A little bit better today.

Just a quick blog to let you know that there has been some improvement on the Marietta front, this morning when I arrived at the field she was laid flat out, (quite shocking at first) so I up righted her and she had a little munch on her hay.  I gave her her drench and the Vit B12 injection the vet had left for her.  Marietta had over the past few days managed to reach the bottom of the paddock and the only way we could see to move her was in the link box on the tractor,  She wasn't to keen on this at first but sat nicely to be transported to a flat spot at the top of the paddock.  As we lifted her out of the link box we held her up and she actually took her wait for about a minute which is a major step forward.  she has been happily sat munching her hay for the rest of the day.
We met the Vet later this afternoon to collect some more Vit B12 injection and the results of the blood test. Everything looks normal except for the Selenium which was a little low, but her symptoms did not look like Selenium deficiency.  She has higher levels of Calcium and Magnesium which was to be expected as she has had a lot of Calciject 6.  The blood test was taken before she had been given the Selenium drench so this has probably improved by now.  So we continue to hope she carries on improving little by little.

Thanks for the messages of support and the telephone calls we have received offering suggestions, good to know that Alpaca people are prepared to discuss problems they have had and pass on their experiences.

Some good, some not so bad!

I haven't blogged for a while as there has only been one thing on my mind for the last 11 day, Marietta! she had not been well since a week last monday, the shaking has now stopped but she is still sitting down, she hasn't walked since last Thursday.

The Vet came on Tuesday ............ sat on a bale of straw and scratched his head, the jerking action of Marietta's neck he described as weird and he had never seen anything like that in any animal before except a chicken!  He took some blood and we are waiting for the results, he has given her a shot of Vit b12.......... and the following morning there was a marked improvement,  the jerky action had gone .............Vet put this down to the cocktail of treatments we had been giving her over the last week.  Anyway by Wednesday I was getting concerned that she had been sat in the shelter for over a week and the floor was starting to get wet mainly because Marietta kept  kicking the water bucket over.  I decided to put her outside the shelter where she could get some sun and the floor of the shelter could dry out, so after she had had her treatments I helped her out of the shelter and settled her with feed, hay and water, she looked set for the day and her mates could visit her.  When I came back at lunchtime she wasn't where I had left her, great I thought she's up ................ but no she had rolled, turned or somehow moved about 10 mtrs down the field and she seem quite happy with life, so we left her out.  Over the last couple of days she has moved herself around the field and the rest of the girls seem to stay around her.  We are continuing to give her the treatments and I make sure she has access to water and hay when ever I go back to check on her.  Today she has started to eat grass for the first time for 11 days and she has started to try to move when we approach her, so we are still hopeful that she will continue to improve.

Phoebe on left having breakfast

So that was the not so bad and now the good, last Sunday our first cria of the year arrive in text book style.  When we got to the field Phoebe (259 days) was looking like she was in labour so we started to feed the rest of the herd as usual, Phoebe who very much likes her food saw this going on and not wanting to miss a meal ran up the field ate her bucket of feed and then returned to her previous position, less than an hour later cria was on the ground, a female cria, the fourth in a row for Phoebe, sired by Catons Golden Nugget.  The cria was up, suckling and having a pee within an hour and a half ........... wish they were all like that!

One hour later.

As we are aware that Phoebe never has much milk for her cria we have been prepared with ewe replacer, bottles etc.  Phoebe is OK for the first two days, plenty of colostrum but then not much milk, we can always tell as every time you look at them the cria is underneath and soon starts to have a little bald patch on her nose.  So Monday evening I started to give the cria (no name yet) a bottle which it took with ease,  we only give two bottles a day as we like to keep them it keen to feed of Mum and we only usually have to do this for about three weeks when the crias are no longer keen to take the bottle.  For some reason after this time Phoebe seems to be able to satisfy her babies hunger.

Todays Blog part 2

Today has been glorious again and we have been pretty busy, firstly I had to do a changeover in one of the cottages.  Both cottages are now full and both with returning customers from several years ago before we brought them, it's good when people return year on year.  Whilst I was doing the cleaning Steve was using the supa dooper poohpa hoover in the rented paddocks so they are all nice and clean ready to be rested for a few weeks.  This afternoon we took four of the trekking team out for a walk with friends, it was good to be out on the moor where there was more of a breeze.  Looking down towards the coast it looked as if they were having a good shower of rain, we could hear thunder rumbling in the distance but it stayed away . When we got back from the walk the guests had arrived back from their day out so we let the children meet the llamas and walk them back to the fields.  Once the guests had left we wormed all the llamas and put them onto new grass.  All of them were remarkably well behaved having their drench, which is unusual as at least one of them manages to store the entire contents of the drench gun in their mouths and then let it dribble out.



This is a picture taken from our alpaca cam this evening of Marietta sitting in the shelter, looking at her she looks perfectly normal, she just won't get up, seems to have enough strength in her legs but just not going to do it.  She can move her legs because when we lift her to give her some massage and physio we leave her with her front legs out straight and she almost immediately gets back into a cush position.  She is about 8.5 months into her pregnancy perhaps she is going to sit there until she has her cria, what else could a girl want, she has hay and water to hand and gets concentrate delivered to her, no pushing at the trough or fighting over the hay bag for her!.  The alpaca cam has come into it's own this week as soon as it is light I can check how she is with out getting out of bed, how good is that.  if anyone has any ideas how to get her up we would be grateful for them.  It has been so good to get info from fellow breeders not only from the UK but all over the world.

Marietta day 6

This morning Marietta looks fine but will not get up, twitching stopped.  She has had Vit B with the Selenium drench, Epson Salts again this morning and we are now doing Physio twice a day, having her sat on a hay bale whilst we stretch out her legs, plenty of strength there but reluctant to stand.   Just continuing to hope she improves.

Off for a walk with the llamas before next physio session.

Not good

Marietta to look at looks Ok not much twitching or shaking but she won't get up.  We have tried to lift her onto her feet but she squeals constantly.  I don't think she is in pain just stressed and not wanting to stress her any more we haven't tried to lift her again.  I phoned the Vet again and he has no more idea as to what can be the problem, I also phone one of the contacts from the BAS emergency contact list who was very helpful and went through all the things he could think of, most of which we have considered.  So far she has had several injections of Calciject 6, several doses of a glucose drench, some selenium and some epson salts, ADE injection.

As she is now down I really don't know what to do,  it is so sad to see her and not be able to help.

She is tucked up in the shelter and we can watch her on the Alpaca cam, I am hoping she will improve overnight.

We spent the whole day up in the fields so we did get a day off.

Another quick one

Thought I would do a quick blog this evening whilst waiting for Steve to return with the Indian Takeaway.  We have decided to take tomorrow off and spend the day in the fields with the alpacas but not actually doing any work ................. thats the idea anyway............. I am sure we will find something which will just have to be done.

Marietta is still twitching but seems much better in herself, even came up for a cuddle this evening .  She is still having trouble sitting down very shaky legs, she is quite jerky/ twitchy and seems to keep locking her legs straight  if you know what I mean.  We have kept her off grass but she is eating and drinking well.  So I don't know what to think, just keep her quite and hope she continues to improve.

Still know cria, but the girls are really feeling the heat, both Phoebe and Ella are looking very  heavy and uncomfortable.  Hopefully they will produce something tomorrow while we are lazing around in the fields!

Anyway Indian is about to arrive so better get the wine out for Steve I shall have something non alcoholic as I don't want to have a bad head to ruin my lazy day!

Quick blog

Just a quick one tonight:

Still not Cria.

Marietta still shaking but no worse, still of grass.

Great llama walk today, lovely weather, great company, not a bad job really.

And I took another cottage booking.

Pretty good day really.

Hope fully I will have some good news tomorrow.