And a week later...

Macquarie Springs 'Good Chance' certainly lives up to his name! I have a very strong little cria jumping around the paddock and causing havoc amongst all of the pregnant girls - and I am so happy about it (even if the girls are NOT!). 

The BOYZ!

We gave him another shot of Vit D during the week, and I watch him constantly to see that he is feeding from his Mum correctly.  I initially thought KJ was not a good Mum, but now I think that maybe she is just not anxious, Eclipse (sire) isn't anxious, so we have a very relaxed cria that is happy to leave Mum and go exploring.  He even falls asleep in the middle of the paddock whilst Mum moves to the other side!

Lucky on the other hand, was almost crippled this week! We noticed her lifting her front knees awkwardly, and after having a quick check, we couldn't see anything wrong with her feet.  The next day she rarely moved, was eating where she cushed, and was in obvious pain when she did walk.  That night, I looked through our records whilst Hubby looked through the Alpaca 'bible' and he said it could possibly be Vit D deficiency.  My records showed her last Vit D in June, and it has been a LONG winter here - of course...poor Alpacas are probably all deficient and we are late to have them sheared this year and so their injections haven't yet been given. 

Lucky (middle)

We rounded up all of the pregnant girls, and gave them all 1ml, but gave Lucky 2ml, after Hubby was up all night reading Vet papers.  The next day I gave Lucky oral Vit D on her food, and then we waited.  She wasn't much better the next day, but the day after there was a little improvement.  Four days on, and she is walking around as if nothing had happened!  Hubby has been continually researching, and we think that due to our climate, we will be giving the animals the Vit D injections every two months.

Then, having those two successes to celebrate, we also had 16y.old Son attend his 'Leaver's Dinner' as he finishes school next week and is headed for college next year!

My two boys :)

ok... two men and a little boy :)

Shearing next weekend...and so I have to build a fleece sorting table this week(LOL!!). I'm off to Giant Steps Tasmania (School for Autism) in the morning in Deloraine, to register for relief work for next year (yes, itchy feet LOL!).  Then Hubby and I will be busy in Santa's workshop (the garage) putting together an outdoor cubby house and kitchen (and then thinking about how to move it from the garage to the back deck...??!) in time for Christmas morning!