Stresses and Joys

Keeping livestock is undoubtedly a joy. But it can also be stressful when animals are ill. Nobody is super sick, so no worries, but I just can't seem to keep poor Amber in tip-top shape. Maybe pregnancy has made her less able to fight off the usual stuff, or maybe it's just her in general. As you know, she had meningeal worm in January. A few weeks ago, I did some fecal tests on the herd since lush spring pastures usually means a rise in parasites. Amber tested positive for nematodirus, so I had to dose her with Panacur again for a few days. And now, this:

I'm not sure exactly what this is or what happened here. It could be a laceration from a stick or something (they do love to scratch themselves on the pine trees!). Whatever it is, I'm treating it with triple antibiotic ointment twice a day. I also sprayed that leg with fly spray. I'm generally against using such strong, harsh chemicals. But I've also seen hover flies in the pasture (they are like imitation wasps--they have wasp coloring, but fly bodies and wings), and I DO NOT want anyone to get fly strike. For those who don't keep animals, fly strike is a horrible condition caused when then fly lays its eggs in an open wound. The maggots then hatch and eat the flesh in/around the wound. This is usually more of a problem in the UK and Australia and with long-tailed sheep, but it can and does happen here with any livestock. I am so mad and paranoid about those stupid flies! I never saw any last year, and it's not even peak fly season yet, so I'm concerned it's going to be an extra bad year for all the horrible biting insects.

I'm especially paranoid since Amber is due to give birth very soon (as is Emmy Lou). Fingers crossed for easy births and healthy crias!

But even when the animals are the source of some (or a lot!) anxiety (see previous post for minor sheep stresses lately!), they are such a balm to my soul. Nothing is more peaceful for me than watching happy animals grazing. Nothing makes me feel more connected to the earth, nature, the seasons. Even when the days are long and hard and the battles seem uphill, in the end it's all worth it to me for bucolic scenes like this:

Which brings me to some more joys. First, warm weather means shower time for the alpacas! (It was actually during shower time yesterday that I discovered Amber's wound). When it gets hot and humid out, the alpacas absolutely adore being hosed down. It's a fun time for me too, watching them all clamor for their turn in front of the hose. It also gives me a good excuse to really get my hands on each animal for a bit of an external health inspection. Alpacas for the most part shy away from human touch, and some are very sensitive about their legs, especially the back ones. But they don't really seem to notice my manual inspections during shower time. 

In case you don't follow the farm on Facebook or Instagram (and you should, because I not only post more often in both places, but I post mostly different content in each too!), here's a fun snippet of a recent shower time:

Some farmers put out sprinklers for their alpacas, but Emmy Lou is such a water hog that I know she'd just sit on it. Plus, I really like having my hands-on time!

In other news, the lambs are getting YOOGE! I'm kind of always doing a mental headcount when I'm in the pasture, and lately I often think "wait, there's a lamb missing," only to realize a second later that I totally glossed over Eliot, thinking she was one of the adults. Here she is with her mama:

They're also way independent now. They spend most of their time in their own little group far from mamas. They also continue to be super curious! They now readily approach me when I'm near. Eliot and Moxie are brave enough to sniff my clothing and do battle with my boots. If I'm really sneaky, I can sneak in some quick neck scratches while they do this. I'm hoping this means they will be tamer than their mamas and will eventually let me sort of cuddle them. Or at least pet them more regularly. A girl can dream!

From left to right: Olive, Moxie (Rose and Dorrie in back), Eliot, Daisy (Dawn mostly hidden behind Daisy)

Is this commentary on my fashion choices?

Watching these girls grow has definitely been the highlight of the year so far. They are such healthy, happy lambs! 

And for those who have been wondering, I do have fiber and I do plan to sell it yet this year. I also plan to write a blog post about shearing and all the fiber prep when I get around to actually skirting and weighing all the fiber! Hopefully the skirting will start this week yet. Always so much to do this time of year!

Lowered Expectations

Living with animals is a constant lesson in learning to let go. Let go of what you think you know about this that or the other, let go of your ideas for how things "should" work or be or behave. They will surprise you every time, in ways you don't expect.

The vet came today to ultrasound Lulu, Anna, and Amber, give Silas his boosters, and to give the ewes their annual CDT, trim Jazz's horns, and maybe ultrasound them too. Should have been fairly straight forward and routine.

The first trouble was with the ewes. I thought I was all clever, building them a catch pen. "It'll be easy," I naively thought. Simply set down some grain bowls, and then bam! shut the door on the unsuspecting gals and not have to worry about a chase or stress when the vet shows up.

Well, my smart gals were suspicious of this pen from the very start. They didn't like the look of it and they especially didn't like the sound of it, since I repeatedly accidentally tipped one of the panels over while I was installing it. Metal panels landing on a concrete floor is not a pleasant or quiet sound.

Anyway, I set some grain and fresh hay inside. My normally very food-motivated ladies would not set one little hoof inside the pen. I tried to coax them in, even resorting to doling out a grain trail, but nothing worked. They weren't having it. So when the vet and his tech showed up, we had to form a human barricade across the sheep pen. After some runaround and some impressive acrobatics on Dorrie's part (she very nearly went over the side of the pen), they eventually decided to pile on top of each other in one corner, where we could grab them one by one to administer shots. No ultrasounds, though, since there was no safe place to keep the expensive ultrasound equipment with all of us backed into a corner. But the vet did think they all felt pregnant, though he didn't feel any actual fetuses except in Dawn. Whether because she's farther along than the other ladies or it's just because she's so small, it's hard to say. Nothing to do but wait and let nature take its course!

The next trouble started with Lulu. We've been working hard and she's come a long way in her ability to be handled, but she reverted to her old ways the minute she set eyes on the vet. She wouldn't even let me lead her in his general direction! The tech and I eventually muscled her over to where the vet was waiting with his ultrasound machine, but she started screaming before the first squirt of alcohol even hit her belly. She continued to scream, started to kick, and worked up a good, frothy spit. The vet was able to get the ultrasound wand on her long enough to confirm there was a fetus in there, but that was it. Oh, Emmy Lou. Guess we'll need to start working much harder on practical applications of training.

She hides her inner monster well. Perhaps I should start calling her Jekyll.

Thankfully, Anna and Amber's ultrasounds went off without any drama, and I even got to see Amber's cria's heartbeat. Super cool! Alas, Anna is not pregnant. Whether she never was or she reabsorbed, I don't know. Kind of a bummer there will be only 2 crias this year, but oh well! At least she and Josie can be bred pretty much anytime now, instead of having to wait until late summer like the other gals will have to. Amber's cria will likely arrive around mid-June, and Lulu's right around July 4th.

Oh, and Jazz's horns? She got them shortened a bit as they were starting to grow too close to her neck. In the week between when I noticed the problem and the vet arrived, all the fiber on that part of her neck had been rubbed clean off. It was neat to watch the vet shorten them. He used a length of wire to just saw through the horn, then used what looked like an industrial cheese grater to soften the edges a bit.

 

They don't have the lovely curl to them that they did, but they will again eventually!

Before and after horn trim.

Mud Season

March already?! The year is already going by too fast. Baby season fast approaches, and I have a very long to-do list to complete before lambs are on the ground!

We've gotten a very early thaw this year and mud season is already in full swing. It feels more like May outside, even though it was 20 below zero a mere week ago. The herd is enjoying themselves in the sun, and they're even finding tiny green shoots of grass to nibble on!

Meanwhile, I'm happy to report that Amber seems on track to make a full recovery from her M-worm infection. She still walks with a bit of a limp, but she's standing strong on her back legs. I haven't seen her stumble or knuckle under in over a week now. And the silver lining from the whole situation is that she now seems less wary of me than she was before. She routinely approaches me on her own to sniff around my hands and pockets for traces of grain. And she even sometimes lets me kiss her nose. Such a sweet girl.

I've also started halter training Mal. Nothing serious yet--just making a game out of him sticking his nose through the halter all on his own. He gets rewarded with a "YES!" and a nibble of grain every time he does it. Emmy Lou is predictably very good at this game too, and Bear is starting to pick up on it as well. None of the others will play yet, but they watch and I can tell it will only be a matter of time. I'm also hoping to train them all to lift their feet on command so toenail trims will be easier. This is going very well with Emmy, and Mal is starting to learn. My goal is to greatly reduce the stress on both the herd and myself for routine health tasks. I'd love to be able to attend to everyone without a helper. It may be a lofty goal, but we'll see what happens!

The vet will come next week to ultrasound all the girls and give me better due dates. Such fun! I'm nervous and excited for babies all at once.

The Dreaded M-Word

Last Monday during evening chores, I noticed that Amber was acting a little strange. She was walking with a kind of limp or stagger, and she kept holding her rear legs very far from her body, sometimes with her feet knuckled under. She hadn't fallen or had any other trauma that I knew of, so all my reference books and Googling were pointing toward the classic signs of a meningeal worm infection. Crap. I called the vet and he too thought it sounded most likely. Double crap.

When you start learning about alpaca care, everyone will give you fairly dire warnings about meningeal worm, a potentially deadly parasite carried by white-tailed deer and, intermittently, slugs and snails. Alpacas are exposed to the parasite when they eat grass that has a slime trail on it (some believe the alpacas actually ingest the snails or slugs, but most folks who keep alpaca realize how sensitive their lips are and know how unlikely this is!) The worm travels along the spinal fluids and spinal cord, causing central nervous system damage. Some books will even go so far as to tell you there is no cure and infection always results in death.

Thankfully, this isn't true. We have a wonderful vet out here (the upper Midwest's camelid expert!) who assured me that while she might never walk without a slight limp (depending on how much damage had already been done to the nerves in her back legs), she should otherwise recover well. He said we caught it very, very early, and he's never seen an alpaca who's in as good a shape as she's in not recover. He prescribed twice-daily shots of Banamine to reduce inflammation along the spine and once-daily oral drenching of a dewormer called Panacur for one week.

Even though I give the herd shots every few months (to ward off the m-worm, more on that below), I was pretty nervous about having to do this several times a day. Alpacas as a general rule don't take needles very well. And some alpacas get super stressed every time you try to work with them, which can cause abortions. Luckily, Amber is one of my calmest alpacas. She certainly doesn't enjoy being haltered and given medicines, but she doesn't fight me on it either.

The big scary-looking implement is an oral drencher. The long nozzle on it ensures more Panacure ends up in Amber than on the barn floor. The pink stuff is amoxycillin for the barn kitty, who has a UTI.

The vet gave her the first dose of everything while he was here, and showed me how to give an intramuscular (IM) shot, as I had only given subcutaneous (SQ) shots before. IM shots are way easier! My first morning on my own, everything went awesome. That evening, though, Amber sort of freaked out after I injected her. I give her medicines close to the beginning of chore time so I have plenty of time left in the barn to observe in case of any reactions. It was about 5 minutes after I left her pen, and I heard a bunch of spitting. This alone isn't that unusual--the alpacas routinely do a little posturing and jockeying during mealtimes. But when I turned to look, I saw she had Bear backed into a corner and was nibbling on his ear. As I approached, she ran across the pen and started picking a fight with Anna, who started fighting back. Full-on neck wrestling and chest bumping, like males do! I broke that up, then watched Amber pace around restlessly, cush, stand, cush, stand. Then, finally, she just started rolling around on the ground and kicking the leg I gave the shot in. I was so freaked out! Thankfully the vet was still open for another 10 minutes, so I called them and they assured me over the phone that she wasn't having a chemical reaction, she was just mad. I guess that sometimes when an alpaca starts to regain feeling in their back legs, they can lash out a bit because the shot hurt. Or when an animal who has been unwell starts feeling better, they sometimes feel like they need to reestablish their pecking order in the herd, and Amber is sort of the herd's matriarch. So for each shot since, I've made sure to distract her with grains for a few minutes after, and so far she hasn't repeated the behavior.

So, how did Amber get m-worm if I routinely deworm the herd? Most alpaca farmers mitigate the risk of m-worm by giving routine shots of a dewormer like Ivomec or Dectomax. Some do this as often as every 30 days year-round, some only do it August through December, and others develop a routine somewhere in between. Just like with antibiotics, overuse of dewormers can lead to immunity, so it is something to be somewhat cautious about. I've also read that traces of dewormer in the dung piles can reduce beneficial bugs in the soil and cause manure to break down less rapidly, which in turn can increase the risk of other types of parasites/worms.

So far, I've dewormed the herd every 45-60 days. This does leave a window of potential exposure as Ivomec only offers protection for up to 30 days, but it also reduces the chances of overuse while also greatly reducing stress on my herd from monthly shots. I'm not sure I'll change this going forward, though I am discussing with the vet. No matter what I chose to do, there is some sort of risk involved, so I have to decide which risks I'm most comfortable with.

I was down on myself for a few hours, thinking my inexperience most definitely caused Amber's infestation. But like anything else, deworming is not a failsafe. I know farmers who dose their alpaca religiously every 28-30 days and have still had cases of m-worm. My mentors were great in pointing out that at least I noticed there was a problem and acted on it, which many farmers don't do until it's too late. So that does feel good. It's one of the reasons I spend so much time out in the barn every day. I have few enough animals right now that I certainly don't need to scoop poops twice a day. I could toss them enough hay each morning to last all day, freshen their water, and have done with it. But not only do I enjoy my chores and spending time with the animals, but doing so allows me to much more quickly spot something that might be amiss. I just hope Amber truly will return to her normal self, and not have some lasting lameness. So far, she seems roughly the same. And with only one day of treatment left, maybe that means her nerves were too damaged to recover. But we'll see. The vet will call tomorrow to check in and we'll discuss, and I'll continue to observe.

Winter's Beauty

I have always loved winter. The cold, the ice and snow, all of it. Many people have teased me that this would change once I started farming. But I still find winter absolutely stunning. Maybe part of its beauty is that it is so much harsher than the other seasons, so we grasp at any small thing to make us feel better.

A full moon rises over the pond.

The upper Midwest is just now thawing from our second subzero streak of winter. We've woken up to subzero temperatures almost every day since New Year's Eve. A few nights ago, I had my most trying chore time yet. I got started later than usual, so it was already full dark by the time I had a full muck bucket to empty on Poopsicle Peak. I have a little system rigged for winter where I pull the bucket through the snow like a sled, but a fresh snowfall meant my path wasn't clear. Since the snow was so light and fluffy, I thought, to heck with it, I should still be able to power through that. Wrong. The overflowing bucket o' poo tipped over no fewer than 3 times. I had to march back to the barn, grab a shovel, and try to shovel up spilled poo mixed with snow. In the dark, in subzero weather.

Then, Caesar unexpectedly came at me while in the sheep pen (but I was able to think quick and grab a horn to actually stop his head from making contact with my knees), everything was messier and harder than usual, I was sore and tired and all the usual complaints. But as I was heading back inside, I happened to look up. The night sky was AMAZING. All those little pinpricks of light winking at me, the Milky Way all aswirl. I instantly forgot how sore I was. I forgot about the poop spilled all over my path to the manure pile. I even forgot the cold; I must have stood in awe, taking it all in, for a full 5 minutes.

I'm often arrested by sights like this, and I don't think I'll ever stop being amazed by nature. Beautiful sunrises and sunsets, fantastic moonrises, awe-inspiring galaxy views, an eagle soaring overhead, otter prints on the pond. . . . I love how farming forces me to be more present, to notice and really take in nature and its rhythms.

Pileated woodpecker in the backyard.

So while it's not exactly fun to bundle up two or three times a day and go out into the arctic air, it hasn't been terrible. In fact, I feel way more acclimated to winter than ever. Beyond noticing how beautiful even harsh winter days (and nights) can be, a few more things that have helped:

The right clothing.
Remember when you were a kid and it was more important to look cool than wear a hat or gloves at the bus stop? Fortunately, livestock couldn't care less what you look like. To do chores in winter, I wear thermal leggings, real wool socks (Darn Tough and Farm to Feet are my favorite brands), a ribbed tank top under a thermal long-sleeve (if it's REALLY cold, I'll add a hoodie on top of this), my insulated coveralls, a ski parka, a hat, my -20F-rated Muck boots, and insulated gloves. Do I look a little silly? Absolutely. Do I stay warm? Yes. In fact, the other day it briefly got to about 4F while I was doing chores, and I got so hot I had to take off my hat and unzip my parka.

The right equipment.
I have heated water buckets in each pen in the barn (and a heated water dish for the barn cat too!). It may seem ridiculous to pay $40 or more for a bucket. But I think it's equally ridiculous to trek to the barn every few hours to manually bust up ice clods in your livestock's water. Don't make winter harder on your or them than it has to be. Just get the buckets.

Being present.
To keep yourself and the animals safe in this weather, you can't just numbly go through the motions of chores and hustle back indoors. In fact, I find that I'm spending even more time outside than usual. This is not only because frozen poop takes forever to scrape off a concrete floor and hauling water buckets through snowbanks is a feat of athletic daring (or stupidity), but also because I'm paying extra attention to the animals. Is anyone shivering? Does anyone seem stressed? Are there dangerous icy patches that could cause problems for anyone? Training myself to notice things has really increased my appreciation of outdoor time. Sometimes the tiniest thing can make your day! And no matter where you live, I guarantee there is something beautiful and worth noticing right out your front door.

What are your favorite tips for enjoying winter?

It's a Dirty Job . . .

Everyone knows that farming isn't all cute animal photos and peaceful misty morning pasture walks. Farming involves a lot of hard work, and if you're farming animals, it also involves a lot of poop. Not very many people show the dirtier, grittier part of farming, especially with animals. And I know it's not as fascinating or beautiful as photos of the animals. But the dirty part is the bigger part, so I'm going to take a moment to take you on a little tour of daily animal chores.

I get up each weekday morning around sunrise. This is mostly because I really enjoy the peaceful early mornings and love a good sunrise. You get to see a lot more wildlife at dawn than you do at other parts of the day. Most mornings I see the sandhill cranes leave our pond, the beaver industriously stockpiling his lodge for winter, countless geese and other waterfowl and birds, and sometimes even a doe or two. I also get up early so I can get my butt in my chair for my full-time non-farm job by about 8:30 a.m.

Insert majestic awe noises here. To be fair, not all sunrises are this pretty.

I take care of the dogs first. We take a roughly 30-minute walk with my mother-in-law and her dog, and then I feed the dogs and cat their breakfast (though if Jon has to drive to the city that day, he takes care of the cat). Then, it's out to the barn. The first thing I do is open up all the doors to give everyone access to pasture. The sheep always leap out like they're being chased, only to stop and wait for the alpaca doors to open. The alpaca rarely go outside first thing, but they do enjoy gathering in front of the door.

Daisy contemplates going outside for the day.

Mal hanging out in front of the door

Dorrie wanders over to the alpaca pen to look for grain and better hay.

Okay, now that the cute animal photos are out of the way, we get down to real business. Your morning probably includes some coffee beans. Before I can get to those, I first must deal with beans of a different sort, aka poop. The alpaca are nice enough to poop in a communal pile (also called a midden), so their pen is super easy to clean. Just a few big shovelfuls into a muck bucket and done.
The alpaca have a midden out in the pasture too. That gets scooped once or twice a week.

The indoor alpaca midden.

The sheep, though, they poo everywhere. And their beans are so tiny, they can be hard to scoop. But I think I'm finally getting a good system down. I leave about a third of their pen bare, with just the concrete floor. They tend to poo in this area the most, and then I can just quickly and easily sweep the beans into a shovel. I patrol the rest of their pen for obvious soiling on the top layer of straw, and rake that up too.

Beans everywhere!

Once poos are scooped, the alpaca pen gets some pine pellets on the potty pile (they help absorb urine and any odors), and the sheep pen gets a fresh layer of straw in areas where I removed some soiled matter.

Full muck bucket, after scooping out both pens. About 17 gallons of future black gold.

Next up is hauling water. The hand pump in my barn does not work, so I've been pulling my mother-in-law's hose to the barn entrance to fill my buckets (her house is closer to the barn). I will need to come up with a different method for winter, likely hauling buckets from my house, but for now this works.

Filling up the water buckets.

All buckets hang on wall-mounted hangers in the pens. The animals will kick them over otherwise, and ain't nobody got time for hauling more water than needed! 

2 5-gallon buckets of water are pretty heavy. On the other hand, who needs a gym when you're farming?

Hanging the alpaca buckets on the wall.

My super awesome mother-in-law helps me with morning chores most days. She often takes on the the thankless task of hauling water! See? Awesome.

Next, everyone's hay gets topped off. How much depends on how much is left in their feeders. Some days they have nothing left, others they have plenty and won't need more until evening.

Just one more quick chore before I can go inside and eat breakfast! The big muck bucket full o' straw and poo gets hauled to Manure Mountain.

This is going to be so good on the garden next year.

Most days, this whole routine takes about 30 minutes to complete. Some days it can take an hour or more, but that's usually because I'm taking lots of breaks to watch and interact with the animals.

A large portion of this routine is then repeated in the evening as soon as I log off the day job for the day. Scoop poops, lay down bedding, top off hay. Sometimes top off minerals (the animals have access to a bowl of free-choice mineral salts at all times to help balance their nutrient intake) and water too.

The only other "chore" I do every single day is shut all of the animals in for the night at dusk. This is to give my herd the best protection against predators (coyote and black bear are both common in these parts, as are roaming packs of dogs), and me peace of mind. To facilitate this, I give a small grain ration each night. All of the animals well know the sound of grain hitting a pan, and will come running inside the minute they hear that!

This is one of my favorite times of the day. I can get more hands-on with most of the animals while they're distracted by their delicious carbs, so I'll often use these few minutes to pick vegetation out of coats, stroke necks (alpaca) or chins (sheep), and maybe sneak in a quick spinal massage (only the alpaca allow this) to see if anyone is under- or overweight.

There are other animal chores that need doing less often, like halter training, toenail trimming, and deworming. I also walk the pasture a few times a week and after every storm, to make sure there is no damage to the fence or anything else out of the ordinary. And there's hauling and stacking hay every so often too, as well as restocking grains, bedding, vet supplies, and so forth.

I know some folks view all of this as a lot of work. And it is, but it also isn't. Not if you have a passion for the animals. I actually look forward to chore time most days. I get to spend valuable time with the animals, I'm cultivating my connection to nature and it's rhythms (a connection I think too many people sorely lack!), and it's good exercise. Are there days I don't want to do these things? Sure. But there are also days I don't want to read or knit, and I like doing those things too.

In the end, it's all worth it because of all the different joys sharing my life with animals brings.