

She did pen matings too, but he was hanging about a lot with the girls in between times.

Anyway, the time came for him to leave the paddock and go back in with the other boys. Lorna said the little cria was very upset that he was leaving - they'd bonded really well and there was more than a little hero-worshipping going on.

It just shows you, it's a pity really that the very young crias don't get the chance to have an older, fully mature stud male in the immediate surroundings. This wee one obviously loved it.

Don't get me wrong, of course I understand why this can't be the case, but I guess in nature the big boys would be hanging around all the time.

We are very proud of our boy anyway - he's really lovely to handle, and he has very nice crias to boot.

Yet more sad news but fighting back!

2009-08-27T15:52:00.004+01:00

Morven had her cria today but it (a white girl) was dead when Gerry found it. Wouldn't you know it?

She'd shown absolutely no signs of labour when Gerry was there late this morning, but the cria must have been born not long after that, as he was back after lunch to check her and to meet the vet and he came across the dead girl.

The cria was still mostly in her sac. It looked as if she'd either been dead when she hit the ground or had died very shortly after being born - the vet didn't think she had been dead for a long time in utero. Her nose and mouth were clear, so she had not suffocated in the membrane. The vet has taken her for a PM.

Meanwhile, we were highly concerned about Bella - the mum of Strathy, who died recently - as her eyes have become damaged. I was putting some antibiotic drops in them yesterday as they'd been a bit inflamed, when I noticed that her lower eyelashes had turned inwards due to the skin underneath the eyes being thickened by mite scarring.

The lashes had obviously been dragging up and down her eyes causing horrible scratching. I can only imagine how painful that must have been. I felt sick to my stomach for her during the night and couldn't stop worry about her being in pain and Morven's impending birth.

We'd rung the vet and she was coming out today to see to Bella's eyes. Thankfully the vet was able to put a stitch in each lower eyelid to pull back the lashes, and she said the eyes should heal well, despite how they look. I do hope she is right.

Bella is one of our best breeders, producing lovely crias, and from the Rural Allianza Plantel herd (she has a tattoo in her ear to prove it!).

So that is the difficult news. I do wish I had happier things to report.

We have been reconsidering our decision to remate our girls this year, and we've decided to go ahead and try to fight our bad luck this time. We'll get the stud boys over shortly and get things going. It will provide some interest for the girls, I am sure, and help us to feel like we are moving forward rather than backward. Our boys are in top health so they should be fine.

We're hoping to ship out Rinnes, our yearling male, and Rowan, the castle's yearling llama, and ship in the studs for a while till the girls are all (we hope) pregnant. The only thing is, it's going to be a long wait for the babies next year (yes, like you Jayne!). We've still to get the go-ahead for this move from all concerned so fingers crossed we'll manage.

We are determined to keep going despite this latest setback!

Update

2009-08-25T10:30:00.003+01:00

Well, Gerry has just checked the alpacas and you'll all be pleased to know that none has died in the night.

We all went to bed last night worrying, and poor Sorcha, who has taken these sudden deaths to heart, had a bit of a panic that she herself would be ok in the small hours.

She was in bed beside me and I assured her I would make sure she was alright, and Finlay, who I watch over every night in any case.

Gerry did not get much sleep either and I was up and down the stairs letting cats out and so on, so we're all a bit bleary-eyed today.

The four remaining crias seem fine - although I hesitate to write anything of that nature just now for fear of being proved wrong.

The thing that gets us is there was no period of these crias being obviously "down". It was so sudden that we feel a bit helpless and, to be honest, knocked in confidence.

However, having said that, the paca community, near and far, has been brilliant. We have had a thorough phone consult with the very experienced Tim Hey of Inca, and he's suggested quite a few things we can do to help with the crias and with the mites situation.

We are also most grateful to each and every one of you who has taken the time to phone, email or leave a comment on the blog or Facebook to help us. We genuinely appreciate it. We will take on board all of the suggestions and use them, as they were all excellent.

We had the vet out yesterday and she's drawn blood from the herd to check the girls' nutrient levels. The vets are also doing a PM on Slioch and sending samples away, so we should know more in a few days.

I have forgotten to mention, Strathy died of an infection of the pleural lining. It was caused by a bacterium that lives in young livestock, eg calves, and it had overwhelmed him. (I cannot recall its name and I don't have the report in front of me, but if anyone is interested I will blog it later.)

So that is the situation. Regarding the mites, we are gearing up for a spraying day and then immediately moving them on to new ground. We are just waiting for the new paddock to be fenced, which should not bee too long.

Another terrible blow - Slioch has died

2009-08-24T11:36:00.004+01:00

Things have got even worse. Slioch, born only a few days ago, has died suddenly. He was dead in the field this morning. We checked him yesterday and there were no outward signs of illness.

This is serious now. Do we accept it as another unlucky loss, or is there something worse going on? We've got the vet coming to do tests today. We are so worried about the whole herd now.

What to do? To be quite honest we are seriously considering giving up alpaca breeding. We need to get the mites away and then decide whether to sell the herd and studs or to continue.

We can't get away from the fact that we really need our animals to be outside our own window, but in several years of trying we've not been able to get land to buy or rent here. It is very frustrating indeed.

We've decided to give it till spring. We've decided not to rebreed the females this year as we don't want the studs affected by anything that might be wrong, or by the mites.

This represents a massive loss of income for us so we are not at all happy. It is make or break. The only option we have to make up that loss is to send In the Groove on tour in England next summer and try to generate some income to keep us going.

If it means break, our years of waiting and working towards our goal of having a happy breeding herd will be for nothing. And we don't have the first idea what we would do instead.

A rough spell

2009-08-23T17:53:00.004+01:00

Here at Coire we're feeling pretty down. I didn't know whether to blog this or not as we don't like to make our readers feel miserable or appear to moan, but we're not having the best of times at the moment.

The herd's mite problem has flared up really badly over the last couple of weeks. We think that the weather has not helped - it's been quite mild and damp for the past few weeks. Interestingly it seems to have got worse since the shearing, and we wondered if the mites had less problem travelling with less fleece in the way.

We have been treating the girls with Frontline to kill the mites, emollient cream for the scabs and aloe vera for any raw bits. However, the mites seem to be very resistant - and we can't help feeling sometimes that we are losing the battle. We're getting the vet over tomorrow to do further scrape tests incase we have any other mites in addition to the confirmed chorioptes ones, and to give the herd a thorough check.

We've also started applying pine tar mixed with emollient cream. We tried it on a llama girl and it had a good effect. So we've done two more of the pacas today.

It takes a while to apply and is horribly messy. It also uses up vast (expensive) quantities. I am not sure how good it is for the animals but the vet recommended it, so we're giving it a go.

We are really quite worried about the whole herd, as it seems to be affecting a lot of the girls now. Thankfully our young males and studs are fine as they are off-farm at Ardo Alpacas in Aberdeenshire.

We have not been able to move the herd on to fresh ground but we are hoping to be able to in the next few days as arrangements are being made for a new paddock.

The worst thing is the little blighters are affecting the area round the eyes, and some of the girls are finding it very uncomfortable. It's also not easy treating this area as you don't want to get chemicals in the eye, but I have been carefully dabbing on Frontline and some vaseline to loosen the skin.

This problem is bad enough but we've been feeling under the weather too, making things hard. Gerry has not been on top form, Finlay is very grumpy and a little off colour and I have had a persistent headache. Sorcha is fine though!

We have ordered an Alpaca Easy Pen from Marshwood Vale Alpacas - it makes doing treatments easy for one person. I sometimes cannot go to help Gerry as Finlay is ill, and it is very hard to do all the treatments on your own. It is arriving in mid-September. Can't wait to see it!

Yes, another white cria - Slioch

2009-08-13T18:23:00.006+01:00

We got a (very large!) white boy today, from maiden Iona. We were worried about how she'd take to mothering but she's been great so far.

She is very patient and, being such a strapping lass, didn't seem to have any problems with the birth.

I think she was a bit surprised at what had just come out of her, but over the next few hours she settled down well and Slioch was feeding eagerly when we went to check on them after lunch.

He is named after a famous mountain in Wester Ross. Slioch means "the spear".

Anyway, here are some pictures:

With Skye and Saligo (Sidhe hidden behind)

Meanwhile, little Sultana is doing really well - she is a real live wire. She's been butting Slioch trying to get him to move already! Poor wee guy doesn't know what he's in for.

Coire Alpacas on Facebook

2009-08-11T10:20:00.003+01:00

Facebook users can now find our Facebook page here.

Please drop by and look at our photos or become a fan to keep up to date with the latest goings on here at Coire HQ!

Here she is - Coire Sultana

2009-08-04T20:38:00.003+01:00

Our latest little darling, Sultana!

She came right up to inspect me. She looks quite like her dad, solid black Ashby.

Checking out the feed... no, I prefer mummy milk!

With mum, Choccie, and cousin Rinnes in the field behind.

We love her unusual colour - she is dark brown at the roots but sort of smoky.

A new cria

2009-08-02T18:37:00.003+01:00

Today of all days, amid the gloom of losing Strathy, a little female cria has arrived.

We were over checking the herd and there she was, kushed by the fence.

Mum is Chocolate Gold, our medium brown foundation female and dad is Inca Ashby (that's three girls from three for him).

She is to be called Sultana (by order of Sorcha). She is either very, very dark brown or black, we are not totally sure. Time will tell. She is gorgeous and has been feeding from Choccie very enthusiastically.

But as you can imagine we feel strange - very happy about Sultana but still there's that horrible feeling in the pit of our stomachs. And, naturally, we are worried about this new one.

I didn't take the camera over this pm, but a visitor to the castle had taken some pictures and said he'd email them to me on Monday. So I hope to put them up soon.

Fingers crossed for this wee girl.

Absolutely devastating news

2009-08-02T10:44:00.006+01:00

Strathy (right) and bother Saligo

We are in total shock here - our robust and absolutely stunning cria Strathspey King has died suddenly.

We have no earthly idea what has happened so Gerry is taking him to the vets for a PM.

I cannot believe how bad we've had it over the past few weeks.

I looked at his fleece two days ago and Gerry and I agreed it was the most advanced of any of our alpacas'. Added to that, he had beautiful conformation and a macho attitude. We had very high hopes for him.

I don't know what else to say or do. I'm wondering if we'll have any success this year at all. And I'm wondering why we shouldn't just sell them all off and do something less heartbreaking and disappointing.

No, not a drowned rat, a drowning bat!

2009-07-30T20:29:00.005+01:00

Not much to say today, but we saved the life of a tiny bat that was drowning in the water trough. I scooped it out and put it on the fence rail, and within a minute or so it had dried out and was off!

And the other thing to say is damned chorioptic mites! I hate the wee things. We did a blast of treatment today and will keep going as long as it takes.

Still waiting for crias.....

Oh, one final thing. Can you see the little visitor counter top right of the blog? It lets us see who is visiting and all sorts of things like the page you came from and where you are in the world. I am amazed to see that we have visitors from all around the globe! We are very touched to be read by others interested in alpacas and our little operation here.

So, we'd just like to say you are all most welcome and we hope you return.

Waiting - please hold on girls!

2009-07-25T13:54:00.004+01:00

We're having a nervous wait here at Coire HQ with four pacas and two llamas looking ready to drop any day.

We are really hoping they hold on at least another week so the crias are not premature after our last experience. And of course that the weather is less rainy than it has been.

Poor Chocolate Gold (paca, mated to Ashby) is having a bit of trouble when she strains at the poo pile - it looks like she has a slight prolapse, which rights itself once she's done her business. I have read that this can happen and is not itself something major to worry about (on Alpacasite), so I hope that is true! She is a great mum and has had no major problems birthing her last four crias.

Morven's tummy!

Morven (paca, mated to Macusani) lost her first cria last year (Rob Roy), after a very long tiring labour, so we are crossing all our fingers for a good outcome for her this time. She is huge and it looks like her skin could split any second. She is spitting at all the crias and is generally miserable.

Iona (paca, mated to Groove) is a two-year-old maiden, so of course we worry about how she will take to motherhood. The other two maidens, Alba and Selkie, who have had crias this year have been brilliant.

The final paca is Morven's mum Kara (also mated to Groove), who was mated last. She is an experienced mum and has had four cracking ciras since we imported her. She is very laid back and usually has no problems birthing.

Rose - it's my food!

Then we have Rose (llama, mated to Ardo Acchiles), who gave birth to the lovely Rowan last year and is a very cool, confident mama.

And completing the line-up is the slightly flighty Raspberry (llama, also mated to Acchiles), who is an unknown quantity, never having had a cria with us before. We don't know if she's a maiden or not, so we are not sure what to expect.

We'll keep you posted!

The alpaca learning curve

2009-07-20T11:09:00.008+01:00

When something horrible happens I always feel hopeless at first then I get this strong drive to act to try to avoid the same problem in the future.

So it has been following the death of Stroma, our lovely little cria. She is now gone and there's no turning the clock back, but there is much we can do to help future premies.

We are getting some frozen plasma sent up to us from Inca Alpaca. I am currently trying to get a carrier to take a dry ice package. Plasma really needs packed in dry ice for the long run northwards. I have been speaking to breeders on the brilliant Yahoo group Alpacasite, and they regularly get theirs sent across the States this way. FedEx can't to it within the UK, so if anyone knows of an alternative carrier please let me know!

We are also investigating the idea of getting our own plasma spun and creating a bit of a plasma bank up here in the frozen north.

I've also mugged up on tubing as I have never done this. There is an excellent video of this on You Tube which I recommend to anyone wishing to learn on their own.

I've also discovered a great tip, also via Alpacasite - the use of calcium paste to kick start a labour that has gone on for a long time and where the dam has stopped contracting. The calcium must be in a form that is absorbed quickly through the buccal membrane (mouth tissues).

I won't go into the chemical process in the body but basically it can be a total lifesaver. Calcium is given IV to calving dairy cows that suffer from hypocalcemia, which causes labour to stop and the cow to drop or even die. We have some waiting for us at the vet's.

I have also assembled a formidable array of items for our birthing kit. Not that we didn't have most of the essentials, but now we have most things covered!

Most usefully, I have talked to a number of breeders and vets, and all have been happy to pass on their ideas, which will be of great use to us in the future.

I am sharing these things with you in case they are of any use. I know lots of readers will already know some or all of these things but I am keen to help avoid another sad cria death if at all possible.

Other news..... We had a surprise arrival yesterday - out of the bushes came our big fat Marans hen Bluey and three chicks! I stumbled over them, quite literally, when I went out to collect eggs.

A little yellow one first, then a blue and a black. All gorgeous. They were unceremoniously plonked into a bucket and mum was shooed into the broody run, which I quickly reconstructed after the last brood.

The chicks were let out and Sorcha ran off to fill a chick waterer. I had to grind down some layers pellets, oatmeal and breadcrumbs as we didn't have any chick crumb. It seemed to go down a treat! Today we got some real chick crumb. Mum and babies are doing really well.

Sad news

2009-07-16T10:28:00.011+01:00

We are very sad to report that our little premie died during the night.

She had been feeding well late last night and really seemed to be getting stronger.

We have no idea what went wrong, and as we are not near any camelid medical facilities we'll just have to leave it at that.

Of course we are going through all the "what-ifs" and thinking of all the things that might have been done if we lived closer to a vet hospital. The guilt is horrible but we really did all we could under the circumstances.

I have had to take down the last post as we are too sad to see her up and about with Hayley.

I didn't say this before while the cria was alive, but I sensed a sadness within Hayley. I can't put my finger on it, but I think she knew it was not to be. She did her job well but it was as if her heart was not in it.

That's all I can think of saying just now, except that we hope little Stroma has a peaceful sleep. She brightened our lives with her brief presence.

An early arrival

2009-07-14T08:20:00.004+01:00

When Sorcha, Finlay and I arrived to do the afternoon check and feed yesterday, Sorcha shouted over to me, "Hayley's had a cria. It's sitting in the shed!"

I honestly thought she was joking as Hayley was only 311 days and all our other girls have gone over 365 this year.

But there it was, a tiny little white scap kushed in the muddy entrance to the shed beside its own placenta, under the watchful eye of two llamas.

Gerry arrived after a phone call as I had my hands full and he cleaned up the litte girl and rubbed her dry before putting a coat on her.

We were worried as she seemed weak and unable or unwilling to stand up. We made sure she was ok and went for a coffee.

When we got back there had been no change, but the cria seemed fairly bright. Gerry went back a little while later and she had fallen over, so we gave her some colostrum and penned her into another clean shed with her mum and an auntie.

We were very keen that she was not separated from mum. Hayley herself seemed a little disinterested. I think she was very tired and hungry and taking a while to recover.

Gerry went back a couple of hours later and the cria had perked up a lot but still could not stand. However, her ears were up and she seemed not to be going downhill. He managed to give her more colostrum and left again.

When he visited once more at 4am, the cria was stronger and he was able to manoeuvre mum to a standing position and guide the cria to her udder. She fed!

We were so relieved. None of us has slept much with the worry.

Gerry is going to repeat the above today for as long as it takes for her to become able to feed from mum herself.

I will keep you all posted. No name yet till we see she is ok.

Alpacas and crias by Sorcha

2009-07-10T13:03:00.006+01:00

L-R: Amparo Chocolate Gold, Amiryck Coco, Amiryck Cinnamon and Coire Roisin

Sorcha loves brown alpacas and these are her favourites, she tells me! She is hoping to breed a fine brown herd when she is older. I am sorry, Amiryck, but she is hoping to take ownership of your lovely Cinnie (I know, no chance!). She was moved to do a collage of them anyway!

Barnacre Kate, Patou Priscilla and their crias, Barnacre Star and Patou Minnie

She also did a picture of the two new crias with pretty face markings on the blog circuit. She's quite taken with the similarity of those two!

If your herd has not featured yet, don't worry, I'm sure she'll cover it soon!

Alien stick-insects

2009-07-06T12:50:00.002+01:00

The herd seems to have recovered from its scalping and yesterday were seen enjoying a roll and generally frisking about like young things.

We are taking a while to get used to them - funny how that happens!

Strange alien creatures have landed!

Rinnes - is that really you? We didn't realise how fawn he was or how studly he was!

We still look normal... Strathy, Saligo and Skye

Magenta divine!

Shearing time!

2009-07-05T09:25:00.011+01:00

Yesterday was a big day for us - the llama boys left for their new home and our alpaca herd was sheared by James Dixon and his assistant Marlon.

Everything went well with the llamas - Lorna arrived and haltered them and she and her helpers, her partner Sandy and their neighbours, led them down the field for the last time towards the lorry where they were safely loaded on for the 50-mile journey.

Lorna said they were going to get a walk around when they arrived at Ardo Alpacas and then allowed to settle in to their new field and surroundings.

We wish them well!

Bertie and Dassett are led from the field to board the lorry

Meanwhile, our shearing had started and James had already got cracking on our foundation girls, which are easy to identify by their orange ear tags.

After the llamas had gone we turned our attention to helping, but to be honest, James and Marlon were so efficient we were really a bit redundant!

Wow, so skilled and efficient!

Roisin checks things out while Rafaela is sheared and Selkie recovers. Little does she realise....

Roisin emerges from her fleece

and teeth trimming..... bet she didn't expect that!

The audience, Saligo and Sidhe - it'll be you next year guys!

However, we did have some samples to be taken and bagged for the GIFT fibre tests. These need to be taken from three points on the alpaca so we had to be on alert to collect those and bag them in the right order. It will be very interesting to get those results.

We had some ear tags to put in too, and both Gerry and I did some of those as we'd sort of been avoiding that job - it was fine. We can identify all the animals easily now but we know them all by name anyway. I guess it'll be easier if someone else like James is handling them in the future.

It's funny to see how the alpacas react to shearing. Some fight tooth and nail, while some lie back resigned - or maybe they remember how nice it feels afterwards?

After the shearer has done his job the feisty ones often spring up and and run back to the herd, but sometimes they can be more tentative, wavering a little as they get used to their lighter bodies!

All the nails were clipped and some teeth ground, so they really got a full service. I am sure they feel fantastic afterwards.

They headed out of the loafing pen and ran around for a while, rolling about on the grass and behaving as if they were crias.

Weyhey, this feels great!

Did I mention it was hooooooot - very confusing for the Australians who probably think Scotland is a cold damp place. I think they liked the surroundings though - the castle and scenery.

Bye bye boys

2009-06-29T20:36:00.004+01:00

We have found a buyer for our four llama geldings - and we've not had to go too far to locate her!

It is Lorna of Ardo Alpacas in Aberdeenshire, where our young males and studs are currently residing.

She is coming to take them away on Saturday. No doubt it will be a sad occasion for us as our plans have not worked out, but we are happy that Lorna will be able to trek them on her own land and in the lovely surrounding countryside.

Then in the afternoon it will be shearing time for the main alpaca herd with Aussie shearer James Dixon and hiss assistant. By all accounts they do a top-notch job, so we look forward to it. Fingers crossed that the weather will be dry.

Talking of boys - the young guys are coming along well. Here are Groove sons Saligo and Strathy taken on Sunday.

Llama news and cria pics

2009-06-21T16:54:00.004+01:00

We are sad to report that we have decided, after thinking long and hard, to sell our four llama geldings, the ones we bought for trekking.

We've not been able to launch the business as we'd intended mainly because Finlay's condition has meant we've been too tied up.

We are also finding that we are very busy with the alpacas, and it is hard just keeping up with them and day-to-day living!

We will still be looking after the Ballindalloch llamas, including Rowan, who we will halter train so we can walk with him and a companion in the future.

Rowan

We were over at the castle today for a father's day cup of tea and cake in the lovely coffee shop, so we took some snaps of the alpaca crias in the sun. I managed to get a better shot of the latest one, Skye.

Skye, daughter of Astra and Groove

Strathy and Saligo lurking in the shed - but not for long!

Coire Skye

2009-06-18T19:09:00.009+01:00

I'm sorry to be predictable but Astra, one of our Aussie foundation girls, unpacked a gorgeous strapping female white cria today, Coire Skye.

She is adorable. Another Groove girl and solidly put together. She is the biggest cria of the year.

Skye with mum Astra

Skye is doing well. Astra is very efficient at the mumming business, having had several crias - all boys till now! We are very happy she'll have a daughter buddy in the herd.

She's been bobbing about with Sidhe and the two male crias, despite her newness. She is going to be a character, I can tell!

Sidhe - her ear is uncurling now

Selkie and Saligo

Meanwhile, last year's female crias are looking lovely. They are very keen on the new crias and look very mature in comparison.

Here are Roisin and Rafaela competing to be King of the Hill. That little mound seems to have great importance to the alpacas.

And finally, a short film of Strathy and Saligo (Strathy is the bigger one) with Saligo's mum, Selkie.

Another cria

2009-06-13T18:21:00.004+01:00

Our third cria of the season, another white boy, was born yesterday around 9am.

Coire Saligo, as we've called him, is doing well after seeming to take all day to feed - I think he was doing it when we were having our breaks, a bit like those pandas in the KitKat ad that performed as soon as the cameraman went off for his cuppa and chocolate biscuit!

He was finally seen feeding like a champ after tea, so no problem there. It is unbelievably easy to intervene, but I am so glad we left him and mum Selkie (a maiden) to it. Of course we would have stepped in if he'd not been acting very brightly.

Selkie is keeping him all to herself away from the herd. The other two mums are not at all bothered about their crias surfing round for friends all the time.

Our other two crias, Strathy and Sidhe, are doing well. Srathy is almost four weeks and is massive and very precocious. Sidhe is enjoying dustbathing and frollicking round like a mad wee thing. She is petite but strong.

Looks like Saligo will be a strong one too - he's a half brother of Srathy and they have Groove as their dad.

Some pics:

Saligo and Selkie

Sidhe

Strathy and Bella

Coire Sidhe is born

2009-06-07T18:12:00.005+01:00

A beautiful white female cria, Sidhe ("Shee"), joined the Coire herd today.

She was already up and about when Gerry got there for the morning check, so we think she'd unpacked fairly early. It was quite chilly this morning, but she was fine. She was soon spotted having milk from her patient maiden mum, Alba.

What a relief it must have been for poor Alba, who was like the side of a house. The gestation was a longish one at 363 days. Sidhe is medium-sized and has a bent ear, but we hope that will soon come up. Dad is Inca Ashby, a solid black - Gerry's attempt at putting some more colour into the herd did not quite come off!!!

Smile!

Three-week-old Strathy sniffs the newcomer

It was interesting to see the Kara clan all round Sidhe - Alba is Kara's second daughter, and her other daughters were all lending some support.

Mum Alba (Kara's 06 cria), Granny Kara (sniffing Sidhe), Auntie Rafaela (Kara's 08 cria) and in the background Auntie Morven (Kara's 05 cria). A great line of girls!

Fibre testing

2009-06-02T12:22:00.002+01:00

I have not been able to blog for a few days because of our ongoing pregnant mum patrols - no more crias yet - and various other things going on.

Today I have been researching fibre testing and we've decided to try the GIFT testing offered by Australian Alpaca Fibre Testing.

I will not write at length about it because I don't want to reinvent the wheel, so if you're interested you can watch Mariah Hill's video below or visit the AAFT site.

(I think this is part 1 not part 2 as it says. Part 2 has not been posted on youtube yet.)

I am excited to see our alpacas' test results and the recommendations for our breeding plan.

Paul Vallely, the owner of AAFT, says the senior technician working on the fibre is Scottish, so our samples will surely be in safe hands!!

Mites.... again

2009-05-24T17:34:00.002+01:00

Poor Kara has had another flare-up of mites and is not happy at all. This time they've affected the area round her eyes and she is having terrible trouble keeping them open.

We got the vet out yesterday and she has given her some eye drops and an anti-inflammatory jab to make her more comfortable.

I have taken it upon myself to throw the book at this problem. Firstly, I have looked back over results of a scrape test done by the vet and it confirms that she has chorioptic mites.

What a learning curve I have been on. I have posted on alpacasite - the excellent yahoo group with American and international breeders and vets on board.

I got some very helpful replies from people, and someone even faxed me a relevant article that had just been published in Alpacas Magazine, the American breed society publication.

It was written by mite gurus Dr Ed and Dr Ruthanne McCaslin, who have done a trial on their farm at their own expense to try and deal with these pesky critters. The mites are a huge problem in the US at the moment and are often misdiagnosed as Ivermectin resistant sarcoptic mites (which have slightly longer legs).

Chorioptic mites do not respond to injection of Dectomax, which is what we've been doing for the last few months.

The upshot of it is that we are starting a new treatment regime, which is basically spraying or dabbing with Frontline spray - the same stuff used to zap ticks and fleas on cats and dogs. It kills chorioptic mites, and done properly there is hope for a mite-free outcome.

It is important to treat the whole herd - these mites live on the feet and legs of healthy animals in the same herd. Each one has to have his or her legs sprayed from the knee down.

And all herd equipment must be cleaned with 99% alcohol or Frontline itself.

So here goes - let's hope it works, as it will be rather expensive. But we just want our Kara back to the fine animal that she is.

If anyone wants a copy of the excellent article, I have it and can email it. Just let me know!

I have been overwhelmed by the support from our cousins over the pond. The alpaca community does not let us down!

Meanwhile, little Strathy is doing brilliantly - feeding well, growing visibly and bouncing around. He has a beard already! He is a character at five days old and looking very strong like his Daddy, Groove.

Here he is - at last!

2009-05-20T12:21:00.005+01:00

Our latest addition, a wee white mannie, was born yesterday to our Altiplano foundation girl, Rural Alianza Bellissima (Bella).

He was quite big - so he should be with all that cooking time, 378 days!

Coire Strathspey King was born before we got to the field and was still shaky and wet but up on his feet and being nosed by all and sundry.

We penned mum and baby off to do all the checks and get a coat on him, and then they were kept in the shed area for some bonding, along with Alba. She's due any day and is a maiden so it's good practice for her! She is quite protective of the wee guy so maybe she's getting the idea.

Strathy has taken to feeding like a pro. Bella is an experienced and very serene mother. I checked her udder over quickly - I really do not like to interfere with nature - and all is well. Lovely and warm with milk coming down.

He's our Groove's 12th cria, and so far all or most have taken on the colour of their dam. How considerate of him!

I'm aware I've gone on a bit and I know it's just one more birth, but it's our first cria born under our own care, so for us it was highly exciting.

OK, here's the pics:

Last night, with two coats on, looking totally drookit

And this morning, it's sunny - out to meet the herd

Rose the matriarch llama has a sniff

Roisin considers the new arrival - last year's crias are very interested

Here I am!

We hope he has a bright future ahead of him. Gerry fancies he looks just like his Daddy already!

When I went to collect the placenta, I could see the damp spot where Bella had chosen to birth him, under some protective branches between two large old trees. What a lovely place to start out in life.....

ps, Gerry insists I say please excuse the purple leg - he went a bit squint with the navel spray.

Paca podcast

2009-05-16T13:43:00.007+01:00

Paca Talk is a podcast by alpaca people, for alpaca people.
We are Charles and Maren Anderson of Evergreen Terrace Farms, and it feels natural for us to have an alpaca podcast. We like to talk about alpacas, and we like to talk to people who like to talk about alpacas.

I came across a paca podcast today - thought it might be of interest, particularly episode 8, which includes an interview with Dr Norm Evans.
http://www.pacatalk.com/2009/05/paca-talk-8-interview-with-dr-norm-evans/

You can also find it on iTunes by searching for "alpcaca podcasts".