A tough pill to swallow, CCNF in mourning

We promote this blog as being, amongst other things, a candid window into our life here on the farm. Well, welcome to the dark side. We lost our beloved Tessora last night around 11 PM, the presumed cause of death (pending necropsy results) was complications from a nasty and apparently virulent inner ear infection. This is the second year in a row that we’ve lost an important female member of our light breeding program and the hollow feeling it’s left in my stomach doesn’t feel any better this time around. With a herd this size (200+) we’ve obviously lost our share of animals, young and old, over the years but Tessora was one of the special ones. This loss stings quite a bit more.

Last week as I recounted the tale of how Tessy came to be a member of our herd, we believed that she was well on her way to a full recovery from an infection that first presented itself as a loss of equilibrium some two and a half weeks ago. Through the use of IV and later injectable penicillin though we had every reason to think we had beaten the infection off and in so doing, dodged a bullet. As such we took her off of antibiotics several days ago. Mind you this was an animal that had been in sick bay at the Arena since we first discovered her illness. We had our eyes on her conservatively 10 times a day, yet when she started to show renewed signs of the infection (manifesting as a head tilt) again some 36 to 48 hours ago it seems — hindsight being 20/20 — that we were probably already too late. You have to hand it to alpacas as a species: they tend not to wallow in the middle ground. They either get well relatively quickly or crash hard. Though we count ourselves as fortunate to have four of Tessora’s kids (Krystal, Saphira, Capella, and Tenacious) as members of our foundation herd, she will be missed immeasurably.

5 Comments

  2. A ranch from the West joins Ian and Jen in mourning the death of Tessora. We felt privileged to care for Tess from birth through the birth of her first daughter. Thanks Jen and Ian for giving Tess a great life at Cas-Cad-Nac.
    She will always have a special place in our hearts.
    Tom and Lynn Costner – Sunny Mesa Alpacas

  4. Jen and Ian,

    As owners of Sunny Mesa’s Tuscan Gold, full brother to your Tessora, we are in a unique position to totally relate to your loss and what it means to your program. I had to chuckle when you mentioned cajoling Lynn to sell you Tessora and Tara to Pat. We had to do the same with Tuscan. Lynn knew what she had in these alpacas, and it was very bittersweet for her to let them go. And she was very careful and considerate of where they went. There are those once-in-a-lifetime animals, and Tuscan is that for us as Tessora was for you. Tuscan has put our little farm on the map with the same predictable genetics you appreciated in Tessora. Such great genetics repeated in siblings and then passed on to yet another generation is a rarity, but Lynn and Tom found that magic. We knew both Tara and Tessora when they were youngsters and through their yearling year as Sunny Mesa is only about 20 minutes from us, and we attended several seminars at their ranch and became friends through the business. Tessora was a beautiful girl and a great ambassadress for both Sunny Mesa and Cas Cad Nac. She lives on through your 4 offspring from her, and thankfully, you have those. We mourn with you. She was a very special alpaca.

    Deb and Chuck Powers
    Bella Vita Ranch

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