Herd Health Day

This morning was another herd health day. We try to set aside a day about every 6 weeks for herd health. Today was the day.

This time around we:
* weighed each alpaca
* gave AD&E shots to all the cria and anyone under 2 years old
* trimmed toe nails
* trimmed top knots
* took out burrs (oh dear, what a mess some of them were!)
* put halters on everyone, giving the cria a halter training lesson

After some cooler weather this past week, today was supposed to be a hot day. We decided to start early in the morning to take advantage of the cooler morning temps. Unfortunately we do herd health on our back patio, which is in the sun. This meant that by lunch time, we were hot, very tired (did I mention I went running this morning too?), and ready to be done. We managed to get through all the cria, all the yearlings, and the 2 year olds. Tomorrow we will tackle the older girls. Being breeding girls, and all of them at various stages of pregnancy, they can be quite ornery. We will also need to go up and assess all of the boys.

I am happy to say that all the alpacas we looked at today are healthy, and growing well. We are amazed at how fast the cria are growing. Rose weighed in at 70 pounds - she's only 4 months old! This earned her a daytrip to the maiden girls shelter and pasture. We will begin day weaning. We've done weaning a variety of different ways, this is a little different than what we've done in the past. We will see how it goes.

Now I'm ready for a nap! The alpacas seem to be too, as many of them are now out there sunning themselves.