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