I really like this picture of Chas watching the others unload hay. He says it is awful – not true!
As most alpaca owners must be aware there have been quite a few cases of bTB in alpacas this year and Jay Holland has written several articles about it. So when we have to do bTB tests for export I always worry. I am a worrier. Happily the vet came to read the tests today and all were clear. We have done several exports every year for some time now and never had a reactor which is reassuring and nowadays any animals coming on to the farm to live have to have negative bTB tests.
We have to wait for the results of the brucellosis tests and the paperwork from Animal Health. Apparently the churning out of the paperwork has been centrlised in Carlisle leading to the usual agonising delays. Our vet had a torrid time with the last export of sheep when the paperwork was never posted when promised until he day before the export. Sod’s Law came into play and the postman was late and the exporters should have left for the ferry. The practice boss Dick Sibley shot off in his car to find the postman and found the van but not the man who was having breakfast somewhere but no one knew where. A practice nurse was dispatched to stand by the van to wait until breakfast was done and the paperwork could be retrieved. I hope that doesn’t happen to us. Wake up Carlisle.