Misfitmorgan's Journal - That Summer Dust

[misfitmorgan]

Kids and lambs are doing well still. Ruger is still smelling the joint up

Trick our horse left Sunday morning for his new home. We simply didnt have time to do anything much with him as much as we wanted too and it wasnt fair to him. DH finally agreed that we can get rid of Ruger after he does his job as he is starting to try to head ram everyone and everything and of course cant keep him in the pasture.

 

[misfitmorgan]

So last night DH came home and told me he got a called from his Ex-wife. They are selling the farm property he was working before the divorce because it is "to much for them to handle" which is a whole nother irony filled story anyhow. The Ex told him to come get the livestock and he is planning too I'm so annoyed with the entire situation because we have no where to put them. The livestock there includes some odd number of mixed breed mutt sheep that are small like icelandic crosses or something...a mixed breed Ram and two fixed male Llama's. None of the livestock is at all people friendly not even a little bit. None of the animals have been sheared in over 3yrs or wormed or vaccinated or anything. Basically they were feed nothing but junk hay, on a burned off pasture. Yes i feel bad for them i always have but i literally have no place i can put them except in the barn with the other livestock....which would be fine but we have all Suffolk sheep including two young suffolk rams and our two polypay ewe's. I dont want a mutt ram breeding them or trying to kill my young suffolk rams i paid a lot of money for them. Our barn is not set up for Llamas either. I really dont know what to do with these animals and i wish he had just told her no or at least told her sure but we get your fencing to then.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Straight to the nearest auction barn...

 

[misfitmorgan]

He said to take the ram to the auction barn but the closest is over 2hrs away and i doubt he would bring more then $25 being a mutt and 4yrs old.

 

[norseofcourse]

Yikes that's such a tough situation You don't want to endanger your own animals, but you feel bad for those animals who are in a bad situation through no fault of their own...

It sure would be nice if they'd give you all the fencing/equipment they have, as well. You have any neighbors with property that could help you house them temporarily till you can fix something up for them, or arrange to sell them or find them other homes? Good luck...

 

[misfitmorgan]

I know like i said i feel bad for the animals but i just dont know what to do with them. I only have 2 neighbors with any kind of fencing up and they both have horses already. We have 20 acres we just dont have any other shelter besides a barn and we are not at this moment in a position to build anymore before winter. i can deal with the llama's and the sheep all except the ram as long as we could stall him and sell him quickly it might be alright. I just refuse to have him in a stall for an extended period of time. I also dont know if they have any other animals there who we are going to be getting or not, i dont even know how many sheep there are. I'm not to worried on feed as we have tons of hay, 3-4 times the amount we need for our current animals but grain is gonna be a little costly.

I've never tried to hold down a llama to trim their feet that is gonna be interesting. I think we are going to have to make a shearing table because i dont know how else they are going to get sheared. None of them like people not that they are mean to people just pretty much feral. The one bright spot is i know they dont have any diseases, so there is that and they are clearly hardly for making it 3+yrs without being wormed at all or sheared. I'm not even sure if i can give them wormer, i know i have heard about ivermectin causing worms to detach to fast and internal bleeding. I'm going to have to get my awful vet to do a farm visit and check them out

 

[misfitmorgan]

Joy just found out i was wrong.....about the llama's. One is a male and one is a female and neither are fixed....they have not had a cria in 3yrs. I dont know whether that is due to poor nutrition or to much fleece to mate or what.

 

[Bruce]

I've been researching shearing alpacas and it seems the most common way by far is to attach ropes to their feet and stretch them out on the ground using pulleys and jam cleats. Don't know but I ASSUME llamas can be sheared the same way. And while they are down you can do their feet (as seen in a few of the videos).

If you live where there are white tailed deer, you need to give the camelids Ivermectin every 30-45 days, at least during the times of year the snails (meningeal worm's intermediate host) can be alive on the grasses the animals might eat. So no real concern about it causing a huge drop of internal roundworms since they wouldn't have the chance to get to that state.

 

[misfitmorgan]

I've been researching shearing alpacas and it seems the most common way by far is to attach ropes to their feet and stretch them out on the ground using pulleys and jam cleats. Don't know but I ASSUME llamas can be sheared the same way. And while they are down you can do their feet (as seen in a few of the videos).

If you live where there are white tailed deer, you need to give the camelids Ivermectin every 30-45 days, at least during the times of year the snails (meningeal worm's intermediate host) can be alive on the grasses the animals might eat. So no real concern about it causing a huge drop of internal roundworms since they wouldn't have the chance to get to that state.

Good to know, thanks much for the info.

We went and looked at the livestock she wants us to take....it turns out it is two rams and the two Llama's

They are convinced they can sell the 8 mixed breed ewes for big bucks...so convinced they dont have any hay put up for winter.

We looked closer at the Llama's and they are in a sorry sorry state...feed wise they are fine from what we can tell but their fleece is full of burrs and all mated up and their toenails are 3-4inches long so they can no longer walk normally and i hope their feet are not permanently damaged from it. Found out the male is 5 yrs old and the female is 6yrs old so she may be bred right now. They should be getting moved to our property today and both rams will go for sale or to the auction barn asap.

 

[Baymule]

Hoping you can tame down the llamas and get them in better shape. Maybe they will make good guardians for your other sheep and goats.

Reading about your dog, he should NEVER have access to your livestock, unless you have him on a leash. His "playing" with the livestock is a huge NONO and should not be allowed. Don't mean to sound harsh, but you have to get some control over the situation. He is a beautiful dog, BTW and I love Dobies. Keep him in the yard, if you have one and only allow him to go with you when he is on a leash. When you get a LGD, he should not be allowed in the LGD's working area. I let my Great Pyrenees out to play with our yard/house dogs, but they have to respect his working area and they are not allowed in.