Western Washington is having an unusually protracted heat wave. I’ve lived in the Seattle area for nearly all my life and this has been about the weirdest weather year that I can remember. I just got back home from visiting my alpacas and not more than 5 minutes after I got in the door, it started either HAILING or raining very large, hard raindrops out of a nearly clear sky. There is some thunder too, but the sun is still shining. I hope the lightning doesn’t start any fires somewhere. It’s my fault because I got the alpaca hauler van washed on the way home.
Today I had the vet, Dr. Grant from Tahoma Veterinary Clinic in Spanaway, Washington, come out to the farm to do an exam on my new cria, draw blood for the IgG test and give him a microchip so I can add him to my livestock insurance policy and register him with ARI. In spite of how protective his dam is, he is a friendly little guy and it’s hard to see a sweet little baby of any kind get his first injections. But I’m sure he will forgive us soon. The new cria does have a name, but I will wait to announce it until after he is officially registered.
While Dr. Grant was there, I had her draw blood from two of my females, Chickory and Dominique, to run progesterone tests and see if it looks like their breedings “took.” We’re pretty sure that Chickory is pregnant after one time breeding, but we’re not sure about Dominique. I’ve got my fingers crossed.
Dehydrated alpaca with an IV
Dr. Grant was also there to treat a weanling male that the farm owners noticed the day before “didn’t look right.” The vet’s diagnosis was dehydration and since this was an agisted alpaca, they needed to make a decision about how to treat the alpaca in the owner’s absence. In this case, the owner lives in Virginia and the weanling came to the farm as a “cria at side” with his dam who came to the farm to be bred to their herdsire. The choices were to a) take the alpaca to the clinic to be treated which would be extra expensive on the weekend, b) confine the alpaca in a stall and do the IV treatment on the farm, or c) do nothing. The farm is equipped with a very nice BarnMaster barn with 6 12′ stalls. I mentioned that we might be able to use my portable panels to make a smaller enclosure within a stall to restrict the alpaca’s movement while hooked up the the IV, which could be easily hung from the stall dividers. Everyone agreed, and we used 3 panels in a triangle configuration to make a small space. The fans are going and this patient appears to be doing nicely when I left.
So, if you have alpacas and you don’t yet have any portable panels, I highly recommend that you have at least 4 on hand for a variety of reasons.
- They make a terrific small pen for halter and lead training your alpacas. Marty McGee-Bennett’s Camelidynamics methods make extensive use of portable panels for training and husbandry purposes.
- They give you flexibility to temporarily confine a small group of animals in a convenient location, for shearing preparation for instance.
- You can use them to confine an animal for medical treatment, like in this case.
I purchased my panels from my local MSA Equipment distributors, Jeff and Lorrie Williamson of Liberty Alpacas in Maple Valley, WA. http://www.libertyalpacas.com/ The MSA panels are lightweight and easy for anyone to pickup and move around.
