Lots going on

I have a new website up for the alpacas, http://www.freewebs.com/mypetalpaca/. I encourage you to check it out and let me know what you think. Hopefully these alpacas will find a good home. Then we can get some more animals and start all over again. We are treading softly as to not get in over our heads without any experience.
Lately I feel like I have so much to do, but this heat makes me sooo tired. Part of me just can't wait for it to get cold again. The other part of me wants to go play in the sun until I can't move. I haven't bible studied like I should lately. I tried to sit down with my husband tonight to bible study. What do you know? We got into a small disagreement before we even got started reading. It was about something unrelated to reading. It was really frustrating. I got upset, so Mike said that he didn't want to listen anymore. We could do it another day. At least I got out one paragraph on psalms 150. Better than nothing. I went and curled up in my room to read by myself.
The alpacas are all looking much better. The blonde is healing very nicely. I'm still waiting on shampoo for the suri with the skin condition. The limping suri is doing very well. He lightly favors the leg now. The other day, I realized that Frankie has a wound. He damaged his eye. It had pink and swollen tissue around the inside of the eye. He has a small puncture wound on his snout, near his nose. He also has a mild abrasion on the end of his snout next to his nose. What he did I have no idea, but his eye is returned to normal. His abrasion has healed nicely, but I am still watching the small puncture wound. I get nervous at that because I know that puncture wounds are bacteria heaven.
Alrightie. I should treat myself to a bit early of a bed time.

Alpaca update

We haltered the alpaca and strapped him up so that we could better tend the wound today. It wasn't too bad. Its gotten really pussy, but we did not find any maggots dead or alive in it tonight. We cleaned it out really well, removing all infectious material and applied the ointment and fly repellent. The vet said that as long as the alpaca started progressing in a positive direction that further action, including antibiotics, would not be necessary. This alpaca has such a sweet timid demeanor. I feel terrible putting him through the ringer like this. He was surprisingly cooperative while we were cleaning him up. Maybe he knew we were helping. There was only a few times he tried to fight, but I think that had a lot to do with the cold water on a cool day, especially when it splashed his jewels. Well, I guess officially he doesn't have jewels though. lol.
Tomorrow we go pick up some more fencing and go to the county auction. Our neighbor bought some pygmy goats and he said that our alpacas can come over and help knock down his overgrowth if we'd like. Pygmy goats, how cute.

Alpaca owie

Okay, our luck is not running so hot. The one alpaca who got cut while shearing is not looking good. He has the ever disgusting maggots in his wound now. So now we get to pick all those out. We had him in the small pin by the house to easily administer care. He was held with another alpaca and stayed there for a couple days. Last night something spooked them and the injured alpaca jumped, flopped and somersaulted over the fence bending it over. So we had to go chase down a panic stricken alpaca in the dark.

*sigh*

So now we also have a limping alpaca that we are eyeing. We found out that the alpaca that supposedly has staff actually has some other skin infection, so we are waiting on the shampoo to treat that one.

Now anyone want to see the gross owie. :) No maggots can be seen here, but there are some flies. We had blue Kot on the wound, but now we found from the vet that we cannot use that anymore with the present infection. I could blow it up more and really gross you out, but I thought I would spare my queasy friends.

Alpacas now enjoying the sun

Here are some pictures of the alpacas enjoying the sun. Before at this time of day they were hiding out under the shade trees. Now they are laying out in the sun, grazing in the sun, playing and enjoying themselves. I brought out the sprinkler; not because they looked hot, but because they love the water. Oh, and I also found out that before I had hosed them off incorrectly. You do not run water over their back before they have been shorn. This actually over heats them having all that water over their heavy fleece. You are suppose to only get their underbellies wet. That is where their cooling gauge is at also. It would be best to use a hose and do it yourself. If you set up a sprinkler going about 2 ft high, they will just lie down under it and get their top fleece wet.
So here are the pictures!!

Bishop is very curious and checks out the camera

Check out the awesome goatee that John Merrell left on Bishop!

Name the Alpaca!!

When we puchased these alpacas, they had no names. We have named most of them (yes yes, I know. It was pointed out to me today that I had mentioned I wasnt going to name then. TOUGH!! We're naming them)
ANYWAY. We have a couple that we have no names for. All opinions and suggestions are highly welcomed.





This grey we would like to name something... Egyptian.















This black one with a white face seems to be a white alpaca hiding in a black suit.






















This suri here with dark eye fleece

And finally this cream/butterscotch colored one

Shearing Success!!

We now have 12 sheared alpacas! John Merrell , who owns Gateway Farm Alpacas, is a life savor. He came all the way from his ranch in Scio, Oregon to spend a day shearing our alpacas. Not only did he shear our alpacas, but he taught us how to shear, catch, harness train, work with, toenail trimming, teeth care, feeding, paddock rotation and setup, and various other valuable tips and advice. He was very motivating and exciting to have at our "ranch". I found John by doing a Google search for shearing. He by far has the best shearing information anywhere. He even has a blow by blow chart on shearing. He also does shear sharpening for a fabulous price. He was so down to earth and a GREAT teacher. Can a brag about him more? Yes. He is definitely a valuable resource for the alpaca novice. Well, I imagine for the experienced also. So he has won a permanent link on my blog site.
Here is John checking out his work. All the alpacas looks so delicate after shearing.





John taught me how to properly hold the alpaca's ears while shearing the neck and face.








Here is John shearing up the neck

Here is John shearing the prime fiber, or blanket, off of the alpaca.

John is pointing out the alpaca's fighting teeth. They were previously removed, but have since begun to grow in. We didn't have all the tools we needed to remove them today, but he said that they should be removed soon. They are basically sawed off with an OB wire with handles.

There are more pictures on my mother's camera, so when I get a disc of those pictures I will post some more related to the shear-a-thon.

Shearing day rescheduled

Okay, now tomorrow is going to be the shearing day. I have a shearer coming over, my mother, my sister and her son and my cousin. Along with myself and my husband, I think all should go well. Im really curious as to how the wild ones are going to go....