Tom and I were at a show with four of our alpacas. We arrived after an 8-hour drive and the alpacas were fine. The alpacas got situated in their stalls and were eating and drinking properly; basically acting like healthy alpacas. It wasn’t until the next morning that Tom said that he did not think Apollo was eating or feeling well. I assumed that Apollo was just being a little more laid back than usual and he would start to eat shortly. I would soon realize that this was not the case and he was really ill.
By noon I began to worry about Apollo. Earlier in the morning we both noticed that Apollo’s stool had softened considerably from the normal beans he had the day before. We immediately gave him probiotics, but in a matter of hours he had severe diarrhea. We took his temperature and he had a mild fever. We treated him with Banamine, Kaopec pills, and gave him electrolytes. All the while he never picked up a strand of grass to eat.
By late afternoon we knew we needed to get something in his stomach. We gave him a shot of Vitamin B Complex and finally about a half hour later he began to eat a little hay. All in all it probably amounted to 3 mouthfuls, but at least it was something. We gave him half a tube of biosponge and more electrolytes and decided to see what happens the next morning.
Tom and I made a late night stop at the show to check in one more time before going to bed. Apollo’s diarrhea was not improving at all and now we noticed that Diego too had diarrhea. When we looked at the girl’s stall we saw that one of the girl’s stool was now softening as well. We gave everyone a dose of probiotics and reluctantly left for the night.
The next morning Tom got me up at 3:30 AM. He wanted to get to the show quickly to check on the alpacas. We decided that if the alpacas weren’t doing better than we would just pack up and come home. When we got to the stalls we saw no difference at all. Three of the four alpacas now had severe diarrhea and Apollo still wasn’t eating anything. We started packing up and by the time we were ready to go the show vet came by to check on Apollo.
She listened to his rumen and asked what we had done for him that morning. I told her we gave some more Banamine, antibiotics, Vitamin B Complex, and more biosponge, but he still wasn’t interested in food. She was concerned that his stomach was very quiet, but it appeared his temperature was only mildly high at 102.4. She asked us to give him rumen juice, but we didn’t have any on hand. The next suggestion she made was to give him some healthy alpaca pellets (poop). My stomach practically did flips, but we needed something in his stomach for the long ride home. The vet accumulated the pellets from a healthy alpaca in a feeding syringe and added a little water. After mashing them up she began to feed Apollo. He was not happy and probably just as disgusted as I was. I hated doing that to him and there was no guarantee that it would work, but we had to try. We gave him some more electrolytes afterwards and back in the trailer he went. He immediately went over to the hay basket and started taking a few bites. I was ecstatic. He didn’t eat much and I’m sure it was probably to get that horrible taste out of his mouth, but it was something.
We got on the road and started home by 9 AM. We stopped frequently to clean the trailer of diarrhea and to give everyone a dose of probiotics and electrolytes. At this point all four alpacas had the runs. I tried to hand feed Apollo, but he wouldn’t have anything to do with it. I called my vet and advised everything that had been done so far. She wanted us to get rumen juice into him to jumpstart his stomach.
By 5:30 PM we were home. I jumped out of the truck and ran inside to change clothes and shoes before attempting to get rumen from the other alpacas. Tom took the alpacas out of the truck and brought them to the quarantine area.
When I got outside I gave Tom some alfalfa to try to feed Apollo. I was hoping the alfalfa would stimulate his appetite, but it didn’t. With a sock in hand I went into my herdsire pen where I have one male who is a spitter. I thought for sure that the process of placing the sock over his mouth/nose would have him spitting fire. Boy was I in for a surprise, as he did nothing. Yes, he was angry, but he didn’t spit. I touched him everywhere and nothing. As soon as I took the sock off his face he began spitting at another male taking his aggression out on him. Go figure!
I wasn’t out of hope. I have plenty of females who will spit as well. I chose Alexis who was spitting all the while I was catching her, but as soon as I placed the sock on her she stopped. I tried Kaitlyn, Michelle, and even Molly. I had no success with them spitting with the sock on, but I was successful in making them mad.
I was about to give up hope when Tom told me to place the sock on one of the pregnant females. I placed the sock on Carina and Tom brought in one of the studs. Finally we had spit! Carina was furious that the stud was trying to mount and she immediately brought up some green rumen and spit it into the sock. After about 30 seconds worth of continuous spitting we took the stud away and removed the sock.
We turned the sock inside out and placed the solid vegetation into the feeding syringe. Since the sock absorbed the rumen juice we soaked the sock in water and sucked it into the feeding syringe. Tom fed the rumen juice into Apollo and then placed the solid vegetation into Apollo’s mouth. Apollo was appalled at being fed rumen and stood still for approximately 15 minutes with his spit face on.
After a half hour I picked up the alfalfa and Apollo began to eat it out of my hand. He only ate the leaves, but it was the most I had seen him eat in the past two days. He would not eat any of the timothy hay, but at this point I could care less. I needed food in his stomach so his rumen wouldn’t go sour.
For the next few days we continued giving Apollo Banamine, antibiotics, probiotics, and Pepto Bismol. He got to eat a lot of alfalfa, which is usually only given to him during the winter months. Each day he improved and when we saw him knocking the basket over and laying in front of it while spitting off the other male we knew he was going to recover fully.
It took approximately one week for Apollo to get back to his normal self. The three other alpacas that had diarrhea never stopped eating and made a quick recovery within a couple of days. Although Apollo was never considered a down alpaca I believe it was only a matter of time. Tom and I reacted quickly and because we did we were able to save Apollo.