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

Persil’s new boy:

And the first cria from Hyouki, too !

First, we’ve started shearing. No matter how long we’ve been doing this, it always seems to be a surprise how skinny they are under all that fluff. Especially the little ones, who are now all ears and necks and legs:

Before:

After:

One of these things is not like the others…

Plus there’s the “They grow up so fast” factor. Who’d have thought our ugly ducking:

…would turn out so pretty ?

Second, Joy has finally given us a girl ! Meet Tahoma:

It cracks us up, but the little girls like to play dollies with the new baby. This is Gandiva, as far as we can tell, pretending to be Tahoma’s mommy. She came up to Tahoma, sniffed her, sat down next to her, then carefully defended her from the other little girls if they got too close, just like Joy does.

It is very important that ins and outs are kept separate.

On Tuesday the 15th California Girl, one of the agisted animals, dropped a stillborn cria about 10 weeks early. I might not have noticed with the girls on the back hill, but she was separated from the herd, and staying in one spot. When I climbed up to investigate, I found the dead premie. I did my own PM, and the cause was pretty conclusive. There was a 2 cm hole in the right side of the abdominal cavity with intestines poking out. Poor wee girl probably died in the womb a few weeks earlier, then the mum finally aborted. Nothing could be done, congenital defect.

Today Victoria had her cria at 326 days- a little grey boy. But it was immediately apparent there was something seriously wrong. At first glance it looked like a serious hernia out his umbilicus, with what looked like a little sack full of guts. He was otherwise good sized and quite vigorous. I rushed him to Julia (the vet). There we determined he had large and small intestine, plus a pancreas, which had all developed externally. There were adhesions, and signs that there were probably serious mis-connections internally. Congenital defect, nothing that could be done (barring radical surgery).

He was euthanized, and died almost exactly an hour after he had been born. Poor wee bub. At least he did not suffer.

Hopefully we have now front-end-loaded all our bad luck before the birthing season really commences. And I really hope from here on out everyone keeps there insides and outsides in the right places. (And if anyone is morbidly curious, I do have photos of both cases.)

Five and a half years ago we bought our first three alpaca; Oak, Chris and Pointer. Chris died of liver failure only 8 months later, a sad and somewhat traumatic introduction to owning camelids! But we had lots of fun with Oak and Pointer, taking them on walks all over the place (up and down the valley, beach walks, forest walks, into town).

But for the last few years we have not done much with them. As numbers grew we found that all our time was taken up taking other alpaca (and now llamas) out for walks. Oak and pointer were consigned to living on the back hill with the main boy-mob, and while I saw/checked them daily, interaction was minimal. We were actually thinking of selling them along with the next batch of pet boys. It would be wonderful to see them go to people who would have a small herd, and have the time to put into them- taking them out for walks again.

Then Oak started to have joint problems. We first noticed in January, but thought it was just a sprain. Then it started getting worse. I noticed he was spending more time kushed than any other ember of his mob. When we brought them in a month ago it was heartbreaking. He could barely walk (jumping the stream coming off the back hill made him collapse). He had lost 10 kg in just a month, probably due to the pain and the inability to stand and graze enough. We kept him and Pointer in the paddock next to the house. He got his AD&E jab along with everyone else. I started talking to the vet, as in that state we would probably have to have him put down soon.

But the vet is always flat-out busy, so she did not get a chance to come out and see him immediately (as this was a progressive disorder, it was not an emergency). And over those weeks, he stopped getting worse, and maybe, just maybe, he was a bit better.

Talking about this on various forums, a vet & alpaca breeder in Australia suggested it might be Rickets (hypophosphatemia). We wondered how this could be, as he first started showing symptoms in summer after he had been shorn- the time when he should be getting the most VitD from the UV of our powerful southern sun. Her thought was that his massive obesity might be playing a role- all the fat-soluble VitD is partitioning into his adipose tissue, leaving the serum level too low. So we started treating him- more VitD (being careful not to overdose, we are giving low-dose weekly injections), plus some phosphate supplement injections.

He is still not right, but he is not as bad as he was. I don’t know if he will make a full recovery or not, but it is nice to see him up and grazing more (and hopefully not is so much pain anymore, with camelids being so damn stoic, it is really hard to tell). We will weigh him again this weekend.

But having Oak and Pointer down by the house, and interacting with them every day, has been a joy. Pointer is an amazingly groovy dude. Sure, he is really pugnacious to other alpaca (as neighbors who hear his frequent “fight! Fight! FIGHT!” screaming can attest), but he will let me walk right up to him in the paddock, rub his neck, and give him a hug. He doesn’t step away if you rub his neck from across the fence. That is really quite rare/unusual in a camelid. I am hoping Oak’s legs improve to the point where we can take them on fun walks again. They both enjoy the adventures, and it is fun to rediscover old friends that have been neglected too long.

Back in Boston, the standard “winter mix” — in the context of weather, that is — is a meteorological salad of rain, snow and sleet. Yum. Except in Boston, it doesn’t usually come screaming in sideways at gale force.

The first Monday in June is celebrated as “Queen’s Birthday” here, and you get the day off (unless you work in certain retail establishments of course) — a nice mini-holiday. Well, except for the weather. We spent our weekend making sure the alpacas were situated for the exceptionally crummy weather Sunday and Monday (especially Sunday). Basically, that meant making sure everyone was in a paddock with a suitably sheltered gully to keep out of the wind, and making sure they all had plenty of hay to eat to keep warm (digesting hay warms them up). We didn’t stuff everyone in the shed this year, because the shed is full of hay.

There was enough room in there, however, for the two new mothers that we’re looking after for our suri breeder friend while she’s in the US.

Becky dropped a little brown girl on Tuesday — we’d had pretty much two weeks straight of horrible weather, and Tuesday was ever-so-slightly-less-sucky, so she decided it would have to do. Both the little girl’s ears were folded back over her head when she was born (kind like Nabaztag’s, only both of them), and although they’ve straightened out a little bit, they still curl in like horns, so we’ve been referring to her as “Devil Girl” until she gets a proper name:

Pebbles, the giraffe-spotted suri female we looked after last year is back again. She held out until Saturday to drop a wee little 6.5 kilo boy, right before the nasty nasty storm, naturally.

Even in the shed, with two covers on and two-hourly warm bottles, he was having trouble with the cold, so we built an alpaca hovel in the back corner of the shed, so we could have a space small enough to heat with the oil column heater from the guest room. It looks like a homeless shelter, if the homeless had access to a pile of horse covers (thanks, Yvonne !).

It did the trick, though. We had all four of them in there all day Monday and overnight, and 24 hours not having to fight the cold with his limited resources really let little Pip (actual name pending) get his feet under him. Literally as well as figuratively. When we build the barn, we’re planning to have a special heatable pen/stall for just this sort of situation. Until then, they’re stuck with the shanty.

The first weekend in May ended up being double booked. So while Tam went off to the SCA Crown Tourney (where the best warriors in the land to see who will be the next King of Australia and New Zealand), I was off to Christchurch for the Llama Association AGM (annual general meeting).

I know Tam had fun at Crown Tourney. I know Martin came within a whisker of winning (which makes me feel better that I have a hard time beating him at fight practice since he is one of the best in Australasia). But I will leave it to Tam to tell any details.

I was down at Llama Lookout (http://www.llama.co.nz/), a place with million dollar views, about 45 very-friendly llamas, and some very friendly hosts. I gave a talk titled “science worms, and poo”. There was a great demonstration from Keith about packing/treking with your llamas, where he talked about what physiology was best suited for pack llamas, and how to fit a pack safely and comfortably. Good stuff. There was also some llama fiber-fashion on display that could rival any alpaca-based product I have seen (while there are not as many fiber llamas as alpacas, very good llama fiber is equivalent to very good alpaca fiber).

I was nice to meet lots of llama enthusiasts. I also expanded our network of friends around the country- I don’t expect we will need to book hotels that often any more- as we get to know more and more friendly breeders the offers for accommodation keep stacking up. Very cool!

Our new black (actually very dark brown) stud male from Australia:

We’re assuming the previous owners spelled the name, er, differently to make it stand out in the database. Like naming your kid Wylliam or Sherrin.

What do you get when you cross a dark vicuña-patterned fawn with a blue-eyed white ? Well, if it’s Fred and Minty, apparently the answer (this time around anyway) is a tuxedo-patterned gray. And this one’s a girl ! Go Minty !

We went to the Central District Field Days on Friday. We took the new ute up, so we could pick up our new alpaca shearing table. The one we had ordered arrived a couple days prior, but someone in Rotorua put a forklift through it, so we arranged to pick up a replacement, since the folks who make them were going to be at the show.

Also got a pair of binoculars, some socks, a new hat, an oilcan for the shearing handpiece, and a few other bits and bobs. One of the highlights of the day was “Dirty Girl” — a beautiful old steam tractor — shiny black with trim in red and brass, and wheels half again as tall as me. Woo. The other highlight was walking in the gates just in time for a trick riding demonstration, given by some of the people who train horses for movies. There was a gorgeous dun whose rider had him practically dancing, without the reins, even, just using leg pressure and center of balance. There was one horse who’d been trained to kick down doors, and another who would bow, or lie down and play dead while the bullwhip snapped just feet away; he didn’t twitch an ear. Then they had their stallion lie down with three people lying on top of his ribs and another two sitting against his belly — between his hooves — while another stunt person leapt back and forth over the lot. Etc. Very cool.

Alas, I didn’t bring my camera.

So you’re stuck looking at more photos of cria, since the camera was left home.

Here’s a photo of Jodie and Mjolnir. It was taken at dusk and came out all blurry, so I played around with it:

Here’s Galadriel’s new boy:

A1 had a girl! Unfortunately, she has got to be the least photogenic cria I’ve seen yet, which is saying something considering we were calling her sister “Quasimoda” for a while. This girl has this unfortunate Clockwork Orange thing going with her eyelashes…

Tizona had to be euthanized today.

She had been doing well, but early this week had a “relapse.” Tuesday morning it was clear she was not feeling well. Off to the vet for checkup and antibiotics. By Wednesday afternoon she was clearly getting much worse. The neurological symptoms were returning. I think her vision was starting fade, too. When I tried to bottle feed her Wednesday afternoon she had a choking fit afterwards, probably not an aspiration into the lungs, rather it might have been a neurological megaesophogus (dysphagia).  By yesterday evening she was in bad shape. Overnight she seemed to improve a bit (at least she could get back into kush on her own- that’s how bad she had gotten). But this morning she starting fading very fast. By 8 AM she couldn’t hold kush, her head was bending back along her body, and she was trembling.

Phone tag between our vet (Julia), Stuart (the Massey vet) and myself commenced. It was decided at 9AM that the best thing to do was euthanize her, as she probably had a brain abcess, which was essentially untreatable. (There has been one case of experimental brain surgery on an alpaca in te US to treat such an abcess, and endeavor and expense none of us were willing to undertake.)

Stuart, the Massey vet, made a very kind offer to Post-Mortem her. He has a research budget for such “interesting” cases. A basic PM (cut open and check organs) is only $50-75. When you starting adding in some tissue histology a few hundred $ is added to the bill. Once we start getting into brain biopsies and lots of post mortem tests, the expense quickly rises. We were just going to bury her, as we knew a basic PM would be uninformative. Now she gets to help educate some vet students, and she may add to the body of knowledge of camelid diseases.

I took her to Massey to be euthanized, so they could do the PM immediately (to get the best info, the fresher the better). Just in the 2 hour drive she declined significantly, by the time I arrived she was stiff-legged, and starting to twitch/convulse. I think Tizona had checked out some time previous, as the brain damage got too great.

Next week we should have the PM results, and know what killed her.

While I am sad at this turn of events, I am not wracked with guilt or second guesses. We did everything “right.” We caught conditions early, we treated appropriately, we provided lots of care and attention. But of course even with the best care and treatment, not every case can have a happy ending.

**Edit** The very fact that TIzona had a life at all does give me smile, even if it is currently tinged with sadness. The mating that got Persil pregnant in November 2007 was pure happenstance. It was a week after Ferrari had died, and our friend Kate was passing through with her fabulous sire Khandahar. She gave us the opportunity for sympathy sex- well, for the alpacas at least- and Tizona was the product.

Furthermore, Tizona would have died the day she was born without my efforts. She hit the ground, cold and wet, just as a very cold southerly storm arrived. After a few hours of struggle- while Persil was screaming and biting my head to defend her baby- Tizona was warm, dry, and had a belly full of colostrum.

And even after she fell ill, my efforts more than doubled her lifespan. She would have died back in the middle January otherwise. While I can wish that her short life had not been so expensive, she had a life, and that is a value that is hard to measure. She is also a testment to the strength of camelids and children. The initial PM results came in yesterday, and it was in fact a very large abcess in the left hemisphere of her brain. Yes she had managed to regain vision, coordination, and much of her youthful vigour before relapse finally killed her. Her short life was, on the whole, pretty good. I may have wanted 15+ years and lots of lovely babies from her, but things don’t always work out that way.
Plus, we take some comfort that really we could have done nothing else.  With an abcess like that different drugs, or treating her earlier, or noticing sooner, would have made no difference to the final outcome.

I will be happier when Persil stops staring at me and following me around with the “where’s my baby!” humming. She knows that I would take Tiz away and bring her back. I think she also understands that I was helping, as she was very rarely aggro at me, even as I did rather extreme things to keep her baby alive. In a few days she will resign herself that Tizona is not coming back, and move on. It will be easier for both of us that way.