Let the Tumbling Begin!
Journal Entry, Week-9, Part-1, 2022-01-11
The past couple weeks with Cindy (owner of Alpacas at Windy Hill) were spent sorting a ton of fleece from last year's shearing. Today, we started the next step, which is moving small batches of fleece through the tumbler, which tumbles out as much dirt & plant debris as possible prior to washing it. This & washing, the next step, is only done on the ranch for the felt-quality fleece (aka "thirds"). It's done at the mill for the prime & neck fleece. Each batch put in the tumbler looked to be about five pounds. Given the estimate weight of thirds - 500 pounds - resulting from the sorting step, there are many hours of tumbling ahead!
Halter Training Begins - for Me & Babies!
Almost a dozen crias got their monthly Vitamin A&D shots, plus their annual booster shot. Cindy even had me give a shot for the first time! Once we separated the crias from their moms & herded them into a small pen, Cindy returned to the barn to load the shots while I stayed to put halters (with lead ropes) on the crias. Previously I had only put halters on alpacas who were already halter-trained, so it was fairly easy. But these little ones haven't yet been trained, so it was a different ballgame. Thankfully, they're still small & so is the pen, making it easy to catch them. After putting on each halter, the crias were tied to the fence using the halters' lead ropes. Once the shots were complete, Cindy & I took 2-3 at a time leading them back to their pasture where we removed their halters & off they scampered. A couple bucked & jumped all the way back to their pasture as protest to this new halter experience.
Cindy the Veterinary
In addition to giving shorts to almost a dozen crias, Cindy wore her veterinary hat for several other things today. Running an alpaca ranch is not for the faint of heart!
She tended to one cria with an eye infection (most likely a scratched cornea from a piece of hay). She had to flush the eye with saline, cleaned the goop formed on the lashes, applied an antibiotic gel into the eye surface, and gave a shot of antibiotic. Baby did not like.
A yearling male had a fungal infection on his nose. She added a salve containing Bag Balm, an antibacterial & some CBT to rub over his entire nose.
Zeke, the Great Pyrenees, has an on-going ear infection she treated. First, she had to clean his ear, then apply a salve containing an antibacterial, some CBT, & I don't recall what else. Though he sat very still, poor Zeke cried during the entire treatment.
