Looking Forward

Many people may think it strange to be baring your soul to anyone who can surf the internet and read my blog, but I feel it helps me emotionally to write things down and I also think if it can help anyone else facing a similar situation, then it is not all in vain.  It helps to share as it can be very lonely struggling through a situation whatever it maybe, and to have people comment and offer support can be very comforting.

Now its been an horrendous week and I shan't be sorry to see the end of it and the end of January!!

Its always sad to loose any animal, and I find it hard to accept the loss of our little Zeus, not only for the time I had spent nursing him over the last 3 1/2 weeks and getting to know him, but also for the fact it is a big loss to our herd!

Zeus had been sired by a stud from outside our herd,  and we had high hopes of him becoming our next Suri Stud Male and bringing new blood into our herd.  So this has been both a emotional and financial loss!  We will now to need to rethink future breeding plans.

Along with the loss of Zeus we feared the loss of our beloved little Jack Russel dog, Midgey.

Midgey with Angel our German Shepherd with Milli sat behind.

Midgey unknown to us was suffering from closed  "Pyometra" she had a serious infection in her womb, but we didn't know how seriously ill she was.  Monday she was fine, but Tuesday she had gone off her food and seem depressed, but we put it down to the weather, she hates the winter and spends most of her time curled up alseep under her duvet.  But knew things were more serious when she didn't want her evening gravy bone treats, she never turned her nose at these. Our dogs live in our tack room in the barn and have the run of the yard and gardens.  Tony normally puts them to bed when he puts the BG's into their stable, I had mentioned Midgey didn't want her breakfast in the morning, but had been out a bit during the day, but he bought her into the mobile saying she had refused her gravy bones which was not like her at all!  We decided to keep her in the mobile overnight to keep an eye on her, she quite happily settled into her box and went to sleep. The next day, (Wednesday the day we lost Zeus) she seemed more herself went out for a toilet, she had her breakfast and seemed ok. 

We decided to bring her into the mobile again that evening to keep an eye on her, she seemed quite happy and even managed to pinch some of the cat food.  But during the night she took a turn for the worst, she was sick but I put this down to the cat food being too rich for her, she also had a couple accidents on the floor, not like midgey at all.

In the morning she was very subdued and again vomited but this time it was clear sticky fluid.  By the time we got her to the vet she was floppy and not responding much at all.  The vet checked her and said she suspected the closed pyometra and scanned her to confirm this.

The vet said she was seriously ill and there was only really one course of action, she required a full hysterectomy, if she did not have this she would almost certainly die from poisoning.  We sign the forms and said our goodbyes.  It was back home for a long couple of hours while they operated.  As with all operations there is a risk, even more so with an older animal who was seriously ill.  My youngest daughter, Natalie was amazing, without her I don't know how I would of got through it.

A couple of hours later we had not heard anything, so I phoned the vets.  She had come through the operation and was just coming around, so the first hurdle had been overcome, but they were concerned that she had flickering eyes which could indicate that the infection had started to spread into the rest of her body affecting her other organs.  Her head was also falling to one side indicating there maybe some brain damage!  Only time would tell and we would have to wait and see.

The next morning I phoned to see how she was, there had been very little change, she still had flickering eyes but she was still under sedation, that evening we went to see her and omg I wish I had not gone, our poor little     dog just lay there not even recognized  us, had I done the right thing? should I have just put her out of her misery.  The vets assured us she was not in pain and was still under sedation, and we must give her time to recover.  We went home and updated the family of the situation, we had made the decision if we did not see any signs of recovery by Monday we would make the heart breaking decision to have her put down.

It was a very difficult night and I had very little sleep, I got up as usually as there where all the other animals needing feeding, I was due to phone the vets at 9.30am to get an update, but at 8am my phone rang, I could see it was the vet phoning and my heart nearly stopped, thinking they were ringing with bad news.  But I heard the words "we have some good news" midgey had made a good recovery during the night and had started eating her chicken and was moving around, all be it very wobbly but this was a big step and they were very pleased with her progress.  

At 11am I went to visit her, what a difference, she was standing up, all be it very wobbly and she nuzzled me for a cuddle.  Her head was still slightly to one side, but this was a huge improvement. 

Again this morning(Sunday) the vet phoned with even better news, she was now eating proper dog food and has been out for a little walk.  She has been taken of the drip and was now just on oral medication.  They want to keep her in for the rest of the day but are sure she will be able to come home tomorrow.

So I am now trying to look forward to the new week and trying to put this awful week behind me.

I have always had bitches and never experienced anything like this, I now see why getting a bitch spayed at an early age is not just to stop unwanted pregnancies but also to prevent this awful thing "Pyometra".  There are two types of pyometra - open and closed.  Unfortunately midge had a closed one which means the cervix stays closed and the infection can not escape from the womb, if she had suffered the open one maybe we would have notice the problem sooner as she would have suffer from discharge and the infection wouldn't have built up so much and this can be treated with anti-biotics.

All un-spayed can be susceptible to this problem no matter what age, although it can be more common in older girls.  So a very important lesson to us and anyone else who may read this blog - "Get Your Bitches Spayed" as early as you can.  I wouldn't want to go through this again and I am sure you wouldn't want to either.

The truth behind Alpaca guarding abilities

I am sure as owners/breeders we all know the value of alpaca's as field guards, and I myself have witnessed my alpaca's gathering together and screech when someone unwelcome has entered their field.  When the BG's arrived they screech on and off for a week!

I always know if there is someone unwelcome around as the girls heads will go up and usually someone will make the classical high pitch screech, I have even seen them gather together in a bunch and start marching towards whatever they find threatening.  I know if someone is walking a dog along the lane, as again their heads will go up and they will stand staring until they have gone.

At the moment we seem to have quite a few foxes around, even in the daytime!! Just the other day I was at the top of the field feeding the boys and saw the girls charging up the field chasing what at first I thought was our cat (which I thought was very strange! as they are used to the cat and don't generally find the cat a threat) but as they got closer it turned out to be a fox and he was running for his life!! with the girls in hot pursuit, they only stopped when the fox jumped the fence into the next field.  And even then some of the girl were still screeching and hanging around the fence where the fox had disappeared!

So I was interested in reading the following article.  http://www.smallholder-agriculture.co.uk/articles/the-truth-behind-alpaca-guarding-abilities-73/

I also think its very interesting that they seem to know who is a threat and who is not, they get accustomed to family dogs and don't find them a threat.

Here is Ewen and Cosmo with our dogs, Ewen loves our dogs, and always comes over to see them.

I also remember reading a newspaper article about Prince Charles having four gelded alpacas guarding his lambs.  I believe alpacas make excellent field guards and am happy to promote alpacas as field guards and It would be very interesting to hear about other peoples views and experience on this subject.

Shearing

Well the shearing is all done, we had a great day. The shearers were brilliant as always, quick, caring and efficient.

Its not a day I enjoy, watching the alpacas stretched out on the mats, but I know it has to be done and its the kindest way to do it. And once its all over they all seem to settle down very quickly.

Although it didnt rain, we did have a bit of a wind problem (of course thats weather wind not personal wind!!) but being in the barn worked well. It all went a lot smoother with the help of my brilliant Sister Anne and her husband Andy, as it cant be quite frantic at times keeping up with the shearers!!

We also had some lovely people come to watch the big event, some lovely ladies from the Walsall Spinners, who went home with some lovely fleece hot of the alpacas backs lol and some very happy and keen proud new owners of three lovely boys, who also went home with their boys fleeces hot of their backs.

Here's a couple of photos kindly send to me by my visitors, I was so busy, although I had the camera handy, just didnt have time to stop and take photos.

I was a bit worried the next day, as it rained all day!! and the poor alpacas had no coats on!! I wanted to go out and put little rugs on them, but didnt have enough lol.

But on Tuesday, they were all very happy to have no fleece on as it got very hot again.



So thats important date number 1 over, now to important date number 2 - Open day!!

Ginnie