|
Farmer Steve and I set out to shear our cria today. We were both quite nervous as this was our first cria shearing on our own, AND our first alpaca shearing without the assistance of a professional. This was my first time putting them down on the mat and holding heads. I was so anxious. I really didn't even want to do it, but knew we just had to suck it up and get our hands dirty.
We chose to start early in the morning. The weather men were promising temperatures in the mid 90's. Neither of us wanted to have stressed cria stretched out on the mats in 90 degree heat, nor did he and I want to add that heat stress to our already frazzled brains and nerves.
We put Ollalie down on the mat first. Once I got the hang of holding her steady, things seemed to go quite smooth. Next MoMo went down. Farmer Steve did a fantastic job with MoMo and Ollalie. Fantastic for his first time. He was really nervous as well. Sure, the heads could be a little more even, the legs maybe more symmetrical, but overall the two girls came out fantastic.
Our last victim was Moos. The littlest of all.
Things were going okay until Farmer Steve got to Moos' chest. The area under the front legs/armpits is always the point at which I hold my breath. Whether there is a seasoned professional behind the shears or if it is Steve. There are many skin folds there that the shears can grab onto a cut right off. Well, it happened to us with Moos. Farmer Steve accidentally cut a quarter sized hole in Moos. We kind of panicked for a moment. Farmer Steve more out of guilt and self loathing, me just because I somehow lost all sanity.
I immediately called Dr. Nicole for advice. She said she would come over if we felt it necessary to sew it up. "No. No." I said, "We will try to take care of it. I just wanted to see what you thought." Dr. Nicole agreed that the super glue method would be a good first try.
By this time of the morning the temperatures had reached 90 degrees. We grabbed the super glue and started to apply it. Moos was sweaty, I was sweaty, Farmer Steve was sweaty...I couldn't get the skin to stick together. As I kept applying the super glue, I was getting it everywhere. All the skin I did not want to stick together was adhering fine, just not the cut. There was not any blood at this point, not that it bled very much to start. But now the cut was covered in a nice clean layer of superglue. Farmer Steve was getting a little frustrated with me, so I asked him to give it a try. He put on the nitrile gloves, cleaned and dried the wound again (which was encased and crusted with super glue), and tried his hand at it. Well, that did not go much better. He held the skin together in hopes the glue would bind the edges. No such luck for him. Instead, he attached the nitrile glove. AHHH!
After the struggle and realizing the heat and stress was going to get to Moos long before this cut could get infected, we decided to quit. Yes, the wound was still open. Yes, he had a nitrile glove glued to his chest...what were we to do? We trimmed up the glove, so only a small patch of blue was stuck and hosed him down to cool him off and relesead him to get comfort from his mom [July's April].
We sat for a moment contemplating reality. We have had experience with worse open wounds. This had not made it past the fascia. This was a surficial wound. I realized that I could easily treat this with a topical salve, clean it twice daily, observe for elevated temperature or infection. This would likely granulate in just fine. [and it did].
Doctor Nicole called back a little while later to get a status report.
"Oh, things here are fine. Moos is okay, other than napping right now because he was exhausted from the experience."..."Yes, we sort of closed the wound. We covered it in a thick layer of superglue, and a nitrile glove."..."Yes, I was kind of hoping that glove would fall off eventually. Thanks for the giggles and reassurance that it will be okay." I love Doctor Nicole. She agreed that my course of action over the next few days would suffice.
Moos survived, we survived.
UPDATE: The glove has since come off. Farmer Steve wants to fix all the cria cuts to make them perfect...I am dragging my feet. Making excuses. I know. I know. We will have to do it at some point.
|
