Danny Runs Everywhere!

We can really tell that Danny is feeling and doing much better. Whatever was bothering him has most definitely cleared up. He is eating everything and running everywhere. Snow is just starting to melt here. But watching him run around the indoor arena today made me very hopeful that soon he will be able to go outside and visit with some of his relatives. One of our smaller fields has our ewes and lambs and llama/alpaca geldings and he will probably go and visit in there for awhile. I'ld like to see what he could do running around outside.

We'll probably wait until until Spring is officially here in another couple months, but his behaviour the past few days have made me very hopeful!

You can really tell in this picture the way his colour is delineated. We don't normally shear our babies until after their first birthday, so he won't be sheared until Spring 2009, but I am already looking at his fiber and thinking of things we could make out of that great fibre and grey colour. We have a number of white llamas/alpacas, a multitude of browns and fawn/rose coloured and even a few dark brown/black colours, but he is our first grey. So Danny is exciting for us on a number of fronts.

Next week we are going to start doing some serious halter training with him. That will make it safer for him and easier for us to move him around the ranch. That way we can safely lead him outside to play. If it goes well I'll take more photos!

Danny Continuing to Grow

Well, Danny is a growing boy! He continues to do well. He really is socializing well with people and is so cute trying to follow us around the yard. We have moved his stall back out into the main indoor arena so that he is back with the ewes and lambs.

We sometimes have to put him back in his stall during the day because he will try to follow us everywhere. Today we were moving some cattle around. We brought them up to the yard from the pasture so that we can check them out, make sure everyone is still doing well. So we put him in his stall so that he wouldn't get accidentally run over - being a little guy!

Well, he was sooooo unhappy! Llamas make all sorts of sounds - vocalizing. So first, he doesn't like to go in his stall during the day because he knows that means he is going to miss something. And then he stands there and whines - and whines and whines. If he hears you moving he starts up again! I'm hoping that he will outgrow this stage.

Danny Was Sick, Sort Of

We had a very stressful week - the week that Danny was sick. Llamas and alpacas are the only animal that we have encountered that when they get sick they seem to quickly give up hope. If you don't catch whatever it is in the early stages, then the prognosis seems to be fairly grim.

It started when Danny's eyes got a little mucusy. We weren't sure what that was about, but it seemed to indicate some general level of infection so we gave him a shot of penicillin (which is the only medication we keep at the ranch). It seemed to work and he was fine for the next few days.

During this particular day Danny was fine - usual eating, pooping, playing. After his dinnertime bottle he was put into his stall as per normal. When I went to check on him later that evening, something was definitely wrong. He seemed to be bloated and uncomfortable. This was strange behaviour from a llama! At first I thought that something wasn't right in his stall, so I checked all that out, but everything was fine. As per any baby you go through all of the checklist - have they eaten, have they pooped, did they pick something up, any knicks anywhere (okay, that one may be only relevant to animal babies!). Everything seemed to be fine. Except that in the process of running through everything to eliminate all the obvious signs, he laid down on his side and started thrashing his head about.

In Llamas and Alpacas this is a very bad thing. The Llama normal sitting position, "cushing" is very similar to what you see camels do (they are related) in that they fold in their front and back legs and get up and down in a rocking motion. If a Llama goes over on their side, it is a good indication that something is VERY wrong. The head thrashing is the next sign that something is very bad. If you don't figure out what is wrong very quickly at this point, the opportunities to fix the situation rapidly get worse. Needless to say, I was in a panic at this point trying to figure out what was wrong.

Panicking, but at a loss as to what could be wrong, I picked Danny up and made him stand and forced him to walk around. I was concerned that maybe his intestines were twisted or he hadn't pooped enough or something was wrong internally that would explain the bloating. So I walked him for the next few hours, and massaged him, and talked myself hoarse.

After a while I could hear something working inside his stomach region, but was no closer to figuring out what was wrong. Every time I let him go he would be fine for a few minutes and then down he would go. So we kept at it. And then he got the hiccups. I didn't even know that Llamas could get the hiccups - but that was definitely what it was! And then I thought he was going to throw up. Now I know in other animals that throwing up can be deadly - they are not built for food to come back up that way and llamas necks are soooo long. So then I tried to talk him out of throwing up. Thankfully, that worked but he didn't stop hiccuping.

To make a really long evening short, he eventually stopped hiccuping. I think he had some gas because he relieved some of that in the natural way. So by about 3:00 am I was thinking that he had stabilized to an extent. He wasn't going over on his side anymore, so I was semi-hopeful. I put him back in his stall and went to mine.

Next morning he was fine and it was like the previous night had never happened, except I had the bags to prove it.

Danny Playing With Sheep

In our ongoing struggle for Danny to make friends, we've had him out in the arena with the ewes and their babies. The babies just love playing with Danny - they bounce over and run around him. Danny, on the other hand, has been a little slow on the uptake. He hasn't quite got the handle on the give and take required for playtime. He either stands still while the lambs bounce around him or he runs off in another direction. I'm sure in time he'll get it.

The picture isn't very good, but it's a picture of Danny standing beside one of the maternity pens with a Dorset sheep in it and you can just make it by Danny's front feet another little white object. This is the ewe's lamb. We always build our maternity pens so that the lambs can get out and run around and visit back and forth. So the lamb and Danny were visiting back and forth. It's interesting because some lambs just ignore Danny, while others lambs are always right up to him. But we see that in all of our herds of animals - some animals gravitate towards each other and can always be found in each others company - best friends forever.

Danny Making Friends

Because Danny is alone we are trying to make sure that he has play time with other animals. Our herd of Llamas and Alpacas is at about 48 right now, well 49 with Danny, and they are separated into three different fields. The females and babies are in one field with a few of our riding horses, the geldings share a field with our flock of sheep and the studs are sharing a field with some of our steers. So we don't really have any llamas or alpacas that are immediately on hand that we could let him associate with.

I know that it probably sounds a little anal - making sure an animal has play time with other animals - but we know from experience that a happy, socialized animal grows up to be a happy, well-adjusted adult. And there is so much that animals learn from being with their mothers and with other animals. So we are trying to ensure that Danny has some similar experiences to draw on.

Like starting to eat hay. Since I don't intend to eat hay to show him how it's done, we make sure he spends time with some of the ewes and their babies. Baby sheep can start to nibble on hay in the first week of life, I've seen them do it when they are 2 days old! Of course, they still drink milk as their primary meal, but they learn what to eat and how to eat from watching mom. Since we have a number of ewes and their babies in the arena right now - easier to make sure the new babies are okay - I figured it would be great for him to spend time with them to learn how to do things.

The baby sheep didn't care - they bounded over and wanted to run and play. I'll try and get some photos to show because it is adorable. But the moms weren't sure what he was all about and they didn't want him around at first. They are gradually warming up to each other. That's okay - it's winter and we have plenty of time.

The other animal that Danny is getting to know is our Dalmation, Spring Fever. Spring is a spayed registered female Dalmation. I love having a Dalmation as a ranch dog because it is so unexpected! Anyway, Danny and Spring spend time together around the ranch. Spring completely tries to mother Danny and watches him to make sure he's not getting into things. Spring could be sitting down and Danny will bound over to her, kicking up his heels, and Spring doesn't bat an eyelash. Just sits there watching him.

In the picture Spring is cleaning Danny off after a bottle. Maybe Spring just likes the taste of the milk! You can see the Danny is already growing taller than Spring. It'll be interesting to see how tall he ends up being.