On Hiatus

Readers and Alpaca Fans,

I'm going to be on hiatus for a bit. I recently slipped, fell and broke my right radius. Overall it's healing well but it will be some time before I'm back up to full speed.

I board my alpacas and they are in good hands so that's one less thing to worry about. For now my focus is on getting well.

Should anything overly exciting happen, I'll let you know. Otherwise, I'll be back once I'm healed.

Update on Autumm (and the rest of the herd)

Things are progressing slowly with solving Autumm's mystery. An ultrasound revealed that she is not pregnant, even though her behavior indicates otherwise. She wants absolutely nothing to do with any of the boys. I am currently waiting for some feedback on the ultrasound. At this point it's getting too late for a spring breeding so I'm resigned to leaving her open until next fall. That should give us plenty of time to get her body back to normal.

Mariposa's Rose Marie has been successfully bred to BRA Bocephus. And my girl, Liberty, gave us yet another alpaca surprise. I had chosen to breed Liberty to Doc Holiday. Doc was quite excited about this and was absolutely enthralled with Liberty. However, Doc apparently is NOT Liberty's type and she had no interest in him whatsoever. But she did find BRA Jesse James to her liking. Perhaps Liberty knows something I don't?

Griffin and Morrighan are both weaned and eating well on their own. They got a halter lesson today. Both are very good at standing still and being touched. But walking around on the halter.....not so much.
Griffin poses for the camera during halter training while Baroness looks on (photo by Ellen Disseler).
Halter training Morrighan. Sometimes it helps to get on their level. Photo by Ellen Disseler.

Glass Paperweight

As much as I enjoy the alpacas and working with fiber. I'm always up for trying new things. The third Friday of every month, the Third Degree Glass Factory has an open house. I attended with a singles activities group I belong to and thought I'd try my hand at making a paperweight. It was really cool. The molten glass had a very interesting consistency both fluid and stiff at the same time. I was absolutely enthralled. The instructors were quite knowledgeable and patient. They let you work with the glass quite a bit. If you're reading this before the third Friday in June 2009, then you can see a picture of me in their slideshow making the paperweight pictured above. And if you live in the St. Louis Area, I highly recommend you attend one of their 3rd Friday open houses. They're free and family friendly.

Mysterious Autumm

As is often the case, things rarely go as planned. I purchased Autumm Spring 2008 so she's my newest purchase. Autumm is confusing me right now. Her behavior says she's pregnant. Her progesterone says she isn't. My first instinct is to have an ultrasound done, but our vet doesn't have an ultrasound machine.

What to do? What to do?

Possibilities include a retained CL (retained corpus luteum), ovarian cyst, uterine infection. Or she could really be pregnant. Her previous owners did not perform progesterone testing so I have no idea if her levels are 'normal' or not.

Here's the data so far:

DOB 10/19/1995
10/19/2008 – Full term, still born female cria
11/15/2008 – Bred to Cisco, 25 minutes
11/22/2008 – Half-hearted spit off
11/29/2008 - Bred to Cisco
12/5/2008 – Spit off
12/22/2008 - Progesterone = 0.08
May 2009 – Spits off every male
5/12/2009 – Progesterone = 1.01

I'm in the process of trying to find a vet with an ultrasound machine. In the meantime, I'd welcome any comments and thoughts you might have.