A llama tale

We had a horrible scare three weeks ago. We found Gabby, one of our beautiful females and the matriarch of the herd, on the ground, very ill. We called the vet who told us she had less than a 10% chance of surviving, but he'd do what we could. The diagnosis was enterotoxaemia, which occurs when the transit of food through the animal's intestines is slowed down for some reason. Fermentation starts and it gets very nasty very quickly. It is usually fatal. After giving her injections, the vet left, and we kept our vigil, standing over her with parasols from the picnic tables as it was a scorching hot, sunny day. Several times I thought the end was imminent so I quickly sent daughter Caiti off errands as I knew it would be too upsetting for her. But amazingly Gabby kept going. We kept her mouth moistened and the flies off her. Then suddenly she tried to get up. Benj gave her a shove and we got her onto her knees. She was woozy but drank two whole buckets of water straight off and then staggered to her feet. Seeing her mum upright again, baby Lulin charged over for a drink of milk (llams suckle for 7 months). We kept her off as we were concerned that the drugs in Gabby's system might be bad for Lulin if they got to her through the milk. We checked with the vet and he said there was no problem there, so we let Lulin free. Just as well - she's a strong, strapping young llama now and she was very determined to get to her mum. I don't think we could have held her off much longer!
The vet came the day after her collapse to inject her with Cobactan, a job which we took over the day after. Gabby was weak and clearly not her usual self for about another week, but carried on looking after Lulin. It's been fantastic to see her recover fully. She's a very strong-willed but gentle llama, and we all adore her. I think her character helped her recover. We're hoping she's still pregnant - she was about a month along. But we can always try again later. We're just relieved she's still with us.

Fashion diva cria

Lulin is really thriving now. She also has a very trendy cria coat that I adapted from a dog blanket pattern (from www.suitability.com) and burnt the midnight oil to make. What do you think!

Lulin has landed

Yesterday little Lulin of Les Fragnes arrived. We've named her after the comet that's close to the earth at the moment. She was born around 11.30am and we found her at about midday, very wet and cold.

So we brought her out into the sun and dried her under mum Gabby's watchful eye.

It wasn't long before she warmed up and had rolled into her tummy.



Finally we carried her back into the stable to bond with Gabby. She's a fine strong little cria now.

Cria wrestling soon?

Will I be wrestling with a baby llama soon? Gabby is getting very large so we're expecting her baby to arrive any day now. Great excitement!

Llama bandanas

Here is Bernard in his St Valentine's day bandana and heart.

Otis explores outdoors

Today we took little Otis (born 6 November) and mum Alice back out to join the other Longhurst llamas who we're minding for Mike and Sue at the moment. Otis was thrilled to be outside, and the other llamas were all very pleased to meet him.

Llama wrestling - llama 1, me 0

A llama wrestled me yesterday - and won! Chris and I drove to Bagnols in the Auvergne through snow and ice and temperatures down to minus 7 to see a llama. His owner had phoned me before Christmas asking if I'd like him. She told me he was black, and 4, and in need of llama company. So we went to have a look, but sadly found that he is what's called a 'beserk llama'. This syndrome is most common amongst male llamas that have been handreared or had an unnatural amount of human contact when young. It turns out this llama was born in a zoo in Germany and so must have been overhandled as a baby. He had handsome markings, but appeared to have a few physical problems in the form of a deformed face and nose and crossed over bottom teeth. Chris led him around on a lead, but had to keep it short as he wasn't the best behaved. Then he came up to sniff me as llamas often do, and next thing I knew I was on my back on the frozen ground. Ouch! He had chest butted me without any warning at all. Luckily my butt took the impact so no harm done! We certainly can't take him on - his behaviour is very difficult and it would take a lot of rehabilitation to try and sort him out, but it's quite likely that would make no difference. I'm not sure the owners wil lfind anyone prepared to take on such an animal. It's a real pity that misguided treatment by people in the past has produced what is now an unmanageable llama.
So it was a disappointing and long and tiring day. But we did see some lovely scenery in the Auvergne, one of our favourite parts of France.

Wrestling with Diablo

We did a spot of llama wrestling today. Actually, it was llama-dragging. Silly old Diablo had climbed up on some hay bales and his front legs had gone down into the gap between two of them. He was well and truly stuck when we found him. Husband Chris was there so he pulled Diablo free, not an easy task as llamas are pretty heavy. Diablo can't have been there very long as we'd only checked on the llamas an hour or so previously, but clearly it was long enough for his legs to have got stiff or gone to sleep. He couldn't move for a few moments and we were beginning to worry that he might have broken something, well he heaved himself upright and trotted off. Phew.

The Llama Wrestler has arrived!

Hi! I originally started out at The Knitting Llama just two days ago but then found out there was already a Knitting Llama (without the 'the') who had a blog. So as not to cause problems I've changed my name. I shall be mainly blogging about my knitting but bringing in llamas here and there too. And llama wrestling? My daughter made me a t-shirt with 'Professional Llama Wrestler' on it as a birthday present and I think it's a great name. And I have wrestled llamas a couple of times, but only very gently, don't worry! So that's why I'm the Llama Wrestler.