66 / 148
Buchanan, we were able to get that all under
control and her fecal checks were good by the
next month. We did fecal checks on the other
animals with her and they were not affected by
her load of parasites. To keep a close watch on
Annie, we would do a fecal check on her every
Friday since she had such a compromised condi-
tion. She had no diarrhea, even with the parasite
problems. She now weighed 79 pounds – not
much gain but not going backwards, either.
Month Three:
I continued giving the herbal mixture twice a day,
she was gaining weight, and her fecal checks
looked good. On herd health day, we check ears
with an otoscope. We saw two ticks in one of
Annie’s ears. I sprayed the inside of her ear with
one spray of Alpaca and Llama Insect Spray
and I also sprayed the other ear for prevention.
A few days later, I rechecked and it had killed
the ticks and helped the inside of the ear heal.
The rest of the herd got their ears sprayed that
day, too, since we found some other animals
with ticks in their ears.
This month, Annie started gaining more
consistently and was at 84 pounds!
Month Four:
Annie continued to gain, so I gave her the herbal
mixture only once a day to see what would
happen. She started losing weight, so we went
back to twice a day. Mid-month, she had
pudding-like poop. We tried not to think the
worst. I only gave her probiotics (Probios gel)
and she had solid beans the next day.
Her fiber was looking good and her body
score was now a 1
1
⁄
2
out of 5. She weighed
93.3 pounds – great progress!
Month Five:
Ready to go home
We continued giving the herbal mixture twice a
day and this month she continued to gain. Annie
now weighed 97.3 pounds and we felt she could
go to her owner’s ranch as long as they continued
to monitor her and give her the herbal mixture.
Dr. Buchanan agreed she was ready, too, but the
owners wanted her to stay with us and continue
her rehab at our ranch. Annie was part of the big
family now and we were happy for her to stay.
She was a pleasure to work with.
When it was time to weigh her, we would say,
“Annie, let’s weigh you,” and she would walk in
and stand on the scale. She demonstrated this to
Dr. Buchanan one day – he was impressed with
her progress and was pleased to see how good
she looked. Her fiber felt fabulous and her body
score was almost a 3 out of 5. We all were looking
forward to see if she would break the 100-pound
mark next month.
66
Alpacas
Magazine
Ten months later, Annie is healthy, happy and pregnant!
Photo courtesy of Candace Wingo
Illustrations based on an original drawing by Robert Proksa, stock.xchg