National Alpaca Farm Days

This weekend is the weekend designated to open our farms up to the public and talk to them about alpacas, their fleece, our industry, and showcase our farms. We have done this event every year for the last 3 years and have always enjoyed. This year is special though. We were featured on the front page of our local newspaper, Today's Sunbeam.

When I found out they were going to write an article about our farm. I was thrilled and excited. I was never expecting to be on the front page. The day the writer and photographer came was a special day here on our farm. Our beloved, Eliza, a dark rose grey modern female decided she wanted to deliver her cria just as they arrived. :-) My first words to them when I came out of the house from changing clothes was "Are you squimish?" They were excited about witnessing the birth. It was an interesting experience giving an interview, delivering a cria, and taking care of it all at the same time. Did I mention I also have a 2 year old and a 2 month old. Who were thankfully sound asleep napping during this time. Eliza delivered a beautiful solid medium brown or rose grey male. We are so excited for this cria as he is our very own herdsire's second cria born on our farm.

Now, back to NAFD. I guess the press in the paper and the ad we put into the Cumberland & Salem Guide paid off. We opened the farm from 10 AM until 3 PM. Saturday was the first day and I have to say it was phenomenal. We had the largest turn-out we have ever had. It was just me today as my husband, Rob, had to work. I couldn't keep up with number of visitors. I know I missed talking to many people. However, the alpacas got lots of grain. There was a lot of interest in the alpacas care, skirting and carding the fleece and many people were amazed at the felted soap!

The challenge on Saturday was not only the volume for just one person, but the rain. It rained and misted just enough that I had to squeeze everything into my husband's shop area. It was a tight fit. I couldn't properly open up my skirting table and show off my beautiful girl, Crystal, fleece. Although, many people were willing to hold the one end of table up so I could quickly show how the process works. The other issue I had was that my child-care for the day fell through. My SIL was suppose to come over with her kids and watch my boys. She got called into work and I didn't find out until 1 PM when I came into the house to feed my children. That made it a challenge because I had to keep track of what Benjamin was doing because 2 year old's can get into a lot of trouble quickly & alot of cars were coming in and out. Thankfully, my 2 month old slept in his car seat most of the time. Thankfully, on Sunday Rob will be home so I will have help with the kids.

Sunday is another day. I can't wait to see what the day brings. Will we have as many visitors or will it be slow like prior years. It is also the last day for the 'name that cria' contest. We have several good names already (I had to peak).

I want to close by Thanking Everyone who stopped by today to learn about the alpacas and shop. We truly appreciate your business and hope that you enjoyed yourselves as much as I enjoyed meeting you. If you bought anything from us, I hope you enjoy the product and that it keeps you snugly warm.

Wow, It's been awhile

I can't believe that my last post was over a year ago. Time sure does fly when you work full-time, run a household, take care of one child (and I was pregnant with my second during this time, too), and manage the farm. Well, life has been full of ups and downs the last year. We won't go into that here.

What's new? MFI Peruvian Microman had his first cria born November 2010. We named him Microbrew as he is the nice rich color of a home brewed beer. I will post pictures soon. It is on my list along with updating all my websites. Life has been so crazy that I have not even gotten last year's cria on there. And it is almost time for the 2011 cria to start being born next month. We didn't get the breeding's in for Spring 2011 births due to the cria's being born late and the weather had already turned scorching hot last year. We opted for only Fall births for 2011. This year, we bred for all Spring births for 2012.

I will be starting to post pictures of the farm on the blog along with things going on here so please keep checking back. I am going to try to be more active in my blogging. What is on tap for the next month? Waiting on 3 cria to be born in September; building a skirting table, and working my way through two years of fleece. Wish me luck.

Check back later this week as I am going to post pictures of the skirting table I am going to build. I bought all the material today so hopefully it won't take me long to do this. I have a plan...Let's see how it works. Until later. Have a great week ahead.

2010

It has been awhile since I last posted. The holidays just consumed our entire time. They were great and we hope yours was too. Now, it is a new year and we are excited about what this year brings to our farm.

First, I'd like to look back on 2009. It was a good year for us, but had its difficulties. We bought 2 new girls last January, Berry Meadow Eliza and Candlelight's Peruvian Mis'chevious. Two nice looking grey females. Eliza gave birth to a beautiful rose grey male, Silver Streak, in June. He has matured nicely and we are anxious to get him into the show ring. Star of Hope was born in August 19 days early and spent slightly more than 3 weeks at the Vet hospital. We are thankful that she is alive and overall healthy. In October, we had another beautiful boy who is a splitting image of his dam. We LOVE both of our boys! Hope is great, but we have to wait to see how she grows. We are thankful for our new pack of cria's in 2009.

2010 looks to be even more exciting. In May we have 3 girls due. In June, we have 2 more girls due who are bred to a fabulous male. We are anxious for these 5 cria's. Cria's are always fun and exciting.

We will also be showing Silver Streak in April and May this year. Microman is going to be in a herdsire auction to auction off a breeding to him. A great marketing program for our farm. We are also updating our websites and I will post the links here as soon as they are done. Our personal website is being revealed all at once. It has undergone a huge overhaul.

Keep checking back for updates and new photos.

Nor'Easter

We are at the tail end, I hope, of a nor'easter. This year has been horrible with all the rain. We feel like we never had a summer due to all the rain! The poor alpacas have been water logged all year since our fields are mostly in low ground. Luckily, the girls and cria's were moved to the back pasture for the winter and that is higher ground. However, I didn't get out there before the rain started and my poor Hope and Spook'tacular got soaked. Not a good combination with the winds, too. Yesterday, it didn't rain long enough for the alpacas to dry out so I put coats on the two cria's. Now, they can stay warm and dry.

Spook'tacular is looking fantastic! He is a handful. I think he is hanging out with Silver Streak and Eliza too much as he is picking up their personality not his dam's, who is calm. Spook'tacular is the strangest cria I think we have had born on our farm. He is so independent. You only see him around his dam when he is nursing. Most cria's that we have had born here are near their dam's alot and cush by them. This guy prefers to be alone or with Eliza & Silver Streak.

Hope is doing wonderful!!! She is steadily gaining weight, finally. I think the antibiotics were hindering her growth. Her body size is not increasing, but we expect that since the growth plate in her leg was compromised. The vets warned me she would be a slow grower and not as large as a normal alpaca. However, the weight gain is wonderful! She also feels bigger. She has some bulk to her bones - if that makes any sense. Her fleece has alot of bundling and long staple length. There is alot of luster down at the skin, too. I don't see much crimp, but once again normal due to the antibiotics she was on. Once again, the vets said her fleece would not be good due to her length of time on antibiotics and other drugs she was on during her first 2 months of life.

We are just so happy to see how great she looks! She is using her leg more every day. She still has a limp. I think she will always have this. Maybe, as she uses it more and more each month that it will slowly get better and the limp will go away. I can hope, can't I?

One final note, we have started posting our alpacas on different websites. We have our website at www.goldenstarfarm.com . We also have 2 other websites. Check them out.
www.openherd.com/FarmPage.aspx?Farm=1693
www.alpacanation.com/farmsandbreeders/03_viewfarm.asp?name=23073

Have a good weekend & Thanksgiving.

Happy Hallowen! It was Spook'tacular!

Halloween was a fun day around our house and it wasn't from trick or treaters. Which we don't get in the country. It was from my foundation female going into labor. She started at 8AM with her typical humming and at 1:50PM a gorgeous md/dark brown male cria was born. He is everything I wanted from the breeding, except I would have preferred a female. Otherwise, he is a nice looking, healthy, active male. Dense fleece with long stable length, straight legs and lots of curls. Here is his picture and yes we named him Spook'tacular!

Hope's One Month X-Rays

Our vet was out on Friday to take x-rays of Hope's leg to send to New Bolton. I have to say I didn't know that they made portable x-ray machine and how NICE they were. The vet comes with everything - even the iron apron you need to wear. Hope was very patient for the x-rays and the vet got great images. The nice part is that the images can be emailed, copied to CD and viewed right there. We had fun blowing up the photos and looking at them. We also got a CD of the x-rays and the software with the images allows us to blow up the x-rays and view them. Pretty cool, Huh!

I called New Bolton today since I hadn't heard from anyone. I was told someone would call me back later once surgery viewed the x-rays. Dr. Norton, who was one of the vet's on duty during her stay, called to discuss everything. She said there is no sign of active infection in the joint. Great. She said the growth plate was compromised and that she may be small overall or the leg may not grow the same length. The good news is that we could allow her to go out with the rest of the herd, stop the antibiotics and just keep an eye on her leg and weight.

I mentioned her weight. She is not gaining as she should be. This is disturbing to us and the vet. There are several reasons why this could be: stress, antibiotics, infection, or maybe not enough milk from the dam. There is no active infection so that cause is taken out of the equation. We are all thinking stress or ulcer since they were alone for so long and we have been catching her every 3 days and injecting medicine into her. We will watch her weight now that she is off the antibiotics. We will only need to inject her once a week for another 2 weeks with some medicine our vet put her on to help the cartilage. That will be over in a few weeks. I am also giving her probios every few days to help with the stress/ulcer and Vitamin ADE&B12 every 2 weeks. We will see if she starts to gain better.

I let her out tonight. I watched her running and pronking in the field with Silver Streak and Dawn. She was having such a ball! I have never seen her so happy. I was worried she would get hurt as I don't want her to strain the leg since she has been inactive on it since birth. However, I let her run as she wanted. I did notice she started to limp when she was done. I left her out with the herd tonight. Tomorrow I only want to leave her out a few hours and then move her and Bellafina back in. I want to slowly give her time out so she doesn't overwork that leg.

New Herdsire

Yesterday was the Magical Farms Auction. If you don't know Magical Farms is one of the largest farms in the US and maybe THE largest with over 1600 alpacas. They usually place first or second in all the major shows and many times come out with a color championship or reserve championship. Why wouldn't they? They have over 1600 animals and can take their best to the shows.

Anyway, I have been wanting a herdsire all year but could not find one I liked. Then, Hope was born and I spent the money for a herdsire and even future breedings on getting her well. I have been trying to figure out who to breed Crystal and Bellafina to and if we could afford it. I didn't want to put Marauder on my top female, Crystal. He is nice, but I don't want to make white out of my dark brown. I want dark brown out of my dark brown. I was figuring I would put him on Bellafina. Unfortunately, I wasn't sure who to breed to Crystal for this year.

I solved my problem yesterday. I am usually very picky about my selection for a future herdsire for the farm. I want a specific crimp style, fineness, and luster plus perfect conformation. I had my eye on two males at the magical farm auction. One of these males, dark brown, did not have a fleece sample posted on-line so I had no clue what his fleece might look like. However, he did have a color championship from MAPACA (Level 5 show) and a few first place ribbons. Obviously, a decent male. The other male, medium fawn, had a fleece picture posted. It looks nice. It is not the high frequency crimp I have been looking for in a fawn or brown, but still nice. You cannot tell fineness without a histogram or touching the alpacas (to see if you like his handle). I signed up for phone bidding on the two males. The first one to come up was the medium fawn, Microman. After that, I didn't bid on the other male. One I couldn't afford two males and two I only needed one male.

Microman is related to two of my girls. One girl, Dawn, already has a scheduled breeding next year and the other one is a white girl. I can always use Marauder on my white girl and had planned to use on that female in the future anyway. Hopefully, by the time Dawn needs a breeding either Silver Streak will be breeding, Dawn may be sold, or Microman is producing solid cria's and we can exchange breedings with someone.

I do have a fear that he isn't as nice as I would like. I would have MUCH preferred to have seen him in person and put my hands on him. However, with a 4.5 wk old baby just not possible to go to Ohio for a weekend and do an auction. We shall see what he looks like when he gets here. This male has 3 color championships, multiple first place ribbons, and two seconds. Obviously, several judges liked him. We shall see. He will be breeding just about my entire herd once he arrives here. He has already settled females at Magical Farm so he is ready to go.

I will post pictures of him once he arrives on the farm. I am waiting on a call from the auction agency to sign paperwork and arrange transport here. I just hope it was the right decision.

NJ Alpaca Classic

We had a great time at the show. Benjamin was a wonderful baby and slept most of the time. He was a bigger hit than the alpacas. Everyone wanted to see him and stopped to ask how old he was. One guy asked me if he was microchipped and what class he was in. Lol.

The first alpaca to go through the ring was Marauder. I was worried about taking a 2-year old breeding male to a show with females all around, but he did great. His class had 6 alpacas in it, but one was disqualified due to a registration error. I like Marauder because he is a big boned male, great conformation and density. In his class, he placed 3rd. Which I consider great since it was his first show and he is 2 years old. He also placed above a male we had considered buying last year so that me feel good, too.

My other alpaca to go through the ring was my medium fawn female, Cassiopeia. We absolutely LOVE Cassie's fleece. Fawn is a very hard class and is always a large class. Ribbons go from 1-6th so inevitable someone or more than one person always walks with nothing. That was the case with Cassie. We walked. It is hard to say why since the judge only comments on the ribbon winners. Cassie would not walk into the ring without some help so I am sure the first impression wasn't all that great. In his reasoning for the placements he commented on fineness and crimp. This judge liked the high frequency crimp, which I know that Cassie does not have. She has a medium frequency crimp, but it is consistent. I feel she did well for her first show, though. We need to work on her walking through the ring and being comfortable so that her conformation shows well. We will put her back into the ring in the Spring show circuit and see how she does. I am confident she will follow in her dam's footsteps and be a ribbon winner. Her dam only has 1st or 2nd place finishes in over 20 shows and one third place in a spin-off. Her dam was very consistent in the show ring for halter and fleece.

Overall, a good show. It was our first show so it was a learning experience for me. It was also a huge learning curve on what we needed to bring, setting up with a baby in tow, color checking, registration, etc. Atleast, now I am better prepared for the next show. :-)

NJ Alpaca Classic & Hope update

I don't want to be optimistic, but in the last few days it looks like Hope is starting to bear more weight on her leg. She still holds it up when standing, but it looks like she is using it more and putting more weight on it when she walks. The vet was out to finish my health certificates for the show this weekend and took a look at her. She said if Hope walks like she is now for the rest of her life she will be happy. Hope holds it slightly out to the side and limps around on it or uses it as a balance. Like, I said since then she seems to be using it more. My imagination or real? My vet also started her on Adequain, which is a medication to help with cartilage. She has had good luck with horses using it. I figured it can't hurt. We need to give it to her until the bottle is gone (about 5 weeks). It is only one shot per week. My only fear is injecting it into the muscle properly. Her hamstring is so tiny. We will figure it out - we always do.

This weekend is the NJ Alpaca Classic. We had planned on showing 3 alpacas, but had to pull Patriotic Star. He is just too thin and we felt he wasn't representative of our breeding program. Maybe, next spring when he bulks up some. He has had a hard time with weight since he was weaned this spring. The pulled a fecal and blood work. We are treating him based on the results so I hope it helps.

Cassiopeia is going to the show this weekend. She is a juvenile female out of our foundation female Crystal. Crystal has won over 20 ribbons in fleece and halter shows so I hope Cassie can follow in her dam's footsteps. I absolutely LOVE Cassie's fleece. I have high hopes for this girl in the show ring. My only disappointment is that we have had so much rain this year some of her leg fiber has come off so it isn't as full as it used to be. Oh well. They are farm animals. Cassie has tough competition in the show ring so we will see how she does. I know some of the girls she is against and it will be tough competition. I will be happy placing at all.

The other alpaca is our 3 year old junior herdsire, Marauder. Marauder has never been in the show ring before so I wanted to see how he would do. My only fear is that white is a tough class - period. He will be competing against accoyo bloodlines. Accoyo is usually the finest fleece. We will see how he does. We like Marauder because of his density and lineage. I am thinking of breeding him to Bellafina this year. I need to save on breeding fees and overall cost in general due to the $7200 vet bill for Hope.

I will post my impressions of the show and how my guy/girl place next week.

Everyone is Home

For the first time since May, all my alpacas are home. Now, I have alot more work to do. :-)

Let's talk about Hope and Bellafina first. We finished up a new area for Hope that is a small paddock connected to the back barn. We have been remodeling the back barn on and off for a year now. We originally had plans to make a birthing area with a small run so we could move close due females there a few weeks before delivery. We opted this spring not to put it in this year since I couldn't really help Rob do it with being pregnant. Obviously, having a premature cria changed those plans. Hope needs a small area where she can recover and be observed for a month or possibly more. When we found out we needed this when we brought them home we went to work. We created a small pen inside the barn with panels, then Rob cut a hole in the side of the barn and framed it in so they could get in and out to the pasture. We fenced in a small 10x15 area of grass for them. It is larger than Hope should be in, but Bellafina needs to be able to stretch her legs and I can still keep an eye on the cria easily. Some pictures of the area are along with pictures of Hope are above.

When we picked them up on Saturday I couldn't believe how big Hope had gotten and feisty. She was struggling to get out of the vet's arms and onto the ground. It was so great to see her. I haven't seen her since before I gave birth on Sept. 4th. Last time I saw her she still couldn't get up on her own and was still on oxygen and IV's. We put Bellafina in the trailer and the vet put Hope in. Hope immediately got up and it was quite obvious that her leg was still in bad shape. She puts it on the ground, but doesn't bear weight on it. When she walks she holds it up like a dog would with an injured leg. She also walks like a few days old cria and not a 3-wk old cria. Given everything she has been through it is amazing she is still here and able to walk.

When we got home I got the scale ready and we weighed them. Hope was born at 14.9 lbs and she was 17.8 yesterday. She isn't too far behind the weight gain she should be (1-2 lbs). We walked Bellafina over to her new paddock; Rob carried Hope. When we released Bellafina it was like she was in heaven. She went and just started to roll in the grass. It was funny. Every few feet Bellafina would lay down and roll. It has been over 3 wks since she has been outside since they were housed in an A/C building and stalled with straw/hay. This was Hope's first time in grass EVER. She tried pronking around in it. She fell once, but overall could run around on 3-legs pretty well. We now know why her front knees are missing fiber and calloused. She falls forward on them and puts alot of weight on them to get up. Hopefully, that will get better as she starts to use all 4-legs. We watched her for awhile and it was cute to see her trying to eat mouth fulls of grass. I forgot to check if her teeth erupted, yet. We gave Hope her shot of antibiotics and Bellafina her Dectomax and left them alone. I also decided to start Hope on AD&E vitamin paste to see if it will help with her bone healing. We typically give it to cria's for the first year of their life anyway.

Later that evening, I decided to coat Hope since it was going down to the mid-40's last night and this being her first night outside. Her fleece is dense, but she is patchy in places where they had to shave her fiber. Also, from the stress of everything she is shedding her fiber like crazy. Rob's shirt was covered in fiber and I could see tufts of it blowing off her. At 1AM, we went out to check her temp to make sure she wasn't too cold and her temp was 100.2. I will have to remove it today so she doesn't get too hot.

The other big event yesterday was the arrival of Tiptoes Lightly or Tipsy (as I call her). We sent her to Oregon in May to be bred. When we bought her she came with a breeding. We decided we would ship her out to get some west coast genetics into our herd. The transport guy showed up at 12:30AM this morning with her. I wish he had shown up earlier so I could talk to him since he is really a great guy. He and his wife dealt with a cria similar to Hope on their farm this year (one of their boarders animals). I know that their cria is fine now and they say you can't tell she had a problem with her front leg. He said she was "lame" on it for awhile. Their cria lost all her fiber so I wonder if Hope will do the same.

Now, we have our work cut-out for us the next few weeks. Hope will need an injection every 3 days for atleast 2 wks (possibly more). We have 4 areas set-up to care for - boys field, Hope/Bellafina's area, Tipsy and Mischievous are in the front girls pasture, and the rest of the girls are in the back pasture. We have to keep an eye on Tipsy for disease/worms from the transport, Mischievous needs some treatment for mites, Hope's injections, and I have to work on halter training for the show in 2 weeks. Cassie is pretty good on a halter, but not good enough to take into a show ring. Marauder is good on a halter, but also needs to be walked around to make sure he will stand properly and show teeth. I am not working on having his testicles looked at/touched. The judge can figure that one out on his own. We decided not to take Patriotic Star since he is still so thin. His fiber is awesome, but right now I don't think he is ready for a show. Maybe in the spring. I am going to try to substitute Armani for Patriotic Star if they let me.

I will let you know how Hope does over the next few weeks. I am just glad everyone is home. Hope seems happy to be outside and gets around well on the stone dust and grass. I just wish it was alittle warmer for her.

Getting Ready for Hope

We got confirmation that Hope and Bellafina can come home tomorrow afternoon. Now, we are rushing around to get a space ready for them. Hope will need to be confined to a small area for a month or more. We do not have "stalls" just shelters opened to 1/4 to 3/4 acre plots. We are working on the back barn, which was slated to be the girls winter barn since it is larger. This past fall we tore off the siding and gutted the barn and put up new siding. In the spring we finished running fencing and stopped since I was pregnant. About a month ago, we put in stone dust to make up the floor of the barn and installed a gate onto the shelter to make a herd health area and an area where we can put hay, grain, etc.

Now, we are sectioning off a small area for Hope. It will be the sick/birthing area in the future. There will be small section inside the shelter and then an opening into a small run so they can get some pasture and sunlight time. It is a small area, but that is what Hope needs right now. Right now, we have posts in and will start running the fencing. We need to cut the hole in the wall and finish off the A at the top of the barn. Alot of work to do, but we have today and tomorrow to work on it. They also suggested using straw to help her footing so we need to buy some. We typically don't use straw in the barns.

I have not seen Hope since before our son was born so I am looking forward to seeing her again. It looks like her care is to keep her confined for a month or more (depending on how the leg heals). Antibiotics injected under the skin every 3 days for 2-4 wks. New Bolton said 2 wks and my vet said 4 wks. New Bolton wants x-rays redone in 4 wks to check on the leg.

Apparently, the surgeon didn't want to do surgery on the leg since she was getting around well and trying to use the leg. He felt it would be better to wait to see if she could fully recover the use of the leg. His theory was that they could always do surgery later, if needed. We will see how she does when she is home. I will need to keep an eye on the leg to make sure the swelling doesn't get worse, but I think we can handle it.

Surgery was scheduled and Cancelled by the Surgeons

Sorry for not blogging about Hope, but my new son is keeping me busy. Anyway, on Thursday (last week) I was told Hope would be the clinical round focus on Friday for the surgical unit. She was not responding as well to the treatment so they were looking at other options to help her leg. On Friday afternoon, I got a call with my "options" for Hope. These were tough options when you consider the financial and time involved with each option. I was assured with each option that she could still be a breedable alpaca. However, due to the antibiotics she has been on and her premature status she may end up being a small alpaca. The leg will be non-functional and would be used as a peg leg for her entire life. I was told she would still be able to cush and get around well no matter what option we did.

Option #1- Long term antibiotics. Hope would come home in a week or so, but would be on antibiotics for up to one year. I was told that the joint is so far gone that eventually it would fuse together and she would use it as a peg leg. She may still need surgery later.

Option #2 - Surgery. They would go in and scrape the joint to get most of the infection out. They would put in a bone graft from her hip and help the joint to fuse quicker. They would also put in antibiotics directly there while they were in there. This would speed up the joint fusion and she would spend less time on the antibiotics. She would need about 2-3 wks of antibiotics and confinement for 2-3 months.

We decided to talk to our vet about the options. We asked her to talk to the vets there and the surgeons. After talking to her, she assured us either option is do-able and we could even look into herbal remedies if we choose option #1. It was up to us. She said the surgeon is very good and she has confidence in him. On Monday, we talked to the surgeon ourselves and then debated some more. After alot of discussion, we figured we came this far we might as well go all the way and do the surgery. Why spend all this money and stop here. Plus, a year's worth of antibiotics seemed excessive to me. I talked to the vet and gave permission to do the surgery.

I got a call on Monday afternoon saying she would be operated on Tuesday morning and they would call Tuesday afternoon with updates. Tuesday mid-morning comes and the phone rings. I figured something went wrong with the surgery. No. They evaluated her that morning and decided it was NOT in her best interest to help the joint fuse at this time. They said she has full range of motion in the joint and is comfortable with it. She is getting around well on 3-legs. So, they recommended waiting 2-3 days and see how she does and they would do some physical therapy on the leg. Okay... now I am confused.

Today, I get a call and am told she is doing well. She tip-toes around on the leg, but gets around well. She is gaining weight, nursing well, everything looks good. They said today they would move her off the IV antibiotics onto a sub-Q injectable and if she looks well tomorrow then she would be able to come home Friday afternoon.

Needless to say, I am happy that she is doing well and doesn't need surgery. However, I am confused about what changed between Mon and Tues. Also, today they said they think they are on top of the infection, which is contrary to what they have said on Friday. When I asked about her care when she came home, I was told 2 wks of antibiotics (every 3 days for the injection) and then to come back or have our vet do x-rays in 4 weeks for them to see how the leg looks.

As you can see, we have been busy with decisions and then trying to figure out why opinions changed there. I guess new vets came on or clinically something got better. I am not sure, but happy to hopefully have them home soon. Tomorrow, I need to get a stall space ready since she will need to be confined for a few weeks to a month.

Hope is on the way to recovery Finally!!!

It looks like Hope will be at New Bolton atleast this week and maybe most of next week, but she is finally responding to treatment. I talked to the vet shortly on Friday, but I was in the hospital in Labor so it was a short conversation. Today, I talked to her in more depth. The cria is doing well. On Friday, they were worried because she was starting to refuse the bottle. Apparently, Hope has decided she doesn't want a bottle she wants to nurse off the dam. They left her in with the dam Sunday night and she nursed on her own and gained weight. They are going to wean her off the IV nutrition and fluids so she can be in with Bellafina full time.

Hope is also getting up and down on her own finally. She is putting her inflamed leg down, but not bearing full weight on it. However, the infection has went from a white cell count in the joint of 250K to 75K so we are finally going in the right direction. Hopefully, it continues to go down quickly. They will redo x-rays in a few days. They are flushing the joint and injecting antibiotics directly into it every few days. They give a break to limit the inflammation from them manipulating the joint.

The lung x-rays on Friday showed that they are recovering and the damage is not as severe as it was. They took her completely off oxygen supplementation last Thursday evening.

Hope will continue to stay at New Bolton until the infection in the joint is gone and she is bearing full weight on her leg. She will be there atleast for this week and probably part of or all of next week. Atleast, she is going to make it and it looks like she will be able to keep her leg.

Leg Infection Not Responding to Treatment

The news this morning was not good. They have been flushing the joint every day and directly injecting antibiotics into the joint. Last night, they pulled fluid from the joint again to see if the white blood cell count in that area was going down. No such luck. It actually went up. The x-rays showed that the area next to it, which is the growth plate, had more inflammation that the last set of x-rays. Thus, it is actually spreading. Not good news. Her prognosis went from good back to guarded again.

They need to more aggressively treat this. They are going to put a tourniquet onto her leg today and inject antibiotics directly into the vein and leave the tourniquet on for 10-15 min and then remove. They are also going to put two different antibiotics into her blood stream via the IV to get it through the entire body and not just the joint. She was getting Naxcel only to treat the lungs/septicemia. They think the septicemia in the blood is gone, but that it settled into this particular joint. We will have to wait for 2-3 days to see if this new treatment is working. If not, the option is probably to put her down. The vet wasn't too optimistic about her life if this new treatment doesn't work.

There is some good news, but it really means nothing if the leg infection doesn't clear up. They have been slowly decreasing her oxygen supplementation. As I mentioned yesterday, her breathing sounded better to me. They took her completely off the oxygen last night and she is breathing fine on her own. Dr. Norton said she is much happier without the nose tube in her. She is also putting her leg down and trying to use it. However, I think that is due to the pain meds she is on.

She didn't gain any weight the last day. They are going to increase her milk again. She thinks that she is using all her reserves to fight the infection.

Today was not the turn for the better I was hoping to get. Will the outlook for Hope ever turn? Is her body strong enough to fight the infection and beat it? I wonder if everything is just too much for her. She is officially 1 week old today and still struggling.

Progess Forward

Once again today I drove up to New Bolton to see my little Hope and her dam. The vet was all smiles when she saw me. I was alittle annoyed with her since she doesn't update me as much as her predecessor did. Anyway, she said overall she saw an improvement in Hope. She tried to put her rear leg down instead of holding it up. She also is gulping down the milk they are bottle feeding her so they are increasing the amount she gets each time.

I spent some time in the stall with them and I have to say even drugged out she seemed better. Her breathing could be heard, but it didn't seem raspy to me like it did just 2 days ago. When she held her head up it was steadier and her ears are starting to be erect instead of floppy. The ends are curling slightly, but atleast they are not flopped back on her head like they have been since birth. She was pretty out of it when I was there since she had just had a dose of pain meds about an hour before. However, I was petting her (I know I shouldn't be, but she is so sick) and she leaned into my hand. She seemed to know I was there and talking to her.

They are helping her stand every 2 hrs when they feed her. The vet was hoping that they could pull more fluid and run today to see if the infection is getting better. She had to talk to the surgon who flushes the joint tonight when he shows up to the procedure.

I am hoping today is a turning point and from here on out we see that she is getting better each day. Hopefully, the infection doesn't spread again. We shall see what tomorrow and the next few days brings. I think tomorrow they are going to do x-rays of the lungs and leg to see what changes, if any, have occurred.

Infected Hock - rear leg joint

As I mentioned in the post yesterday, Hope had started to stop bearing weight on one of her rear legs. They took x-rays yesterday and did a nerve test and things looked normal. They wanted to pull fluid from her joint and test for infection since in horses the septic conditions can go into their joints. Not really normal for alpacas. This morning, I was told that the joint is infected with a white blood cell count of 150K in the fluid joint. *sigh* One step forward and a huge step back. The concern now is to get it treated and hope it doesn't spread to other joints or the bone. They flushed the joint with saline and injected it with antibiotics. They will do this every day. She said Hope is sore and they are giving some pain meds to her. At noon, they are increasing the pain med dose because she seems uncomfortable right now. She said they don't want to increase this med too much because it is also a sedative along with a pain med. If this evening she still seems to be in pain then they will use banamine or another pain med. They don't like to use these in neonates since it has effects on the kidney's - a more serious problem.

In a day or two, they will take x-rays again of both the leg and lungs. Hopefully, we will see improvement in the lungs and leg. They will pull fluid from the joint in a day or two, too, to check the levels and make sure they are on top of it.

Poor little Hope. I hope she has enough fight in her to fight this next infection. Unfortunately, it also means that there is no time frame on when she can come home. Keep this little one in your thoughts and prayers.

The good news is that she is really taking off on the bottle so they will increase her milk consumption. Her weight isn't going up, yet. Hopefully with getting milk it will put some weight onto her.

I went to see Hope today....

Today, after my Dr. appt, I drove over to New Bolton to see Hope and Bellafina. Hope was very tired and could barely keep her eyes open while I was there. She had just come from radiology and had a busy morning. They also were finishing up bottle feeding her when I walked in. Poor little girl. She was shivering when I walked in. I asked them to put a blanket on her. They said it was probably from being on the metal plates in x-ray and it is chilly in that building. Anyway, she actually drank from a bottle today. They said as she gets nutrition from the milk they will back off the IV nutrition. Thankfully, Bellafina is co-operating and they are milking her out so Hope is getting mom's milk. Bellafina hates her abdomen touched, but she is letting them milk her out. When I tried to take the plugs out she screamed and spit and started to cush. Of course, they have been milking her out since Friday so I guess she is getting used to it by now. As they milk her, she just stares at her cria. Poor mom.

Today was the first day that Hope accepted the bottle. She drank the entire contents of the bottle. She isn't stable enough on her feet yet to stand under mom and I will talk about this soon. They said when she is taking 10% of her body weight in milk then the IV nutrition will be stopped. As she increases her milk consumption, they will back off on the IV nutrition so she gets less and less from the IV and more from the bottle. Thankfully, she is getting mom's milk.

Her lungs are sounding the same as yesterday, but better than Saturday. They will retake the lung x-ray in a few days to see how they are doing. Hopefully, it will show less disease. They have backed off the oxygen some and she is doing well with this. I noticed she was raspy sounding when she breathed, but not as bad as she was on Thursday. Her breathing was what prompted me to take her to New Bolton to begin with. They said her lungs sound less watery when they listen to her. She won't be able to come home until her lungs heal so I hope she continues on the right path and they get better each day. Although, I know it will take time.

The new development is that she took a few steps today! However, they noticed she won't weight bear on the one back leg. This is odd since she was weight bearing on them when she was born. They tested her reflexes and nothing showed nerve damage. They took her to get x-rays of the leg and that didn't show any structural abnormalities. The next thing they wanted to do was take a fluid sample from the joint and see if there was an infection in the hock. Apparently, this is common in horses when they are septic, but not so much with alpacas. I should have the results tomorrow- if they could get enough fluid. I understand why the need to do this, but the leg was fine before. I am wondering if she could have just tweaked the hock when she was only using her rear legs to get up and stand. She took several tumbles. However, I don't want to not do the test and then she ends up with a bone infection too. We shall see. I am just happy that she is standing for 10 min at a time and finally took a few steps. She still cannot get up on her own, but they think once she weight bears on that back leg she will have an easier time balancing and getting up.

It seems one thing gets better, but something else comes up. I asked about when she might be able to come home and there is no answer on that. She needs to be able to be off the oxygen and getting up on her own. I am hoping the end of next week. I was hoping the end of this week, but that isn't going to happen.

I am happy to see that her chance of survival is much higher right now. If her lungs would just clear up I think she will be a normal cria and pronking in the field in no time. Praying for the best! I will be visiting her again on Wed and I hope to see more improvement. Until then, I await the morning updates. As long as I don't get a call in the evening or overnight she is doing well.

Sunday Update - Star of Hope

We decided to name this cria Hope.

Hope is doing better today and has definite improvements. She is steadier with head movements, standing, etc. Her heart rate is stable and strong. Her blood work is all in line. Her suckle reflex is stronger than it has been (good to begin with) and more coordinated. They are going to keep her on IV nutrition today, but try to add milk to her diet tomorrow. The septicemia is responding to the antibiotics. The best news is that her lungs sound slightly better today. Overall a very good update.

They have been milking Bellafina out in hopes to feed the cria the milk when she is ready for it. Her milk supply did go down due to the stress of the hospital setting and the cria not nursing. However, they gave her domperidone and it has went back up again. Bellafina is one of those moms that will dry up and then get her milk back if the cria wants to nurse again so she should be good on milk supply.

We are optimistic about the progress today. We hope that Hope will continue to improve and not suffer any set-backs. I plan on going up tomorrow to see for myself how they are doing. I also want to see if I can take a few pictures to post here.

Cria Update - Saturday

I just got off the phone with the vet. Our little girl is holding her own, but is up and down. The good news at this point is that she can stand on her own for 3-4 min at a time and it actively looking around and alert. The blood work shows that they are making progress on the septicemia, which is great. The bad news is that her lungs are not improving at all. She is not moving air very well through the lungs and they are not showing signs of improvement. She said the outlook is still unknown on whether she will improve or crash. She said they are keeping a close eye on her and at this point won't be changing her treatment. They are hoping she doesn't get worse as this is the critical time period. As usual, no news is good so now I have to wait for tomorrow's update unless something goes wrong.

Alpaca Alarm - Starved Cat

First off, no word from New Bolton today. They said no news is good news. I assume when the main vet comes in tonight I will get a call with a progress report.

Second, I was looking out at my alpacas and saw one of girls alarming at the back fence. I looked around to see what she saw. I saw this orange/fawn animal on the ground and it looked like it was in their fence area. Okay... I don't have a new cria due until the end of Oct and that female was in the back pasture grazing. I decided to go out and see what the foreign creature was.

I found an orange cat cleaning itself between the girl's pasture fence and the old fence that we left as a property marker. I startled it when I walked up, but after calling to it the cat came up to the fence to be petted. It is very thin, but friendly. I decided to walk over to it and see if it would follow me back to the house to eat. I left the pasture and walked all the way around the field to get to the cat. I kept calling to it and it followed me to the house. I got some cat food and put out. The poor thing ate like it hasn't eaten in ages. I left it to eat.

I am not sure what to do with the poor thing. It is either a drop-off or wild. I have attempted to adopt a few kittens here, but they always disappear within a month. My husband is not a big cat fan and would prefer not to have them around. However, I like to have them around the barn to eat the mice since I hate snakes. He would rather have the snakes. We shall see if it hangs around. If it continues to hang around and isn't too much of a tease to our dogs then I will take it to the vet and get it shots, wormed and fixed. Not sure if it is male or female since I didn't look. My guess is our current barn cat will chase it off since she likes to be the only cat. I feel better that the poor thing got some food in it, though. Very pretty orange cat.

I just thought I would post something upbeat for a change. Oh yeah, the alpacas alarmed the whole time I was coaxing the cat to follow me. We were not even in their field or near them. Lol. For some reason, my girls don't tolerate cats very well. They don't mind the deer or turkey's, but those cats are another matter.....