Cat Fight

Making use of a break in feeding Dilly to clean the lounge.  This was not what I planned to do but while I was over the fields this morning another cat came in, beat up Little Wee and Cruella and left his calling card everywhere!

Up until this point the day has been good with lovely weather and a lot of sunbathing alpacas.  Sam's Jess was soaking up the rays!

Storm was just being annoying!  JJ did not want to play!

But Storm soon perked up when he saw the camera.

Dilly is learning to scratch without overbalancing - but he does use Bert as a leaning post!

Arctic is getting all grown up and takes eating very seriously!

Chaos amongst the Scots

Today was the day!  Lots of tasks to accomplish.  First on the list was to check the new sheep feet.
Plan A - shake the bucket and tempt them into the run - no chance they just stared.
Plan B - get the dog (small Jack Russell) to help chase them down - no chance, dog was scared and wanted to stay in the truck.
Plan C - Carl to walk slowly behind them whilst I ducked and dived at the side in the manner of a sheep dog in order to guide them into the run at the bottom of the field - this worked like a dream!

We shut them in the run and then tried to manoeuvre them into the race - here things went catastrophically wrong!  Carl got the Dorset Down and rolled her but whilst I was looking at the feet there was an almighty commotion behind, one Black Scot jumped into the gate, ripped it off it's hinges and escaped back into the field followed by A.N Other (mainly a Cheviot) whilst another Scot rammed the run with his horns and similarly escaped - we were left with two in the race making a very good attempt to destroy it. A little bit of handling area reconstruction now required.

After we had recovered we got the girls and babies down for their cydectin and vitamin injections - only to find I had left everything back at home.  And then it started to hail!

Tomorrow is another day!  Could be better weather so I will try to remember the camera.

Colour Decisions

The Black Scots are still eyeing me suspiciously from a distance.  The Shepherd did warn me, Debbie, that these were not the ones for me and I did go against his advise so we will see!

The sun shone quite a bit today and Dilly had his coat off - I followed him around with the BAS colour card trying to work out if he was light brown or dark fawn - I have gone for dark fawn.  I got it wrong with Yossarian when he was little as I thought he was light brown - but he isn't.

Trevor is soon to be weaned and is now actively looking for a new home (well, I am looking for one for him!) so we are starting to get familiar with a halter - we are not too keen at the moment!

A rather good letter!

Doom and Gloom on the hill today - - weather wise!  Hence no pictures.
The new sheep are settling well.  The Black Faced stare at me, feet firmly planted, "Come and get us!  We dare you!"  I am saving that pleasure until the weekend when Carl can help!
Bert's baby has a name - Dilettante (Dilly for short).  His sire, Jayne, was Dylan who suffered a catastrophe in the Brussel Sprout department last year shortly after his mating debut - so he is the only Dylan baby ever!  And a very nice one he is!  He is also thoroughly lovely and has taken up residence at the back of the field shelter under the hayrack.

If you too are feeling like a slightly gloomy alpaca breeder at the moment beg, borrow or otherwise acquire a copy of Farmers Weekly dated 5th October and take a look at the letters page.  Rather good!

The Wild Ones

Today I have made a new purchase - they are pretty wild!  I now have four Black Faced Scottish ewes with big sharp horns, a Dorset Down and A.N. Other!  One of the Black Faced was a present from mother and I did try to capture a shot of that one - but as you can see she is only a blur!

I managed a long distance shot of two of them.

Bucket training is going to be a challenge!

Bert and baby are doing well, despite the weather.

And, just to show that he does have legs, here he is coming for his bottle.

A bit of soapy water

As I am sure has everyone, we have been busy, much of it battling the elements.  The alpacas live on top of a hill but we have still had difficulties with ground water making tracks and runs lethal.  Yesterday was our first break for what feels likes weeks - we went out to lunch and had a lovely time with conversation ranging from early warning rain detectors, children falling out of cars, rats in the bedroom, being decapitated by a church bell to the place of the internet in a fete quiz.  Today we are back to thick misty fog and all is damp.

I have been battling with mastitis in George, one of the sheep.  Getting a yellow dry cow tube (that's what I call them!) up a sheep teat is something of a challenge but that combined with milking her out and a course of Pen Strep is saving her - although she may end up with half an udder.

We have also had a case of fly strike in alpacas (not our own).  I think the cause was the wood shavings they used for bedding which had worked right in and rotted, got dirty and attracted flies.  A trim, spray of Crovect and all the horrid maggots dropped out.  We also gave him a spray of Click as a preventative measure and he is now as right as rain.


Then, in the middle of torrential rain, Bert had her cria.  I had been watching her constantly ready to administer plasma, colostrum, antibiotics, spray but she chose to have it between 4pm and  6pm while I had gone to cook tea, no sign at all beforehand.  Bert never can feed her babies due to a damaged udder so at least I was prepared.  First he was very slow to catch on to drinking from the bottle and then I realised he kept straining and nothing was coming out.  He had two lots of soapy water and some cod liver oil and appears to have recovered.  I thought we had lost him as I found him flat out on his side in the rain, shivering and obviously in pain late on Friday evening.  He is now drinking very well and runs over for his bottle.  Not a very good photo today I am afraid due to weather!

 I had hoped it would be a girl as I think they are easier to bottle rear but he isn't and I keep reminding myself that it went okay with bottle fed Greeves.  Greeves is now a perfectly normal alpaca who does not seek attention but is very easy to handle when you have caught him - but still will not walk on his halter!

This afternoon I managed to finish the first update of the online shop - http://www.westhillalpacas.co.uk/11.html
and it now actually accepts Paypal (which it would not do before) - and I have updated Alpacaseller with our sale alpacas -
http://www.westhillalpacas.co.uk/4.html
although there is one I am not too sure about and who may be coming back off again!

Now I must go and feed Bert's baby!

A Mummy again!

Just look what we have got!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I know I have not blogged for a while - and I haven't even read other blogs due to THINGS so I will be catching up on all the news from everyone on Monday - and back to writing my own blog (providing there are no further crises!) and telling you about our new little one.