It never calms down...
This weekend was our chance to do the herd health on the alpacas. Saturday I get off work at 8am, but I hung around talking to my relief for a bit. When I got home, we took our time getting ready to go to the barn, making sure we had all the medications, syringes, and needles we needed. Get down to the barn and start things off by feeding the other animals. Matthew took care of that while I coaxed the girls out of the pasture to the barn. We get the girls restrained and I am waiting on him to feed them boys, when I hear him call me saying "An alpaca is down". Well crap.
After our craziness last year, I am not taking any chances. I called Auburn immediately. We finished feeding chores, got the 2 horse trailer unloaded (it had shelves dad was giving us), loaded him up and headed out. Of course we were out of diesel, so had to stop and fill up, and we were on the road by 12:15. The drive from our house to the vet school is 2 hours. Going from north to south, we pass the town of Wedowee, Roanoke, Lafayette, then the turn to Auburn. So as we are between Wedowee and Roanoke, I notived a shake and started to slow down and the driver's side rear trailer tire shredded as I began pulling off the road. We took a few minutes to assess the sutiation. Luckily a nice family allowed us to pull the trailer off the road into their yard. However we still had to get the alpaca to Auburn. This was over an hour away. So we unloaded the back seat of the Ford truck, put everything in the small storage compartment of the trailer, loaded his unhappy arse into the back seat of the truck and took off.
We arrived in Auburn around 03:00. The vet assessed him, is sure we were correct in his need for the vet, started treatment and we headed back out. We had planned to move the trailer to another location (carefully). We have no spare for this trailer, it was a Saturday afternoon so most places we could get one were closed, could not have it towed under our plan, and were not looking forward to jacking this old trailer up. We managed to find some ramps used for working on cars that would allow us to pull the front wheel on the ramp to let the back wheel be suspended with out jacking the whole thing up.
Arrived back at the house where we had left the trailer. They would not hear of us moving the trailer and instead helped measure the hub in case we needed a new wheel, helped us get the old tire off, and told us where to go to get one that was still open. Oh and we got to meet a gorgeous bull terrier puppy they had! Wound up at WalMart and they did have the tire. An hour later (and finally a bit of food) the tire was ready. Head back, install tire, and head home. We arrived home after 7pm. That made a 24 hour day of being awake and running almost constantly for me.
Sunday we finished the herd health we had planned to do Saturday. Most everyone was good, except 2 of the girls are a bit underweight, 2 seemed slightly anemic, and 1 we tested because she is probably pregnant. Also checked the llamas and all got their shots. We moved the new llama to the pasture with all the other males.
Monday I went back to Auburn to visit the sick alpaca. He is no worse and at least maintaining, so they are cautiously optimistic at his chances for survival. I took the samples to be processed and all were good but 1, so she will be dewormed. Its been a long weekend.
After our craziness last year, I am not taking any chances. I called Auburn immediately. We finished feeding chores, got the 2 horse trailer unloaded (it had shelves dad was giving us), loaded him up and headed out. Of course we were out of diesel, so had to stop and fill up, and we were on the road by 12:15. The drive from our house to the vet school is 2 hours. Going from north to south, we pass the town of Wedowee, Roanoke, Lafayette, then the turn to Auburn. So as we are between Wedowee and Roanoke, I notived a shake and started to slow down and the driver's side rear trailer tire shredded as I began pulling off the road. We took a few minutes to assess the sutiation. Luckily a nice family allowed us to pull the trailer off the road into their yard. However we still had to get the alpaca to Auburn. This was over an hour away. So we unloaded the back seat of the Ford truck, put everything in the small storage compartment of the trailer, loaded his unhappy arse into the back seat of the truck and took off.
We arrived in Auburn around 03:00. The vet assessed him, is sure we were correct in his need for the vet, started treatment and we headed back out. We had planned to move the trailer to another location (carefully). We have no spare for this trailer, it was a Saturday afternoon so most places we could get one were closed, could not have it towed under our plan, and were not looking forward to jacking this old trailer up. We managed to find some ramps used for working on cars that would allow us to pull the front wheel on the ramp to let the back wheel be suspended with out jacking the whole thing up.
Arrived back at the house where we had left the trailer. They would not hear of us moving the trailer and instead helped measure the hub in case we needed a new wheel, helped us get the old tire off, and told us where to go to get one that was still open. Oh and we got to meet a gorgeous bull terrier puppy they had! Wound up at WalMart and they did have the tire. An hour later (and finally a bit of food) the tire was ready. Head back, install tire, and head home. We arrived home after 7pm. That made a 24 hour day of being awake and running almost constantly for me.
Sunday we finished the herd health we had planned to do Saturday. Most everyone was good, except 2 of the girls are a bit underweight, 2 seemed slightly anemic, and 1 we tested because she is probably pregnant. Also checked the llamas and all got their shots. We moved the new llama to the pasture with all the other males.
Monday I went back to Auburn to visit the sick alpaca. He is no worse and at least maintaining, so they are cautiously optimistic at his chances for survival. I took the samples to be processed and all were good but 1, so she will be dewormed. Its been a long weekend.