Lily has come home.

This blog is a difficult one to write. In fact I don't know why I am writing it. I was outside in the field a moment ago thinking that I would leave the blog for a week or two and then I changed my mind.

This stupid little blog of mine is, as it says, the 'rambling drivel' of some fat bloke as he and his family steer their way through the wonderful world of alpacas. The ups and the downs, warts and all. I think that it is important that the good bits, of which there are countless, are highlighted, equally I also think the relatively infrequent bad times are also acknowledged.

Sadly this blog is one of those relatively infrequent bad times. I'm not after sympathy, far from it. Maybe writing about it helps me in some way to deal with it. Anyway here it is.


Team Patou took a smack in the chops yesterday. I went over to help Ivan who has been looking after Lily (post toe incident) move some of his animals around. At the same time I checked on Lily. Something wasn't right. Her toe has healed up nicely but she looked depressed and listless.

She was down and although she got up when I approached she very quickly went down again.

I called our vet who was there within the hour. He took blood samples and gave her a thorough checking over. He was very open about what he was thinking as he always is. It wasn't good. Lily is severely enaemic, very thin and appears to have given up on life. I went numb. He talked about the possibility of liver and kidney failure and that most alpacas who had given up rarely recovered.

The last words I can remember him saying were 'I'm sorry but I think you are going to lose her'. I have to say tears were streaming out of me as I absorbed what he had said. I looked over at Ivan and his eyes were full of tears, Sue had gone very quiet.

We talked about treatment and what we could possibly do to help her, anything to prevent this seemingly inevitable end. Advice was given and has been acted upon.

The first thing was that Sue and I decided to bring her home. She may not be so keen to give up on life at home with her herd around her. With her cria near her. So we loaded her and her two 'wingmen' Sheba and Emma up and I drove them home. Most of the way I have to say I was blinking away tears. I haven't felt that low for some time.

We arrived and I unloaded the girls whilst the trailer was surrounded by the herd. Lola, Lily's sister, literally bustled past me as she trotted over to Lily. Lily seemed to perk up. She was greeted with a nose nuzzle by most of the herd including her daughter Amelie and then she got her head down and grazed. She had been grazing pretty much full on since she arrived but this morning she was down and has that 'look' about her again.

She may just be having a rest in the sunshine but her every move is now watched and analysed, probably too much. We want to cling on to every positive sign, any sign that might indicate that she is getting better. We are throwing everything at her to get her to feel better and eat more. And yes any suggestions will be gratefully received!

I don't know if Lily has come home to recover or to die. One thing is for certain, Sue and I will not give up on her. Bugger that. We will do everything in our power to make Lily change her mind.