ALPHONSO ALPACA

So much for owning alpacas - 'just put them out in the paddock and throw them a bit of hay'.  That was the type of message received when looking into which animal to be our lawn mowers, or rather paddock mowers.  In actual fact, there always seems to be a new challenge in looking after our rather curious boys.

This time it is Alphonso - our fawn boy.   About this time last year Alphonso showed signs of mites, so we drenched all the camelids.  One obvious sign was hair falling out on this nose and thinning of hair on his ears.  Last year he was not shorn, so I thought perhaps the long fleece had made him more attractive to mites.  This year the same thing happened and my new vet said all the boys had to have a series of 3 injections over a 4 week period.  This involved getting the vet out to do the first lot of injections, then letting the shearer do the second lot (when the boys were tied down) and finally getting the vet back to do the third round.  The solution is rather thick, so you have to have a large needle on the syringe. Of course, the large needle hurts more than a thinner one, so the boys were not all that enthused. (Our fiesty little TopDeck struggled so much the third round, the vet had to have 4 goes to get the job done.)

Anyway now all the injections have been completed and Alphonso looks much the same as before the 33 injections which have been performed on the 11 boys!  But all of this is just the prelude to the current tale. 

Twenty-four hours ago when it was time for the boys to come in for the night, Alphonso was up near the shed on his own and the other boys were still in the dam paddock.  Poor Alphonso presented himself with a huge right top lip.  It was extremely swollen and hard.  He let me have a good feel around - I was looking for any sign of a bite or perhaps a grass seed.  Unfortunately Alphonso has dark skin inside his mouth, so it is impossible to see any redness.  I checked his tongue and it wasn't swollen, so at least he could breathe and swallow.  I watched him try to eat, but he obviously couldn't use his lip (so essential as they don't have top teeth).  He looked like he had been to the dentist and come out with one side of his mouth numb.  Fortunately alpacas suck in water rather than use their lips or tongue, so I believed he could at least drink water.

I came inside and called a couple of friends who are alpaca breeders.  One said it could be a grass seed, which would in a couple of days fester and then I may be able to extract it.  The other suggested a bee sting.  Both recommended not calling a vet, but rather use a 'wait and see' approach.  Neither had actually had this happen to any of their combined current 170 alpacas or any in the previous 10 years of breeding!  Another option would have been a snake bite, but if that was the case, Alphonso would have been dead.  If he had been a cat or dog, I would have had him in the house to watch him, but unfortunately my only option was to let him stay overnight with the herd.

How happy was I to wake up and go down to the boys the next morning and find Alphonso with a much reduced lip.  He was really happy (yes you can tell when they are happy) and gobbled up breakfast along with the other hungry mob.

I am presuming the problem was either a bee sting or an ant bite.  We have huge ants 2-3 cm long and both could be a possibility when you spend most of the day putting your head down into long grass. 

Now we just have to try to get the hair to grow back and the latest suggestion is zinc cream.  So it is off to the chemist tomorrow. 

Thank goodness I have spent each morning with my boys haltering them and touching their heads (they are not supposed to like this) as now they are so good when it comes to me helping them - eyes, mouth, ears - where can I possibly have to go next?