My Favorite Halters and Leads

One unhappy alpaca

Thisbe is my little heifer. At just seven months old, she is a solid ninety pounds. Because of her size, it’s sometimes hard to remember that she’s just a baby. Now, however, she’s reminding me of that fact as we begin halter training.

I use standard black Zephyr halters across the board. These are wonderful halters from Marty McGee’s Camelidynamics. And although they come in all different colors, I just get the black for both everyday and showing. No fancy show halters – I like it basic and easy. With the sizes from XS to Large and the adjustability, I can fit everyone. And with the overlap between halter sizes, if the wrong ones get tossed into the trailer, I can usually get them to fit everyone with a bit of shifting and rebuckling.

For leads, I like the light flat leads you can get for under $6 at Useful Lama Items, Inc. Black, of course! I know most people use the heavier standard weight leads which are 3/4″ wide but the light ones (at 5/8″ wide) just seem to suit my hand better. The flat leads also seem to give me a better grip though I know lots of people who prefer the round ones.

Once someone gave me a shiny satiny black show lead – it was rather beautiful. But one hard head yank from a resistant animal, and the darn thing slithered out of my right hand like a wet eel. So now I’m sticking with the basics.

I’ve had the halter hanging in Thisbe’s pen for a few days, giving her a chance to check it out. She’s worn it during feeding with little fuss and bother though I can tell she just doesn’t see the point. Tomorrow I’ll start leading her and the fun begins.

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Weaning Thisbe

Thisbe keeps an eye out for mom, Aria

At four months old, Thisbe was a strapping 71 lbs. I had resolved to wean her as early as possible after watching her dam, Aria, drop fifteen pounds underweight despite my best efforts. However, with a busy show season coming up, I decided to let Thisbe go a bit longer until I was permanently at home for winter. This decision was made easier when Aria regained ten pounds after Thisbe started to demand less of her in month four. Thisbe had always been a precocious eater, stealing pellets from dams’ bowls at just a few weeks old and attacking the hay feeder as vigorously as any adult in her second month of age.

Weaning is one of those processes that vary widely from breeder to breeder. And a process it is. I have my own guidelines that work for me but even these I don’t adhere to religiously. Each cria is different and I adjust depending on how advanced they are physically and mentally. My general guidelines are:

1. Allow two weeks for the weaning process before dam and cria are separated permanently
2. Allow the cria to reach 6 months of age or 70 lbs, whichever comes first as long as the cria is at least four months of age. Wean a cria at a minimum weight of 60 lbs.
3. Ensure the cria is eating hay and pellets on their own before weaning
4. Consider the body condition of the dam in timing the start of weaning
5. Consider the mental readiness of the cria in timing the start of weaning
6. Weigh the cria often during weaning

Finishing the show season with the ABR Fall Fest last week, I turned to weaning Thisbe, now 80 lbs at almost five and a half months old. Her body condition was solid, neither thin nor fat. I felt confident that she’d be relatively easy to wean.

I started by separating her from her mom for half a day, gradually increasing the time until she was spending the entire day away from Aria by the end of the first week. Nights they spent together. This schedule I held for a few days. Now that we are midway through the second week, I will be putting them back in together in the afternoon for a few hours before separating them again overnight.

As hoped, Thisbe’s taking it pretty well. The best sign of this is that Thisbe doesn’t rush to nurse off Aria as soon as they are together again, content to merely eat from the same spot in the feeder for a while. She’s maintained her weight. Aria, as is typical, seems relieved to have a bit of private time away from her demanding cria.

This weekend, weaning will complete and Thisbe will become a full time resident of the weanling pen. I expect to have Aria back up to normal weight within a month. My next cria to wean won’t be until end of January or early February and I only hope it will go as smoothly as Thisbe’s.

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Thisbe at Two

…Two weeks that is.

People have been asking me this question nonstop since I posted Exhaustion Redux and The Story of Thisbe:

How is Thisbe doing?

With a birth so difficult that she was not strong enough to stand until the next day, they were wondering if there had been any improvement or if I was still watching her day by day.

Well here’s your answer: Thisbe at two weeks of age and a testament to the amazing resilience of these animals.

Click below to view :

Thisbe at Two Weeks Old from Pacablogger on Vimeo.

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The Story of Thisbe

Thisbe

 Thisbe was born on Thursday, May 28, 2009 through the painful efforts of her dam, my vet, and my own hapless assistance. It was a difficult delivery to say the least and that episode was detailed in my last post Exhaustion Redux.

A few people asked me about her unusual name. It comes from a tale that I first read in Edith Hamilton’s Mythology way back when I was a teenager. It was only later that I learned that it provided the inspiration for Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet”. He also retold the tale in “A Midsummer’s Night Dream”. When Thisbe (my cria) arrived after much struggle, she was covered in blood. So much so that she was stained pink, even though I could see she was white.  From there came the idea of naming her Thisbe.  If you know the story of Pyramus and Thisbe, you’ll understand this oblique reference right away. If not, read away (Pyramus and Thisbe as retold by Josephine Preston Peabody, Old Greek Stories Told Anew, 1897):

But there once lived in Babylonia two lovers named Pyramus and Thisbe, who were parted by a strange mischance. For they lived in adjoining houses; and although their parents had forbidden them to marry, these two had found a means of talking together through a crevice in the wall.

Here, again and again, Pyramus on his side of the wall and Thisbe on hers, they would meet to tell each other all that had happened during the day, and to complain of their cruel parents. At length they decided that they would endure it no longer, but that they would leave their homes and be married, come what might. They planned to meet, on a certain evening, by a mulberry-tree near the tomb of King Ninus, outside the city gates. Once safely met, they were resolved to brave fortune together.

 

Thisbe by John William Waterhouse -1909

So far all went well. At the appointed time, Thisbe, heavily veiled, managed to escape from home unnoticed, and after a stealthy journey through the streets of Babylon, she came to the grove of mulberriesnear the tomb of Ninus. The place was deserted, and once there she put off the veil from her face to see if Pyramus waited anywhere among the shadows. She heard the sound of a footfall and turned to behold–not Pyramus, but a creature unwelcome to any tryst–none other than a lioness crouching to drink from the pool hard by.

 

 

Without a cry, Thisbe fled, dropping her veil as she ran. She found a hiding-place among the rocks at some distance, and there she waited, not knowing what else to do.

The lioness, having quenched her thirst (after some ferocious meal), turned from the spring and, coming upon the veil, sniffed at it curiously, tore and tossed it with her reddened jaws,–as she would have done with Thisbe herself,–then dropped the plaything and crept away to the forest once more.

It was but a little after this that Pyramus came hurrying to the meeting-place, breathless with eagerness to find Thisbe and tell her what had delayed him. He found no Thisbe there. For a moment he was confounded. Then he looked about for some sign of her, some footprint by the pool. There was the trail of a wild beast in the grass, and near by a woman’s veil, torn and stained with blood; he caught it up and knew it for Thisbe’s.

So she had come at the appointed hour, true to her word; she had waited there for him alone and defenceless, and she had fallen a prey to some beast from the jungle! As these thoughts rushed upon the young man’s mind, he could endure no more.

“Was it to meet me, Thisbe, that you came to such a death!” cried he. “And I followed all too late. But I will atone. Even now I come lagging, but by no will of mine!”

So saying, the poor youth drew his sword and fell upon it, there at the foot of that mulberry-tree which he had named as the trysting-place, and his life-blood ran about the roots.

During these very moments, Thisbe, hearing no sound and a little reassured, had stolen from her hiding-place and was come to the edge of the grove. She saw that the lioness had left the spring, and, eager to show her lover that she had dared all things to keep faith, she came slowly, little by little, back to the mulberry-tree.

She found Pyramus there, according to his promise. His own sword was in his heart, the empty scabbard by his side, and in his hand he held her veil still clasped. Thisbe saw these things as in a dream, and suddenly the truth awoke her. She saw the piteous mischance of all; and when the dying Pyramus opened his eyes and fixed them upon her, her heart broke. With the same sword she stabbed herself, and the lovers died together.

There the parents found them, after a weary search, and they were buried together in the same tomb. But the berries of the mulberry-tree turned red that day, and red they have remained ever since.

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Exhaustion Redux

Newborn Thisbe

Before I had alpacas, I thought I knew tired. I thought I knew fatigue and even exhaustion. Tired was a long day at work followed by the tedium of making dinner , then a couple of hours of recuperation before you went to bed. Fatigue was a whole week of long days or maybe a weekend hike. Exhaustion was a long day followed by a late night on a deadline-driven multi week project that had me working weekends while still trying to get all my regular household errands done – groceries, housecleaning, paying the bills.

Now I know that I didn’t know squat about exhaustion.

Until it was a matter of life or death, I don’t think I knew how elastic the limits of exhaustion could be. And that comes to what I have been occupied with the past few days. Thursday morning, my dam, Aria, who was 3 1/2 weeks past due, was having contractions when I opened the barn at 6 a.m. It was an unusually painful, wracking labor that kept her kushed or on her side, making moaning sounds when it was at its worst. I called the vet in fears that the baby might be mispositioned. At 9:30 a.m., the vet arrived and discovered the head under one leg, making delivery impossible. The position was corrected and we waited. Still nothing, with Aria continuing to evidence great pain during contractions. Although the feet were out and the nose poised to eject, the vulva was simply not expanding wide enough to allow passage of the head. We guessed the baby was large. By this time, the water had broken and delivery had to occur. With me pulling on the legs , the vet pulled the opening wide enough to extract the head.  After that, the baby- a white girl stained profusely with blood from the umbilical cord- came out easily. It was now 11:15 a.m.

As any alpaca breeder knows, this is just the beginning after an extraction like that.  The baby was exhausted and weak, and still had not stood up by mid afternoon. One ounce of goats milk was bottle fed to her at 2:30 p.m. to keep her going until she stood up and nursed. Aria was also milked for 10 cc of colostrum.  Still no activity from the baby. A temperature reading then showed her temp to be a low 94 degrees. She was hypothermic. After applying a blow dryer for a good half hour, her temperature rose to 98.6 and she started to show some alertness. Aria, on the other hand, was still in pain and received Banamine directly after delivery and then the start of a course of antibiotics. However, she had still not passed her placenta by 4 p.m.  Both mom and cria now demanded attention. For Aria, a start of Oxytocin shots every 2 hours to encourage uterine contractions. For the baby, another ounce of goats milk at 4:30 p.m and an attempt to get her nursing by propping her up under mom. She also received an enema with no results. At 5:30 p.m, another attempt and the baby had her first solid nurse. It was hoped that this would also stimulate contractions in Aria to eject the placenta. Aria had started to expel the amniotic fluid in the placenta but not the sac itself. The baby was still not active so another enema was given. Still no results. At this point, the vet recommended oxtyocin shots for Aria through the night and supplementing the cria every 4 hours with goats milk. This can be hard news to hear after a stressful day and at this point, you just accept it and do it. 8 p.m, 10 p.m, 12 a.m. , 2:30 a.m, 4:30 a.m., 7 a.m. – the routine was repeated. Get up, prepare a shot of oxytocin, inject Aria, get the baby on her feet, position her to nurse. Every other time, heat up some goats milk and give to the baby.

By 8 a.m. the next day, Aria still had not passed her placenta but the baby had gained over half a pound.  I think it was in the moment I saw the cria’s weight that I thought “it was worth it”. My second thought? I’m not feeling that bad – I’m still functioning ok! Which was great, because I had to haul the mom and baby to the vet’s to have the placenta extracted and an IgG taken on the cria. But despite what could have been, the best possible outcome for a retained placenta was what happened. The vet extracted it manually and it seemed in one piece with both horns. A quick lavage with saline, a syringeful of genomicin, and Aria was declared good to go. And the baby’s IgG came back at 1500 mg!

The cria was still noticeably inactive and I had not seen her pass meconium or even urinate so that evening I gave her a 3rd enema. This time , a large piece of hard fecal matter was ejected and she was immediately active and more alert, acting like a normal healthy cria. I did still get up once during the night Friday to get the baby up and nursing but I think now, she is good to go. I’ll be watching closely for the next few days before I stop monitoring. But for tonight, I am looking forward to catching up on some sleep, though I still plan to get up once to check in on the little one.

I can only marvel at those breeders who have to raise orphaned crias. That’s a test of stamina that I hope never to have to pass. My small two days and nights of anxiety were more than enough to push me to an excessive amount of Excedrin and chocolate.

And as with all challenging experiences, I like to think about the lessons learned from the entire event:

1. Have more than one vet but choose one as the primary

2. Never underestimate the power of a good enema

3. Never question that you can do what needs to be done, just do it

4. Have a kit supplied for the worst possible scenario and hope for the best

5. Have your trailer hooked up and ready to go at the first sign of something wrong

6. Have a support group of breeders

7. Take care of yourself so you can take care of your animals

So now I feel we are pretty much out of the woods. I don’t name a cria until I’m sure. But I’ve gone ahead and given this one her name – an appropriate one. That’s for another post.

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