It Rains Here Too

But not as much as it has been in the UK. Thankfully only the tail end of the storm is passing Lot et Garonne.

First, a few ‘catch up’ pictures. Saturday I tried to clear up as much of the wood as I could off the front lawn. This is the second trip to the new woodpile, the first load was piled well above the level of this one. There is still one tree’s worth of pruning to clear that I somehow managed to miss. Quite a feat since it is the 6ft top of the plum tree.

Next is Mr Tibbs. He just adores having his head scratched. He’s been away again for a couple of days, but I think he comes in late at night as I hear him pass over the roof of my bedroom. I hope he isn’t too put off by the electrical work going on in the loft and decides to move out. The dose of Stronghold I gave him has made a marked improvement in the state of his skin. He had a myriad of small scabs round his neck and back; from I assume flea bites, and scabs in front of his ears which I though were due to ear mites. These scabs have nearly all healed and his profile is also much better so I think we’ve dealt with a lot of worms too. His fur is now soft and silky too and he’s beginning not to wolf his food, but still no joy in him coming down to the house.

The alpacas have now had 4 out of their 5 doses of the coccidian treatment. After two days of trying to squirt the liquid down their throats from a syringe and covering myself in the process, I decided to try a different method. I mixed the powder with a little water to make a paste and then mixed in some of the granules they love. Day one of that was yesterday and it was only so so. The alpacas don’t really like change so they wouldn’t eat from the bowls with the measured out medication. Eventually, Ashan took some from my hand and I eventually got him to take his dose. Silver, his mum, then got jealous so she then ate hers. Chestnut decided to eat a bit from my hand but he really prefers to eat off the ground. Noisette however is nervous of everything and won’t eat from my hand and won’t eat unless the others are eating too. But we got there in the end. Today was a little easier; it was only Noisette to deal with. In the end, I got all the others out of the pen and put her food on the ground and threw the others some non-medicated food on the ground the other side of the pen and she ate hers. Success, they’ve had two nearly full doses at least.

This evening as I went round and shut the barn I saw the end of a rainbow over the next town.