Tuesday, February 15, 2011

a busy new year




We've been busy around here. We finally got all the fleece boxed up and headed out to the mill for the next run of socks. I'm looking forward to getting everything back, as we are running really low on socks. Except large crew socks, we have plenty of those.

Kinesis had her cria this past weekend. She's a fawn little girl that we've named Alpacazona's Invincibelle Spirit. Belle's was a textbook delivery and we thought everything was fine, until Kinesis decided she wasn't going to continue nursing the cria. It may be that Kinesis has a touch of mastitis which makes nursing painful for her. Unfortunately, the only way to treat mastitis is to keep milking mom out until it becomes more comfortable for her. We're making progress, Kinesis will now stand and let the baby nurse, but we have to get her up and hold her head at first. Which means every two hours or so one of us is out in the field getting Kinesis and making sure Belle gets a snack. Hopefully Kinesis gets past this soon, I'm getting tired!

And to confuse the situation even more, Tyche has been trying to steal the cria. She even allowed the cria to nurse off of her on Monday. Neat trick that, since Tyche hasn't has a cria in over a year and has no milk. Others have told me it is possible for a female to start producing milk in certain cases. It would be pretty amazing if Tyche actually does start to make milk and becomes a surrogate for little Belle. These animals never cease to surprise me.

Jack is off medications at last and hasn't had a reoccurrence of his infection. (knock on wood!) Keep your fingers crossed that we've finally licked this thing. Poor guy is really tired of feeling like a pin cushion. I know he's had enough, when I went to trim his toe nails, he cushed and then just flopped over on his side as if to say "do what you will, I give up". It actually made doing his nail rather easy, though I don't know that I need yet another drama queen in the herd.

This weekend will be teeth trimming for everyone that needs it.