Well, as I mentioned in the last post, we just returned from the North American alpaca show. I feel as though I need to apologize for not posting much in March. Things were just crazy. Seems the first show of the season is a rush for most alpaca farmers. Time to get all your stuff out of storage, god forbid you didn’t put it away correctly at the end of the season. The last two weeks of the month we were just out straight 24/7 trying to get things together and ready. Ready for me to be on the road by myself for at least two days, then for the farm manager to take over while Steve and I are away, finish up those taxes, then get things ready for Steve to hit the road and join me in Springfield.
I left early Thursday morning with the RV and Ben in tow in the trailer. We arrived in Springfield around 1130 a.m. I dropped the trailer, with Ben, in the Trailer parking area. Then moved the RV into its berth. Went back to the trailer where Ben was anxiously waiting to be in the company of other alpacas.
We made it through check in and color check no problem. Color check is the process through which a show steward uses a fleece color card to confirm that your animal was registered under the appropriate color. There are over many standard alpaca colors. The stewards use a card that has fleece samples representing each of the recognized alpaca colors. Ben was registered as a white. Although his fleece tips were quite dingy beige, they dug down to his skin and could clearly see he was a white alpaca. We have run in to problems with checking in our beige animals (Peboona and Nebis insert hyperlink) historically. There have been occasions where maybe the color check card may have been dirty, thus putting our beige animals in to a white class, or vice versa. Luckily those instances are few and far between. We are now aware of this possibility and I carry my own clean color card with me in the event I ever have to dispute something.
Once we were checked in we get our pen assignments and stall arrangements. I brought Ben and settled him in with some food and water. Then set off to find my in-laws. They planned to meet me at the show to help me unload our display and set it up. I was so grateful to have Louise and Doug there to help. I probably could have eventually managed to do without them, simply by bartering services with fellow attendees, but it was amazing to have the two extra hands. Besides, I forgot to bring some basic supplies. Without a car to drive around downtown Springfield, well going to get them was impossible. That is where Louise and Doug really stepped up.
After set up, I spent a little time checking in with other farmers I was hoping to see. It was a long winter and we all tend to hibernate. Going to these events allows you to catch up with all your farmer friends and share stories of winter. One of those is Carol of Hidden Hill. Several of our females are bred to K2, so I was anxious to let her know all the breedings had taken. She and I had dinner and cocktails at the RV that evening, catching up on all things from politics and animal husbandry to the latest technologies for composting manure. Just before she headed off for the evening, I took one last check on Ben and his stall mates (from HaSu’ Ranch). It is then that I noticed the left lower mandible of Ben’s jaw was quite swollen. I immediately ran to my first aid kit to get the thermometer. His temperature was high normal at 101.7. Not high enough to indicate an infection. He was eating fine, chewing his cud, drinking okay, otherwise completely normal.
Needless to say, I did not sleep well that first night. I went out to the stall several times to take his temp again. I was concerned that an abscess or tooth infection had suddenly developed. I was terribly worried about how I could have missed such a thing. Gosh, what a dolt! Luckily these shows employ the services of an emergency camelid veterinarian for instances such as these. As Ben did not show any symptomology I decided I could wait and panic quietly to myself until morning.
Doctor Purdy showed up to the show area around 8 am. Ben lasted the night just fine. Still no temperature, no signs of illness, just that swelling around his lower jaw. By the time I got around to finding Dr. Purdy, of the UMASS Camelid Studies Program, I was kind of panicking outright. I was absolutely consumed with that swollen jaw. After palpating the area and checking the interior of Bens’ mouth, Dr Purdy stated that the swelling was the result of a jaw bone infection. That the soft tissue swelling I noticed can flare up instantly, but the jaw bone infection was around for some time.
Unfortunately for Ben these infections are apparently quite common and go completely un-noticed for most alpacas. They are contained strictly within the jaw bone and other than this occasional swelling show no outward signs of infection. They do not go systemic as Abscesses or other infections will. Which is why I never was able to detect an elevated body temp, he was eating and drinking fine, and mostly a normal stoic alpaca. These bone infections occur as a result of some sort of contaminant, a seed pod, a grain of sand, corn kernel whatever, working its way through the gum line into the bone. Once there it festers and infects the surrounding bone tissue. The bone tries to regenerate itself and grows around this infection site. Often going undetected for a long period of time. It may periodically flare up the surrounding soft tissue, as we noted with Ben. The treatment is oral antibiotics not injectable.
I was told not to rush the alpaca home. Dr. Purdy would bring some antibiotics in the morning. The antibiotics are an oral antibiotic that we are to administer once daily for 4-6 weeks. He did not recommend any invasive treatments, such as surgery or tooth removal. We expect his swelling and tenderness should go down after about a week of treatment. The oral pills were amazingly easy to administer. I simply added the aspirin size pills to some grain in my hand, and Ben gobbled them up.
We didn’t mess with Ben much throughout the weekend. I knew the halter would put some pressure on that soft tissue, so we simply waited to put him on halter until his class was called. He performed as well as could be expected, and farmer Steve did not pull him around much. Farmer Steve was ultimately concerned about how Ben was feeling and acted accordingly in the ring.
Once I arrived back at the farm here with Ben, I called Dr. Nicole. She has had experience with these bone infections before, but had not tried the treatment method prescribed by Dr. Purdy. Dr. Nicole is good about learning new things and adding it to her knowledgebase if it is helpful. She will come on by and check on Ben in about a week to check the status. Hopefully we will be able to prevent any need for surgical or invasive procedures. Dr. Purdy has also asked that we keep him up to speed on Bens’ progress. At this time, Bens’ jaw is still showing signs of swelling. He has been on antibiotics for only a 5 days. I expect things to start to turn around in 7 to 10.
Now that we are all home Ben is trying to reintegrate with the herd. It is difficult. He was traumatized by the whole experience and paces the fencline trying to go see his mom. He is almost 2 years old, but still looks for his moms love. I feel bad for him and what he is going through, the fact that he really isn't much of a macho. But this is part of life on the farm and I just need to let him get through it. I expect it to take a few days.
