OUR SMALL HERD

Our original four boys came from Ardo Alpacas in Aberdeenshire. We are not alpaca breeders and have our boys purely as pets. Our experience is that you don't need to be a breeder and that a 'batchelor herd' can give much pleasure to the owner. We have 5 acres including our big garden and grazing for the boys, 15 miles north of Inverness, Scotland. I spin, knit, felt and crochet with the fleece from the boys.

Clicking!!

Just a reminder that clicking on (most) of the photos will show them greatly enlarged.

Sunday 4 August 2013

Keeping an eye on Fergus.

A photo of Fidget (left) and Fyta with Faro and Wee Eck in the background.  The boys have been penned several times this week as we've been paying close attention to one of Fergus's eyes.  We like to pen all or most of the boys together for company whilst we are working on one of them and in Fergus's case, put his head collar on.
And here he is with his partially closed left eye.  At first we thought that he had something in his eye e.g. a seed or piece of grass, but we could not find anything after several inspections.  The eye occasionally weeps clear tears and there is no sign of pus or infection and Fergus is not unduly blinking or appearing to be in discomfort.  The bright sunlight has been making the weeping worse so we got a tube of Orbenin from the Vets to see if this would help.   Eventually however we got the vet to visit as the occasional weeping was continuing.
Here he is in profile and showing the offending 'droopy' eye problem.  The vet confirmed that it was  conjunctivitis and recommended continuing the Orbenin on alternate days so we'll see how he gets on with that. 
Gully (left) and Faro.
On Wednesday we had a visit from some of our adult Learning Disabled friends and their support staff from their day Centre in Inverness.  Unfortunately it was pouring with rain during their visit so their feeding of the boys had to be 'short and sweet!'  Several groups from the Centre have visited in the past and enjoy seeing the boys.  Robbie and I are involved in running a registered charity for the adults (www.corbettvip.btck.co.uk) so we are always pleased to welcome them.
Time to get some produce out of the veg garden this week, including this lot of onions which are now being dried off ready for storage.  Lots of black currants and raspberries this year, I've stored plenty of rasps in the freezer but have already made some jam. 
And finally............we've had a couple of days of really windy weather.  Yesterday we were in the veg garden when we heard a loud 'crack' then a very large 'woosh' sound as part of this very large beech tree collapsed in our neighbour's field!  Fortunately his cattle were some distance away when the branch came down.

4 comments:

  1. Hope Fergus's eye soon comes better, I once had a white boy who had a blocked tear duct and it had very similar symptoms....a regular gentle massage soon sorted it out, just a wonder if its the same problem ...it took me a while to get to the bottom of his problem, but once it was cleared, he hasn't ever had any more problems. The onions look great & its nice to be able to offer an alpaca experience to your visitors ...... Jayne

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    1. Thanks for that Jayne, we'll give the massage a try and see if that helps. Shirley & Robbie

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  2. Could the onions be making Fergus cry?

    I have always had success with Orbenin. Hope all better soon.

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  3. Hope Fergus is soon bright eyes and bushy tailed again!

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