Been a while since I posted anything up on the forum, but so much has been happening, some good but so much not good.
A few weeks ago, on the day Sue was due to drive to the UK for a weeks visit to see family and friends, I decided that it would be a good idea to cut the end of some tree branches that were overhanging where the stables were going to be built (the ground team phoned up the night before and said they would be starting 2 weeks early). So we put up the long ladders, Sue stood at the bottom and held them whilst I climbed 5 mtrs to the top and cut the end of the first branch. Well, the branch (only small) hit the ground well away from the ladders, then bounced back and ripped the ladders from Sue’s grasp and from under my feet. Chainsaw in hand I hurtled to the floor and made a nice dent in the ground. After being rushed to hospital I an ambulance I was diagnosed as having 5 broken ribs and sever bruising to lungs and all muscles on left hand side of my body. Needless to say that Sue cancelled her trip to the UK that day. 3 days later they let me out on my insistence because I had to do some fencing as we now have a flock of Shetland sheep which were being kept in isolation and the fencing had to be lowered in the new field we were going to be moved into.
The day I arrived back home, Danny (our 2 year old border collie) started looking quite ill, so we took him to the vets (painful journey with broken ribs) to see what the problem was. At first they checked him over and did a urinalysis and blood test but could not find anything wrong so they prescribed antibiotics for what they thought was a fever. 2 days later and Danny was getting worse so at midnight we took him to the vets and they decided to keep him in and put him on a drip. For the next 2 days they kept checking him and then during one examination they discovered a lot of small lumps so did a biopsy and set them off to Paris for testing. 4 days later Danny was no better and so we decided to bring him home and I would administer the injections etc. That night was had a call from the vets saying that Danny’s results were through and that he had “Chronic Leukaemia”. Ok we though, at least it is treatable and decided that we would set aside some renovation cash to pay for blood transfusions, chemo and whatever other treatment he needed to prolong his life. The next morning we took Danny down to the vets and a sad faced vet handed us the test results. Unfortunately the vet who speaks quite good English had misinterpreted the diagnosis and Danny actually had wide spread “Acute Lymphatic Leukaemia” for which there is no cure or treatment. We knew that in his current condition Danny had only hours left to live so we made the painful decision to have him put to sleep there and then. Sue and I cuddled and stroked Danny as he passed away. We were absolutely devastated as Danny was just so full of life and only 2 years old and this type of cancer normally only occurs in older dogs.
We returned to the farm absolutely crestfallen, but as needs be, life must continue as the other dogs and animals need caring for. I walked up to the fields to check on the llamas and noticed that 2 of the males had a bad case of the mange on their legs. Due to all the other things happening, we had taken our eye off the ball for a few days and a couple of weeks beforehand a couple of white tailed deer had jumped the fence and were in with the males for a few hours before jumping back out into the woods. So in a lot of pain we got them into our makeshift catch pen and injected them all with Ivermectin (if ever we get mange we treat all of the llamas even if they show no signs of infection).
That afternoon, one of our chickens looked slightly off colour and so she was treated. Yesterday morning she was looking fine and then rapidly went downhill. We placed her in a box lined with straw to try and keep her comfortable and she died at 1000.
On top of all of this we have had the building materials arriving daily for 1 week as they are starting to build the stables this coming Monday, I am currently training (very carefully due to the pain from my ribs) trekking llamas for a customer in France. I have got to fly out to Portugal later this month to advise and assist a couple setting up a llama trekking centre just outside the city of Porto, then supply and train 10 llamas ready for next year and I have got 8 llamas to train and have ready for Feb/March next year for a trekking centre south of us. Also the stables have to be completed and operational by the end of November because we have people attending courses here in December (it never rains, it pours).
The only consolation with all this work and organising is that it has helped to divert our attention from the sudden loss off our beautiful and very much missed “Danny”.
We have bought another border collie and we will be picking him up in early November. He will never replace Danny, but will be good company for our other 9 month old collie “Max” who is clearly missing Danny as they were best buddies and playmates.
Life as a Llama Farmer is never ever boring but so often tinged with deep sadness.
Rgds, Mike L
Danny you will be deeply missed, but always in our hearts and never ever forgotten.
www.borderllamas.com
