s e v e n i s a j o u r n e y

I don’t know if it is a good or bad sign, but about 3 months ago I got roped into my first committee, and am now a member of the health and education subcommittee of the Alpaca Association.

On Tuesday Jeanette, the head of our little group, flew down from the far north to meet with me and review over a small stack of census forms that were sent out to the monitor farms a few months ago. She wanted my help with data compilation and analysis (me being a PhD-type that does it professionally and stuff). Now I have to get my results written up in the next few days, and put together a 1-2 page condensed census form that will be handed out at the national meeting in 10 days. Woo.

Yesterday morning before her flight I took Jeanette out to see our ‘paca and get her impressions (since she has been doing this for years, and has been involved in the selection and importation of animals from Australia and Peru). While there we noticed Concetta was feeling a bit crook- something we noticed when we wnt to grab her and she didn’t try to get away. Her milk production was also down, and the cria was a bit thin. So I had the vet come out that afternoon to take a blood sample and give her a shot of B-vitamines, and I will be giving her some calcium supplements this afternoon to try and perk her back up (it may simply be a calcium deficiency during lactation). We will keep you posted.

Jeanette thinks that Boo and Victoria are probably pregnant, and that Victoria will drop first, possibly quite soon. She also let us know that older Chilean girls have been known to go 13 months before giving birth! The vet also thought the two are probably pregnant. We continue to watch and wait. At this point we are late enough into the season, with winter starting in only 2 weeks, that we will wait until the spring to get them all remated.