A Bahati update.

Thank you for all the crossed fingers for Bahati (sorry for being a bit slow with the update Bev). She is still sitting more than is normal but rather less than over the weekend (Bahati that is not Bev).

We did have the vet out yesterday as Katkin, who is on livery, was hobbling a little. So we decided to ask the vet to do a bit of a herd health check whilst he was out;

Katkin was examined and declared to have a minor injury to her right hock, no treatment (she is pregnant and it was felt that anti-inflammatories were an unnecessary intervention in this case). She is much improved today.

The vet concurred with our findings on Bahati...definitely sitting too much (she did demonstrate this thankfully. How often do you get the vet out and the alpaca decides to look perfectly well as soon as they arrive!)...but nothing on examination...the thoughts are that it may have been either a Vit D or selenium deficiency, and to wait for the supplements we have given to kick in. But to have a low tolerance before calling them out again if no improvement.

Phoebe who has had skin problem since the summer (no treatment for mites nor any other possible dermatological condition has fully resolved things, but it is improving) has failed to put on any weight despite quadrupling her rations. She is very thin scoring no more than 2/5. We were surprised when we did the spit-offs last week that she is still pregnant (due early April). We arranged blood samples to be taken whilst the vet was on farm and will hopefully get the results tomorrow. We are beginning to wonder if the skin problems are due to an underlying cause rather than being the actual cause of her lack of condition. This is one situation where we wish that she wasn't pregnant for both their sakes.

Finally we had the three 'sit nor spit' girls pregnancy scanned. Unfortunately, as I guessed it was Pepsi Lola who was empty. It took us so long to get her pregnant in the summer it is disappointing. We were anticipating a lovely coloured cria from her mating to our Waradene St Patrick of EPC. On a positive note she should have been nearly 5 months gestation at the time of the miscarriage and the foetus was much smaller that it should have been for that stage, so obviously something wrong.

Pepsi Lola

I know that we spent all last January complaining about the frost and the snow...but how I miss it when compared to all this mud. In addition to all the muddy gate ways, we have too much grass...not a bad complaint you may be thinking...not if you would like to use St Patrick and Explorer as dining tables...yes too fat boys. We are keeping the alpacas (50 including liveries) on 10 acres at the moment, but they are struggling to keep on top of it. As you can see from the photo of Finesse...things are still so green...yes those are our Shetland ponies in the background...they too will have to be on rationed grass very soon.

Beck Brow Finesse

Lady Gaga arrived via parcel post today...her yarn that is...we sent two of her fleeces to The Border Mill to be spun, rather than have them mixed with the rest of the herd. The yarn is the most beautiful bright oyster colour and has a lovely soft handle. The balling and the labelling is also great. Available in our shop sometime soon!