Worms and cocci

Cold, frosty and an early start again as Sam's moped still not working!

I had the  results of the faecal counts through this evening and Bert has a low cocci count.  The vet says it is low but she is still showing signs of a tummy ache so she will have a Baycox tomorrow.  Trouble was a shock - I sampled her as well as she still seems to need a bottle and is not thin - but not a proper body score.  High cocci count for her - very high in fact.  Baycox for her tomorrow.  Then Sherbert she had a high count of worms - Trichuris which I hadn't heard of before - she is getting a five day course of Panacur.  Harry had no count for anything at all - thank goodness!

So - tomorrow you can tell what we will be doing . . and I shall be doing more samples later in the week.

Bert, breakdowns and a bit of advise

Last night Sam broke down on his way home - luckily, a very kind man stopped, put his moped in the back of his van and brought him all the way home!  I hope very many nice thing happen for him!

Carl didn't have time last night to help Sam fix the moped so it was an early start to take him to work.  I didn't mind as I was keen to check on Bert as soon as possible.  Bert seems okay today so maybe it was a fuss about nothing - we'll see if anything shows up in the sample I took into the vets.

First proper frosty start to the day today and I did something I am quite proud of - I rolled Grace!  I am not very good at rolling the sheep - usually I do more rolling than the sheep do but today Grace was limping rather badly and she would not stand still while I lifted her feet.  I had a go, expecting to fail, but over she went without a struggle and sat there while I checked her feet.  I couldn't see any sign of anything nasty but her feet where packed with mud which had frozen so I think that may have been the problem.

I did a little halter training in the afternoon.  Trouble will now walk a few paces, Yossarian only 'died' once but Greeves still will not move.  Even when I take the halter off he does not move - just stands there for a minute and then resumes eating!

Finally - a little advise!  I have discovered a great nail varnish which lasts and lasts despite tyre inflating, poo collecting, feet cleaning . . . The only problem is nail varnish remover does not seen to remove it and I resorted to slowly chewing it off.  Having cleared only one nail in a week I gave up and went to the Nail Lady this morning where it was removed and replaced - so, the advice?  Be very careful when choosing the colour of your long lasting nail varnish.  Barbie pink with sparky glitter in it looks jolly in the week before Christmas but faintly ridiculous by January 13th!!

Axle, Bert. . . Whatever next?

The blog has been a little lacking as I have had a cold and a liaison with the dentist - which I wish to forget about!

I have finally had the results from the post mortem on Axle.  Some samples were sent away to VLA for further tests as the vet had noted a reddened area of the stomach and she queried whether this might be one of the clostridia diseases not covered by Lambivac.  She did get a worm egg count but not hugely high.  This was concerning as I had only wormed in October.  There was no evidence of coccidia which was another thing I thought might have caused a problem.  He did have a Baycox the week before he died so it may have been that was present but gone before the PM.  Any way, no evidence of other clostridia found by VLA so it wasn't that.  We decided that he was weak and underweight so the worms effected him badly and the mild winter has not helped my worming regime.  They have all been wormed since and I am taking some samples in for testing tomorrow.  Always I like to learn something from a death like this and try to convince myself that I could not have done more - but in this case, I think I could have done more and should have had a sample of his poo tested earlier.  I shall try to learn from this experience.

My biggest worry now, though, is Bert.  I went into Blandford this morning after doing the hay and water (picked up a parking ticket as well - which I could kick myself about as I did the same thing as I did before Christmas - got a ticket for half an hour when I should have got an hour) and when I came back I checked everyone was okay.  Bert was standing bu the gate and I went over to give her a rub on the neck which she enjoys.  As I did this she lay down and my first thought was - she's not pregnant - but then she rolled sideways and lay with her legs out grumbling.  It seems like she has a tummy ache so I stood around in the rain for ages waiting for a poo sample and am hoping she will pick up by tomorrow  - I really don't want anything to happen to Bert!  Here she is in the summer!

A little more success!

Off early this morning for a very nice visit to see the three little boys we sold before Christmas.  They are living in the lap of luxury!  Little hillocks to stand on, a fantastic field shelter - which they actually use, lots of attention - and they are thriving on it!  We checked nails and gave vitamins and were sad to say goodbye to them (we'll be back in a month to follow up!).

Then it was back for a little poo collecting and clearing of field shelters which was greatly hampered by some of the girls!

Emily, Cassie, Bianca and Carolyn exercising their jaws!

Carl and I then decided to have a quick go with Yossarian and Greeves on their halters.  I had Greeves who still would not walk but did shuffle along with a bit of a push.  Yossarian was a surprise as today, despite yesterday's fiasco, he was not bad at all!  We did not 'die' once and actually managed a bit of a walk.  Carl is pretty big headed about this and says it is due to his influence - I am giving him Greeves next time!

And finally, an early morning shot of Flemenco who had spotted something dodgy in the hedgerow.



Halter Training - not as you know it!

Sam had his first driving lesson yesterday - and really enjoyed it.  I have to book his theory test for him now and next week he is having a two hour lesson - if he can get the time off!

The last two days have been lovely and DRY which means the mud has been drying and moving around in the field is much easier.  Sam also had this afternoon off so we decided to get going with the halter training.  Now if you have not halter trained alpacas before take note first that this is NOT how it is done!  Read elsewhere for impeccably behaved alpacas being halter trained!

We started with Trouble - the bottle fed (Bert's baby) and Bea (Belinda's baby).  Both of them were not bothered about having their halters on, being held or halter adjustment.  They stood beautifully - and that was the problem!  They continued to stand beautifully and flatly refused to move!  My normal - ratchet, ratchet, ratchet technique had no effect, nor did a shove from behind!  So there we stood for a good 5 minutes!

Time to move on to the next two - Greeves and Yossarian.  Again - no problem to walk up to and catch, no problem with halter on or adjustment.  Greeves was marginally better as he did move, kind of - but more of a shuffle than a walk!  He looks okay when we are standing still!

Yossarian, however, was the worst ever!  And we were considering he might be our entree into the show circuit this year - maybe one little show with him and another youngster to be decided?  I think not!  He did move - a few paces and then either jumped in the air and slammed down on his side of just collapsed sideways!  In both cases he then lay silently feigning dead!  Spike got quite concerned about him!

And if you can bear to wait for it to download here he is in action!

And - yes- I know his halter has slipped down his nose!

Funny Face

Very windy again today and pretty scary up in second!  I was feeding the sheep when a big gust blew Two Tone over sideways and sent a bale of hay tumbling up the hill!  I nearly followed but clung onto the hay feeder where I became aware of a odd clanging noise.  Looking up I could see the pylon moving at the top - looked pretty dodgy to me and I am sure it doesn't normally move like that - I shall ring the electric board in the morning and tell them their pylon is swaying.  Luckily, the wind has now died down.  Then I went to Tesco - and it was closed!  A power cut, so I went to Morrisons - and it was closed.  Same reason so I went back to Tesco which was, fortunately, open by then - a good thing as Trouble was out of Goats' milk.  She had been on Lamblac and was weaned but she seemed to still need a bottle so she is back to one a day.  Goats milk now as I ran out of Lamblac.

Thank you from Sam for all the good wishes for his birthday.  He was invited to a party last night but it didn't start until 10pm and he is in bed by 9pm!!

Today I thought I would do some photos of Dude who normally poses quite nicely but today he kept pulling silly faces!

The Quest begins!

Time has really flown since my last blog - another new year already (Happy New Year to all!).  Carl had a week off over Christmas so we got lots done - moved animals (it was supposed to be just the youngsters, the Thinnies and Little Star but somehow Lina managed to slip in unnoticed and then refused to move out of the nice new field), made track a little less dodgy, re sheeted barn, moved field shelters . . .   Felt quite proud of ourselves really . . and then it got a trifle windy!  Half one field shelter roof peeled off (almost - now ratchet strapped down), Dude's shelter shifted itself a whole one foot to the right (now pegged down again) and the barn sheeted turned into an enormous sale and ripped asunder!The view across third field does not  quite show the wind and rain we were having.

But I think the look on Sapphire's face says it all - she spent most of yesterday hiding behind the field shelter!

I have been poo collecting as if my life depended on it as I had got a bit behind - almost caught up now.  I had to have a quick break from it this morning in order to fit in a long overdue visit to the library van and a visit to the Flower Lady.

And today is Sam's birthday - 17!  Which means he can now commence his quest for a driving licence!  First lesson this Friday!