Alpaca Shots

Aw, man.   Apparently our alpaca have more of a parasite problem than we first realized.   Darn.   On Saturday when I was in the boys barn, Ice Man went down and was not able to get back up.  His neck was laying at an awkward angle and his breathing was labored.    Not a good sign for an alpaca.

For months he has been struggling to put weight on, a sure sign of parasites taking over his body, just like Calico at Christmastime.   I've been hand feeding 4 alpaca in an effort to get more food and the proper meds in them, trying to boost their immunity and make them stronger.    But Ice Man lost his battle Saturday.   So, yes, we had to dig another hole and bury him.   At least this time we knew what to do and got to work putting him to rest after saying our good bye's to the sweet animal.

First, Joel had to get out his tractor and fill it with gas.   Then, a tire was almost flat, so that got remedied with the air compressor.   Seems there is always something that needs maintenance on the farm, making each task take just a little bit longer than expected.  Oh, well, what else do we have to do with our day?

Once the tractor was ready, Joel picked up Ice Man and carried him over to the hole we dug.   

Thank goodness for mechanized equipment!   Now Calico isn't alone as Ice Man is buried next to her.   Geez, I hope this is the end of the animal burial ground for a while.   At least they are at rest now under the pine trees at the edge of our property.

We were determined to figure out how to kick this parasite problem, so, on Sunday we had a very information packed visit from my spinning friend, Barb and her husband Dave.   They have had alpaca since 1998 and sheep since before that.   Barb regularly attends conferences and lectures at U.T. in Knoxville where the animal department conducts studies on their permanent herd of alpaca.    Her knowledge comes firsthand from her own herd as well as from the top notch team at U.T.

That brings me to today.   Per Barb's instructions, Joel and I had to remove all the food and hay from both stalls last night so the alpaca went without food for 12 hours.   Then, first thing this morning we gave each alpaca a shot of medication meant to eradicate the parasites.   Um, yeah, that means catching each and every alpaca and holding onto them while giving them a shot.   Easy-peasy, right?   ha!    Too bad Candid Camera wasn't there to observe.  That's all I'm going to say on that subject.

Now we wait for 4 hours without letting them have any hay or pellets and then we can finally feed them.    (It helps to "starve" the parasites while the meds take over.)  They kept humming the whole time we were working with them, wondering where in the world was their food????   And because we don't want them to eat any pasture grass either, we added insult to injury and penned them in their barn stalls until 1pm.

So, I sit typing this to prevent myself from fidgeting about the house while I wait to feed our critters.   It's killing me to deny them food, but we have to do it this way to start the process of killing these parasites.   Oh, yeah, and we have to do this all over again tomorrow.   And wait, it gets better.  We need to repeat this two day ritual again in 3 weeks.    Aaargh!  

I know that they will be very happy once we fill their feed troughs and hay bins and allow them to once again graze out in their pasture.   Is it 1 o'clock yet????

Signed,
Parasite Prowlers,
Debbie and Joel