Love at First Spit & Syringes by the Dozens
Journal Entry, Week-4, 2021-11-30
Meeting Luke & Love at First Spit
Upon arrival, I was greeted by Luke, Cindy's Anatolian Shepherd. The breed is originally from Turkey and known for its phenomenal abilities in protecting livestock by keeping wolves and other predators away. Thankfully Luke - the very large dog - does not see me as a threat and would rather I scratch him on his head and behind his ears. Zeke, the other guard dog, is a Great Pyrenees, another loyal livestock guard breed.
As I waited for Cindy to join me, I wandered over to the small corrals adjacent to the barn. A mom and her baby were in the nearest pen. The female alpaca immediately walked over to the fence, head hanging over fence-top nearest me, curious to meet me. Or, so I thought. I wandered over to greet her, smiling & hand outreached. Spppittttt!? She landed a spit ball squarely in the middle of my face.
Syringes are a Mainstay
74 shots for 37 crias!
Once a month, every baby alpaca (called crias) gets a shot of vitamin A&D. Once a year, they also get an immune booster shot. "How many babies are there?" I wondered out loud. "I dunno, let's go count 'em!" Cindy declared. As we traversed through several fields containing babies, she counted them, while I trailed her trying to keep up. After counting the crias, we returned to the barn to fill two syringes each for them. That's 74 syringes!! After we (i.e., Cindy) had given the two shots to as many crias as we could catch, Cindy casually commented, "Next month you can give the shots." What?? Gulp.
Three female alpacas were long overdue. Though they looked & acted pregnant, after consulting with a world-renown expert via phone, it was decided it was unlikely they were pregnant. Estramate shots, which rids females of corpus lutimen (false pregnancies), were to be given to all three, 48 hours apart. The three females in question were rounded up and put into smaller pens closer to the barn. The first shot was given to one just before I left for the day.
Reflecting on past weeks' ranch activities, it dawned on me that every day I was at Alpacas at Windy Hill ranch, at least one or more shots were involved. Today included over 70 shots! I'm astonished to realize Cindy must order syringes by boatload!
Feeding Snacks
As before, we hand-mixed and loaded the nutritional supplemental into gutters that had been repurposed into snack trays and hung on the wire fences in each field. It went a bit faster this week because I was able mix and distribute half the batches.
More Gate Design Magic
The north fields & the south fields, each are about a half of a city block long & about as wide as a common city lot is deep. Cindy built gates halfway into each of the long fences, making it quicker & easier to move between the fields. This came in especially handy when we were counting the crias.
Selling, Breeding, Boarding, & More
I also started to notice that the herd population fluctuates much more than I assumed. There are near-constant activities around alpacas being sold, bought, boarded, & bred. Curious how Cindy manages changes & what she charges. I asked how she decides and keeps track of all the variables. People are charged flat rates for some things, such as per alpaca monthly boarding fees, which include specific services (hay, additional basic nutritional supplements, coordinating visits/purchases with prospective owners, monthly shots, etc.). Breeding services have variable costs depending on if Cindy owns the male and/or female, guarantee of successful pregnancy, & more. Other service fees are involved in alpacas being bought or sold, again depending on if Cindy owns the alpacas or not, the value of the alpaca, whether it's female, male, its age, how involved she is in the arrangement, & much more. Don't quote me on any of this. It's complicated!
Splint Success
The splint applied & worn for three days last week successfully straightened out the female cria's front leg.