Jul. 30, 2018

The first at a first

Things are busy here at Hilltop Farm Alpacas. There was no way that this time three years ago that we would have imagined we are doing what we are these days and evenings. We’ve had some firsts and so much travelling with our show boys.

Since our last blog, where we told you about the birth of our little cria – Destiny – her mother became ill with mastitis in one of her teats. We were milking her every evening to try to and ease her pain and discomfort in the hope that doing so would clear the teat. Our vet had given us an antibiotic to give every second day, but alas, we couldn’t stop what was to come…

The mother alpaca – Astra – developed pneumonia. At 5pm she was fine and 30 minutes later she was breathing heavily, unable to stay standing. We called the vet who, in fairness to him, rushed out to us. He administered two injections and told us to keep her out of the sun and not to let her eat until morning. Astra was so uneasy and a couple of times she fell over. The sickness had taken all of her strength and even when she did get up she was unable to walk properly.

That was it – it was decided that we would stay with her for as long as was required to ensure that she didn’t deteriorate.

But this is where you might giggle to yourself or just throw your eyes up to heaven. We did an all-nighter. Well. I didn’t. I stayed up until 2am. Catriona and the two girls stayed with Astra until 7am, taking shifts. The following morning our alpaca was almost back to normal. The evening before her temperature was 105 degrees and overnight it fell back to 98. Our vet had worked his magic.

But that wasn’t our only first. No. We were asked to bring our boys (Bronson and Clyro) to a birthday party for a 1yr old. The boys loved it every bit as much as the children and of course adults at the party. I mean what else would you be doing? I know that this time three years ago before Hilltop Farm came into existence we wouldn’t have considered our last week as being any kind of possibility.

Alpacas…what would we do without them?