Hopeful

Our Lady in Red is growing well, gaining half a kilo a day.  We are bottle feeding - Bluebell has never had enough milk to feed her cria in the past and we thought this might be due to the traumatic births she endured but this time we don't know as the birth was fairly straightforward but it could be because Red can't stand long enough or because she hasn't got enough milk, but it is not a problem - the teat is eagerly taken and what is wanted is consumed with gusto and then she immediately goes and sucks on Bluebell so she has the best of both worlds and Bluebell is content too.

We are flexing the feet as often as we can and are waiting to hear back from various vet hospitals about splints or tendon re aligning.  This has to happen quickly now as she is growing and there is the problem of bone deformity if something is not done soon - and then we may have to make a very unpleasant decision.

As you can see from the pictures we have moved Blue & Skye into the same paddock.  Bluebell was getting quite stressed about us picking up her baby so often but has relaxed now she has more company.  Skye too is enjoying investigating the new arrival and cannot understand why she does not follow her round on her bronking sessions but they do walk around together a little.

She looks perfect in this position - if only!!!!! 

At least the problem is not genetic.  I must thank everyone for their e mails etc., especially from America and Australia where they have encountered this problem before and things have turned out well in the end.  So everything crossed.

Mixed Blessings

The good news is that today Bluebell produced a beautiful solid white girl, almost by herself.  Just before 10.30 this morning there was a head visible but no legs.  Sid scrubbed up and we went to her assistance, the cria's legs were pulled out and she was delivered all OK.  The first straightforward birth for Bluebell.  The sire, Bozedown Flurry is owned by some friends at Grovesnor Alpacas.

Unfortunately the bad news is that our 'Lady Red' has deformed feet.  The flexor tendon on both front feet is too tight meaning that the feet are tucked right up.  Survival looked very bleak at the start as she couldn't stand and seemed very weak.  We gave her glucose through a syringe and before long she had been very adaptive and standing on the joint. We had put them in the shelter but she managed to make her way outside.  If you look closely at the picture you can she how the feet are turned backwards.  We gave her colostrum as she couldn't really stand for too long and we needed to give her the best start - no problems that was gone in a flash, no trouble with sucking.

The vet came and showed us how to give physio to stretch the tendon.  We must do this as often as we can but the vet is hopeful that the problem can be corrected but it will take time.  She certainly is doing her best as she can now stand and feed from Bluebell and follows her around the paddock.

You can see from the picture why she is called Lady Red.  The vet has bandaged the legs and padded the joint to protect it or that will be at risk of infection and put the feet as far forward as they will go.

 They are now shut in the shelter with the infra red light on and we can watch them via the monitor in the house but hopefully she will continue to gain strength and we will continue to stretch the tendon so she has a good chance of pulling through.

Old and the New

As usual life has been very busy at Toad Hall. Our neighbouring farmer was installing a new water supply so we seized the opportunity to upgrade ours. We are a long way from the water mains at the end of the road so a digger and driver had to be hired to do the long stretch.

The moling man then had to come to bring the pipe under the lane and Sid and our mini digger had to do the last stretch - where the old meets the new. Now all ready to be connected up and hopefully we will have better pressure.

The Alpacas are all well and very contented. This is a picture of 'Bluebell' who is now in the 'birthing window' so hopefully we will have a healthy cria before too long, together with a normal birth - which would be a first for 'Bluebell'.

Skye continues to grow well and give the older animals the run around. At the moment she is fairly white, we haven't had much rain but when we have she has delighted in having a mud bath.

Scriptwriter's Birthday

We are very pleased to have received our sample results from Yocom-McColl Testing Laboratories. Five samples were sent for testing and we are very pleased with all of them.



Wellground Scriptwriter (our resident Stud):
Mean 20.1; SD 4.2; CV 20.9 (3rd fleece)

Sample taken at 2 years 10 months.

Unfortunately the photograph does not really show how good it is.

His sire is EP Cambridge Commish Lad who was sired by Jolimont commisario and his Dam is The Hermitage Lady Ruffo of Cambridge who was sired by NWA Ltd Ruffo. An excellent pedigree.

Scriptwriter's Stud Services are only being offered to selected breeders who, like ourselves are taking the risk of TB in Alpacas seriously and are keeping Biosecurity at the forefront of their business.

So today we wish him a very happy birthday and gave him a few extra grains of Camelibra to celebrate!!!!

We are also very pleased with Toad Hall King of Diamonds who is almost 2years old:
Mean 20.5 SD 4.3 CV 21.0 Known as 'Barnaby' at home he is a good future herd sire as is

Toad Hall Cool Troy: Mean 17.6 SD 4.0 CV 23.0 who is also almost 2 years old.

The other samples that we sent off were from our cria born last year and these are very similiar to Barnaby and Troy.

Hiccup has now been on different antibiotics for 2 weeks and seems to be moving around more and generally socialising with the others more - hopefully this will continue. We have now bought a bale of Alfalfa with Lucerne to give her as well as the camelibra and oats in the hope we can get her to gain weight. Any other ideas?

All Safely Gathered In

Too busy this week to do any work on the new barn or on the house. Sid cut the grass on Tuesday and has turned it and spread it over the week. Saturday was time for rowing up before the contractor arrived for baling.

The contractor arrived on Saturday afternoon and we ended up with 230 small bales of lovely sweet smelling hay

With the forecast so good we decided to leave the hauling until Sunday when help was summoned so that all was safely gathered in.

We finished the week with a relaxing barbecue and Holly cooling off in her paddling pool

Time Flies

Well its two weeks since I managed to update the blog.
Our little cria, who was born two weeks ago today is a stunner. We have called her Toad Hall Skye Blue - her dam is Toad Hall Blue Ember who is by Wellground Imber and her sire is Cambridge Buckingham - a wonderful combination. Blue was our second cria born here at Toad Hall and after a diffult birth was bottle reared. She is a superb mother - if she thinks you are a threat to her little one you are quickly covered in green spit!!!!!!!

Hiccup continues to give us cause for concern. She seemed to be making a slow but sure improvement but she is now back to square one. Her knee and elbow joints fill with fluid which makes movement very difficult. Unfortunately blood and fluid samples have not thrown any light on the cause of the problem so various anti flammatories have been used. Hopefully we will get an answer soon from somewhere. Any suggestions gratefully received.

Our next cria will be from Cambridge Bluebell (Blue's mother) who is due in July but her previous two pregnancies were three weeks over the expected date and we had to bottle feed both of her cria. Very stressful as we didn't actually live here then so sleeping in a shed on a mattress was not the most pleasant way to spend the night!!!
We did not breed from her last year in the hope that it would give her system time to rest after two difficult births, hopefully things will be more straightforward this year.









In the meantime we will enjoy watching Toad Hall Skye Blue exploring her surroundings.

Surprise, Surprise

Today has been a glorious day, not only because of the lovely sunshine but also our surprise package which was delivered while we were both out this afternoon. When I arrived home about 5.15pm I looked out at the animals, good all is well, all accounted for. Then I went through to another room and looked out again and there behind the adults and much to my surprise was a wobbly cria. Across the paddock I went to see that Toad Hall Blue Ember had given birth to a solid white female during our absence.

Blue's pregnancy was rather hit and miss. Last year she was mated to Cambridge Buckingham three times, did not give a definite spit off test so she was scanned to make sure but on two occasions this was given as negative.

When we went to mate her to Scriptwriter she was very indecisive so that was abandoned. In March she was behaving very strangely so the vet was called - a scan this time was positive. So going by her last mating date she was 326 days today, we hadn't expected an arrival for a couple of weeks.