Molly Marine

Once again I find that time has flown, we are now into the baby season again and shearing time has come and gone. Our first cria arrived on Monday a white girl who we named Molly Marine (in honor of Dana, our daughter, who is currently serving). The picture below is of me, Dana and Rossi, it was taken on Family Day at Parris Island, the day before graduation from Boot Camp, which was April 10, 2009 - a day I will never forget, thats for sure.

We have a new guard dog, her name is Eve. At the end of May, Gonzo stopped eating on a Saturday and by the time we were able to get him to the vet, on Tuesday (Monday was a holiday) they did xrays and discovered that he had cancer and his organs were failing. What a sad, sad day. I was actually farm sitting for some friends so I wasn't even home. It's amazing how fast it all happened, the vet was actually here on that previous Friday for some alpaca stuff and he was fine but by Monday morning he had labored breathing. At least he didn't suffer for long and although his life was short, I believe it was a happy one. So, because of the bear situation last year and the fact that Remus had lost another partner (Romulus was the first) we wanted to get a replacement ASAP..... enter Eve. She is another Anatolian Shepard and is about 10 months old. We kept Eve in a stall where Remus could smell her for a couple of days then put them both on leashes out in the pasture and walked them around one evening, the next evening we kept Eve on the leash and then the next morning after feeding we let them both out. There really hasn't been a "dog fight" Remus will put Eve in her place, but there has been no blood shed. Eve is a very sweet girl. She seem to love the alpacas. Marquez put his head through the fence and while I was getting him unstuck Eve was giving him kisses, he didn't like it, but she was happy.

She also loves the baby - she lays by the fence all day. Today I think I will put them in the pasture, should be fun to watch. So Nadine is the next one due, I think she will have it next week. After that I will have a few weeks off then for the entire month of August and into Sept I will be on baby watch again.

A Legend is born

I can hardly believe that fall is here - I hadn't realized it had been so long since I made a post! Since the last post we have had one more baby.... Dreamcatcher Peruvian Legend. I was out of town for the weekend and was on my way home so my husband Charlie delivered him. Thankfully the birth was an easy on and there were no problems.

Legend quickly made friends with the other cria and loves to run and pronk with them. Jack being the oldest and biggest still wants to play with the little ones and Legend will spit at him if he thinks Jack is being a bullly. Legend and Ozzi love to play together they are always neck wrestling.

I have video taped them, I just need to figure out how to get it on the blog so everyone can enjoy it and get a good laugh.

We had the vet up here last week to do ultrasounds on Nadine, Daisy and Tessa. They have all been re-bred and after 30 days we do an ultrasound to make sure they are pregnant. Nadine is confirmed, Tessa could be carrying twins (not a good thing) and Daisy didn't hold the pregnancy. I was concerned for Daisy because I kept feeding her extra and she wasn't gaining any weight, so we did a blood draw on her to check the levels and the vet now has me feeding her Soybean meal for some added protein. After a week she seems to have gained.... our scale broke a couple of days after Legend was born so I haven't been able to weight her, but we also do body scores. You feel the backbone right behind the front shoulders and it should be V shaped, a U would be heavy and concave V is thin. Anyway, Jack will be 4 mths old next week and I will be weaning him. I usually like to wait until they are about 6 mths but for Daisy's health we are doing it early. He should be fine, he is eating lots of hay and loves the pellets!

We also managed to get Gonzo down to the vet last week. I was dreading it because they hate leaving the pasture and they hate car rides, but he did wonderful!! We thought that they would do a skin biopsy but the dog vet took one look at him and thinks he has a autoimmune problem. He is now on Prednisone twice a day and is doing better already. He isn't 100% but it is great that he doesn't spend all day in the barn now. And he isn't scratching as much. The vet said it could take 6 mths to be totally gone.
This is a picture of Ninah - she is still the cutest, with her grey ears.

I will work on getting the video to upload, hopefully by next time I post I will figure it out.

It has been a busy couple of weeks. Macey and Jack are great friends now and love to run and play. Macey is still taller than Jack but Jack weights more. Jack is about 40 lbs and Macey is about 27 lbs. We haven't been putting them in the pasture everyday because we haven't gotten any rain. I put them out today and they got to stretch their legs. Last week when I brought them all in, I had a good laugh at myself. The greenest grass is down in a far corner and when I called them in Misty was the last one to come through the gate and as she ran past me, she kicked and got me right in the butt. It was funny, like she planned it.

We have a bear hanging out in our area. I know that there has been a Momma and her babies, but we usual don't see them, and this one is by himself. He was snacking on our neighbors bird feeder last Saturday evening and we saw him again yesterday morning.

We also have a bunch of birds at our bird feeders. This is a picture of Crossbill - we had some come through last year, but they only stayed around for a few days. We have seen as many as four at the bird feeder at the same time and it has been about a week that they have been here.

It takes a while for Macey and Jack to slow down, but eventually they slow down and enjoy being in the pasture.

Meet Macey Grae

Today started out like any other, first thing I do is check on Nadine. She was acting normal, she ate her pellets and hay, and was grouchy with Just Jack, nothing unusual about that. I usually put them in the pasture around 10am and they are always ready and waiting for me to open the gate. So I let them out and I am cleaning water buckets and keeping my eye on them. At around 10:45 I noticed that Nadine was laying under a pine tree, not eating, that is unusual so I told my husband Charlie that we needed to get the girls in. In the barn I separate Nadine from the other girls, for their safety more than hers (not really, but she is SUPER B.......y) I can tell she is in labor because her breathing is faster than normal, plus she keeps going to the poop pile and nothing is happening. She lays on her side and I can see something white up in there. Everytime it looks like a nose might pop out, she gets up and everything disappears. She does this about 4-5 times then all of the sudden there is a white nose, I can tell its a nose because it is trying to get some air. The nose is white but the nostril slits and the mouth look like black lines, so I am telling myself and Charlie, thats ok greys usually have white faces. What seems like forever, but is really a few minutes I can see the eyes and there is a dark color, could it be????? I only have to wait a few minutes more and the front legs pop out and sure enough, they are GREY this is what we were hoping for when we bred her to Monroe, a grey. This is the only kinda icky picture, but I like to share, it is a miracle after all. Notice the other girls are very interested in what is going on. If they get to close Nadine will spit at them, that is why they are on the other side of the fence.

Now, is it a girl or a boy, this takes a little longer. But it is a girl and she is GREY... BONUS!!!!!

It took quite awhile for her to stand up. Below is one of the attempts, but she wasn't successful until about 2 hrs after she was born.

Here she is finally up and she has really long legs. Her balance isn't the greatest yet, but before long she is up and looking for food. Nadine is a great mom, she is really patient and just stands still waiting for her baby to latch on, which she does eventually.

The vet will be up here on Monday to draw blood so that we can make sure she is BVD negative and also to find out if she got enough colostrum in the first 24hrs of life. All the other alpacas are looking around and trying to get a sniff of the baby. For the next couple of days we will keep them separated, unless I put them in the pasture, but at night and for regular feedings, Nadine will have no one to spit at.