It's been a while since I last penned a few words,truth is, it's been a hard and unhappy week for the Quelvehin gang. Hope, our premature cria succumbed to the bacterial onslaught that mother nature threw at her,and without a chance to develop any immunity had been in rapid decline all week.
With no chance of recovery it was with much sadness her life was ended this afternoon.
Without the plasma infusion we knew this was always a risk. Doesn't make it any easier though.
Thanks to everyone for their help and advice. Hope to write some happier stuff soon.

For Andy and Angie

Just a quick photo gallery tonight. I promised I would,so here are the Searlies getting stuck in on their 'Alpaca experience' week.

Introduction

Haltering

Handling

Weighing

Toenail Trimming

Walking

Mating

Just thought I'd include this one because I looked quite brown and muscular

Washing

And of course........

A few days off !

Hannah & Hope

Heidi, Hendrix & Hannah

Hope

Well, it's been a while. Busy,busy,busy you see.Added to which, we've had no telephone/internet connection for nearly a week due to some plonker with a crane who loaded my phone line on to his truck as well as the tree trunks he was collecting down the lane. I've also had a bit of a week off actually,doing holiday stuff with oldest and dearest friends that came to stay.Lots of sight seeing, swimming in the sea etc....and my very first game of golf! A thoroughly enjoyable afternoon.Needless to say I was not exactly Tiger Woods but eventually finished at the clubhouse bar which I think is the object of the game!
It wasn't all fun and frolics for the guests though.There was still spit-offs and matings to do,and of course, poo-picking, but they soon got the hang of it.
They loved the alpacas, and Hope won the 'most aaahhs' competition as she still nuzzles between your legs searching out the bottle. She's doing very well by the way, and is now in the field with all the others trying very hard to be an alpaca. She is still half the size of the other cria born at the same time and it is actually her due birth date today! She weighed in this afternoon at just over nine kilos and I reckon when she hits double figures she should be strong enough to cope with her vaccination.
Must go and do the rain dance now,getting desperately short of green stuff out there.

and another one

Cria number four popped into the Quelvehin troupe this afternoon almost unnoticed .This was typical of Bella,the most casual of mums! All the cria she has given us have just appeared as if by magic.Washed and dressed and with a full belly. Never any indication of it's likely arrival.
A boy this time, 8 kilos of chocolate brown, out of Daniel, and looking just like his dad.
We are so pleased with our lot this year. It was our intention to try to put colours into the herd with our matings last season and it's all worked perfectly.
Hope,our 5 week early girl has truly found her legs now and has been pronking around the paddock with a somewhat happier mother. We shall stop her antibiotics after tomorrow then the real test starts for her immune system. Fingers crossed.

Permission to blog accepted !!

Its not very often I am given permission to blog, so I better get on with it, before him indoors changes his mind !
After such a busy and stressful week, I was really looking forward to a couple of days away at Vierzon at the weekend. Marie Geneviève of the Alpaga Développement had invited Mary Jo from Bozedown to give a fleece course at her château. So Friday lunchtime Jacques Olivier picked me up and off we set, stopping off briefly at an appointed rendez-vous point to pick up Orla from Vaux Hardy Alpacas. We arrived about 6 .00 and met up at the Auberge Restaurant, a favourite haunt of Marie-Geneviève's, where the food is wonderful and the price is reasonable.
After a few bevvies and full stomachs, we all retired. Mary Jo and her friend excusing themselves earlier as they had been up since 4 am and had had to cope with a tedious hour and a half route around Paris.
The next morning we awoke to a dry and sunny day and headed off to the Château de Rozay. The château itself dates back in parts to the 15th century and is surrounded by its own moat.
Until M.G. brought it, 10 years ago, the château had never been sold. Passing down through the family for generations, until the last countess and is now badly in need of renovation.Entering into the courtyard is like stepping back in time. The ornamental gardens, around the back of the château were a picture with rambling old roses and honeysuckle. Over the stone wall, which surrounds the large courtyard, you enter into an enchanted wood which then leads to further lawned areas, where M.G. can enjoy her alpacas close up. Never have I seen a marriage so perfect, alpacas with the back drop of a 15th century château - one made for the other.
Mary Jo started the course outlining the importance of good conformation, something she feels represents the building blocks of a good, healthy herd from which to build on. During the course of the day ,we were able to get our hands on some pretty outstanding fleeces, that she calls her elite fleeces. Starting with the basic fleece language, she then proceeded to talk through with us her breeding aims and how she achieved them, bringing out Sire and then progeny fleeces from several generations for us to see the progress. Back in October Jacques was lucky enough to win a free mating with Bozedown Period donated by M.G. in the raffle. At that point he had not yet brought his animals, so the mating is still pending. The look on his face when he saw the progeny fleeces of Pernod was a picture, the smile went from ear to ear - what a prize !!
The day for me, was slightly spoilt by the news that little Hope had taken a step back but having one of the biggest breeders in England sitting across the table with advice helped and I realized
that without Plasma I had to accept whatever fate throw our way, as many have done before.
We arrived back in the early hours of Sunday morning, exhausted (Jacque still smiling).
Many thanks to Mary Jo for such an informative course and for making the journey, and also to Gaby and Michel for their translation, which at some times was challenging - what is the correct translation for 'bum fluff' when talking about cria shearing - anyone know ?!!!!

All legs and raincoat

One week old and still hanging on. Hope continues to pull at our heart strings, laying comatose for long periods of time, and then, just as we give up on her, she has a dogged determination to live and gets up and totters about. Today has been her best day yet with more time spent awake and alert. She is attempting to suckle from mum and is starting to become more wary of us which is good.

A story of hope

We had just finished weighing and vaccinating the cria and attending to biscuits aftercare

when the rain started. We collected together all the paraphernalia and started to leave the field. As we left I noticed Bali had taken herself off to the opposite side of the field and was sitting alone under the big oak tree. She was still there some time later. The spot she had chosen was a favorite place for the alpacas, a large dust bowl they had created for rolling in. But not today. The rain was lashing down and it was more sludge that dust. Too far away to see for sure, but was that something beside her? I flicked up the hood on my coat and trudged down the field wondering how other folk spend a rainy afternoon.

As I approached her she didn’t move away as I expected but pointed her nose at the package on the floor and then looked at me with an expression that just said “whoops”

Her pregnancy still had five weeks to go and the helpless little bundle was laying in all the dust and sludge.

In normal circumstances mum and baby should be allowed to bond a while before we intervene but these were not normal circumstances. I gathered it up and headed out of the rain trying to coax Bali to follow. She wouldn’t and seemed pre occupied with the birthing spot. Eventually, after what seemed ages we managed to halter her and led her out the field into the barn where we were able to clean the cria up and dry it off.

It was another girl sired by Atlas, very dark solid brown almost black around the head.

She was too weak to stand and could barely hold up her head and obviously wasn’t going to suckle from mum any time soon but we decided to give it a couple of hours to see if she progressed. We kept her warm and monitored the temperature.

Eventually we had to try and get mums colostrum into a bottle and feed the cria. Not a task I was looking forward to as Bali is the most obnoxious alpaca we own.

She growls and slobbers and kicks every time you lay a hand on her.

One of my French purchases before I knew any better.

But a mans got to do what a mans got to do and as the night air turned blue and the spit flew I managed to get a little, not enough really, but it was something at least. We got it into the cria who surprisingly had a strong sucking reflex we also gave it powdered colostrum. I think it was around this time we noticed the blood on the floor and it wasn’t coming from the gash on my neck from a particularly well aimed kick moments before. It was coming from under the cria. Her umbilical cord, what little bit there was, was hemorrhaging and a clamp and more iodine was called for.

She was getting weaker and I really wanted more of mum’s milk. We decided to give it another go. The softly softly approach bore no fruit and soon descended into some Heath Robinson contraption to suspend her from the ceiling and prevent her from cushing down ,but even this only brought forth a dribble. It was given along with glucose to help her along.

Jayne volunteered to stay in the barn all night to monitor her temperature every hour and bit feed colostrum and glucose. But by the morning things were no better. An antibiotic was injected in case of infection via the torn umbilicus. By the evening she was completely lifeless with only the occasional flaring of nostrils to indicate she was still with us. She stayed like this for hours and we had given up hope. Bali was put back in the field rather indignantly because of her lack of co operation, Jayne was exhausted and went to bed and I brought the cria into the house to die before I could join her.

I layed on the settee with the cria on my lap and massaged its body, bit fed it milk and glucose every hour all through the night.

And then ,at four oclock in the morning as I was watching the Isle of Man TT highlights for the third time a remarkable thing happened, it lifted its head and started to look around and from that point within half an hour it was wanting to walk around!

I put her on the floor, but the floor was tiled and it was like watching Bambi on ice, every time she moved a step she slid spread eagled with her four legs to all four points of the compass. I steered her onto the perimeter of the rug that was under the coffee table and we slowly did a couple of laps around. She stopped , weeed and pooed on the rug and carried on. Oh joy! Never have I been so happy to have a animal defecate on the carpet!

When Jayne got up she was surprised to find me not in bed and even more surprised to find last nights ‘dead’ cria watching telly!

She continues to go slowly from strength to strength and is now back in the barn, re united with Mrs Grumpy arse and the bond is still there. Hopefully she will get strong enough to pester mum for milk and when and if she does get to suckle I’ve asked her to give her one hard bite from me!

I know she’s not out of the woods yet though.

We’ve called her Hope.