Coccidia Phase Two or Being With Your Alpacas

We took another fecal from Diamond and left it with the veterinarian last week. Unfortunately it came back showing she was still infected. The vet prescribed another dose of medicines and asked for another fecal in thirteen days. Keep your fingers crossed!

One thing I want to emphasis in this post today is the importance of being "with" your alpacas. Alpacas aren't like your typical domesticated dog or cat. They don't jump up on your lap for a good ear scratch or tummy rub. They don't curl around your legs asking for more cat crunch. They don't get regular baths where you can be close enough to easily detect problems such as bad teeth or suspicious lumps. In actuality alpacas are pretty stoic animals and if you aren't "with" them on a daily basis you can easily miss some clues regarding their health and welfare.

We get among our alpacas every day. We actually take time out to sit in the pasture and watch how they interact. Each alpaca has their own personality and a good alpaca farmer needs to know their alpacas temperament to help detect if their are any issues or problems the animal may be having.

In addition to observing the alpacas it's good to get up close with them. Once your herd has become acclimated to their new surroundings (this usually takes four to six months) and to you it will become fairly easy to diagnose a possible problem. When we feed we try and touch each animal so they become used to our presence. We've been here on the farm eight months now and our herd is feeling very comfortable with their shelters, the pasture, the woods and our other furry four-legged creatures, the cats and dogs. Some of them are still a bit shy about being touched but they are getting used to it and we see improvements every day. In fact our little male Taxco comes right up to us now and expects to get his neck and ears rubbed.

Taxco looking for dinner

By being among them and getting to know each animal you can easily detect when something might be amiss. You might notice that one of the herd has begun to isolate themselves by staying away from the group. This may be something as minor as them just wanting to have some "time to myself". But if it persists it may mean a problem. Right now our girl Floracita or Flo, has a weepy right eye. Looking at her you would think that there might be a problem. Possibly something in the eye or maybe an infection. However, having observed her for almost four years now we know that she gets allergies at this time of year just like people do. Her weepy eye is a result of her allergies. We do keep an eye on it in case the allergy worsens or her eye becomes even more inflamed. But normally it passes as the pollen levels decrease. Our Diamond hasn't showed any other sickness indications with her coccidia other than the loose stools. But we knew that persistent loose stools were a sign that something was amiss. She still eats heartily and is drinking normally. She was even in the mineral bucket the other day ( the mineral bucket is like a salt lick for cattle). While alpacas get some minerals from the grain, hay and pasture they still need a supplement mineral source. Missing out on key minerals can also create health issues.

Our two boys began to fight a few weeks back and at one point we thought we might have to build a cross fence to keep them separated. We took to penning one of them up in the catch pen on alternate evenings for about a week. Things seemed to settle down and then one day Braveheart began harassing Taxco again. Braveheart has about sixty pounds on poor little Taxco but that day Taxco had had enough. He latched on to one of Bravehearts ears with his mouth and as hard as he tried Braveheart couldn't lose him.  Alpaca squeals could be heard for miles. When the tussle finally ended both Braveheart and Taxco were out of breath and had great big green spots all over each other from the spitting contest they had. But ever since then Braveheart hasn't really bothered Taxco. He'll occasionally play roughhouse with him but nothing like he did in the beginning. He learned his lesson that Taxco recognizes that Braveheart is the Alpha male but you can only push Taxco so much.

So the take away in this post is about being among your herd. Get to know your animals. Each one has their own distinct personality. Touch them, watch how they interact, see them eating, watering, grazing and just playing. As I said earlier we enjoy just sitting down in our lawn chairs in the pasture and watching them. We've got to remember to keep our camera handy though because we have missed some Alpaca antics that I'm sure would go viral on You Tube!

Hope your days are full of sunshine.

Livin' the dream at Autumn Ridge Alpacas,

Dave

Coccidia...a word for the National Spelling Bee

Diamond at about six months

Coccidia is an internal parasite that can damage the animals stomach lining and intestinal tract. Left untreated it can be a lethal protozoa. A ball stool rather than pellets is often the first sign. Week before last we noticed that there were several ball stools in the  girls pasture while cleaning up the alpaca pellets. We began to try and observe who might be having a problem however, short of camping out 24/7, it's sometimes a little difficult to immediately see who may be ill. The following week the ball stools became softer and eventually became diarrhea. We decided to weigh each animal and check their membrane under their eyes. Everyone had nice pink membranes and nobody had lost a lot of weight so now what do we do? Well, we were fortunate enough to have almost all the girls relieve themselves one afternoon while we were feeding and watering. Our two year old Black Diamond seemed to be the one. Her stools were very loose so we decided to take her temperature and get a stool sample to take to our vet Dr. Leslie at Louisa Veterinary Services.

We first corralled all the girls in their catch pen at feeding time by putting their grain buckets down in the pen. Never ones to turn down a square meal they all filed into the pen as pretty as you please. Once they had eaten we let each of them out except for Diamond. Now catching an alpaca even in a small catch pen can be an exciting proposition. They don't like to be handled a lot but if you have worked with them enough they will generally cooperate. But always be alert for that unexpected kick, like the one I got from Missy while trying to halter her to get her weighed. I have a nice alpaca hoof print bruise on my thigh to show for it.

Once I had Diamond under control Andrea took her temperature and then got a fecal sample. Taking a fecal sample involves a pair of rubber gloves and the alpacas anus and that's already TMI. Anyway, her temperature was in the normal range between 99 and 102 degrees Fahrenheit. We took the fecal sample and dropped it off with our vet. Dr. Leslie called after she had examined the sample and reported that while she had a very low dose of strongles (worms) she did have a moderate coccidia load. She prescribed Ponazuril which should kill the coccidia. We corralled Diamond this evening and she was as good as gold for us. I held her still and steadied her head while Andy fed the 15cc of Ponazuril through a syringe to Diamond. I'm sure it tasted awful because once the syringe was empty and we let her go she shook her head and gave us a look that seemed to say, "What was that stuff? Yuck!".

So in thirteen days we will take another fecal sample and trot it over to the vet to make sure all the nasty coccidia is gone. On a side note the vet asked if we were on any deworming program or schedule. Andy told her that the only worm precaution we take is a teaspoon of food grade diatomaceous earth sprinkled over their grain each evening. We've been on the regimen for the past seven months and have had three animals that needed a fecal and none of them have showed any worm loads. DE is a much more natural way of controlling worms and doesn't involve any toxic chemicals and the worms do not become immune to the chemicals. They just get cut up and die.

I'll let you know how Diamond is doing in my next post. Hope your days are full of sunshine.

Livin' the dream at Autumn Ridge Alpacas,

Dave