Routine Health Care and Vaccinations

Zaninni, (left).....Zerquo and Zanubis, expolring their new field.

Some of the girls, with the babies. Zakhura is watching the boys !!

This weekend as the alpacas have been coming in over night due to the miserable weather, I thought that I'd take advantage of this and do the rest of my Lambivac injections for the boys. The girls were vaccinated in September, so that they would be covered for passive transfer for their crias. I usually inject before this, but I thought that this year I would bring my vaccinations in line with the one month before due date, which means that I do not have to vaccinated the cria within the first couple of days of arrival.

I have also been doing the Fasinex oral drench, which is used deal with Liver Fluke.... there has been quite alot of debate regarding this, whether to treat for Liver Fluke or not. But I think that it is best to protect the alpacas against any risk of this disease. Especially if you have wet pasture, as the summers have not been really dry or even long to mention. We have a couple of wet areas on the farm where reeds grow, so I think that its best to caution on the safer side than the sorry one !! I shall be repeating this drench until spring, which will deal with the main target times of the fluke. So fingers crossed we should be all up to date with the routine injections and other treatments for the onset of the winter months.

Zeuss's leg continues to improve, but it is not completely healed by any stretch of the imagination. He is still on antibiotics and liquid Devils Claw. We are also still using Teramycin spray, for any risk of outside infection. It doesn't seem to be bothering him at all, he is running around and behaving normally he has a good appetite and appears to be unaffected by it. The swelling is coming down and there is no more heat in his leg, which is good. So I think that it will just take time to heal. Its a pity that I don't know exactly what happened, but I suppose that's just typical.

The babies are all doing fine, they have all been out today for a run around, I think that the girls have been mud bathing, as when they came in for bed-time you would think that someone had been mud wrestling with them.... they were covered from top to toe in mud !!

Zienna is one month old today, little Zullulah is just three weeks old gone Friday and baby Zeto is five weeks old as of Thursday. Its hard to believe that these little ones have been here for over a month now, all are growing well and we will be having a little weigh in this week. Just to keep an eye on their progress.

Winter is round the corner, the leaves are rapidly disappearing off the trees and now that the clocks have 'gone back' the dark winter nights are creeping in. Time to get that spinning wheel out and the knitting needles !!.. I think.