It saddens me that I have to write this article out of my own loss. However, I do not believe enough is said and taught on alpacas and ulcers. We recently lost a young, pregnant female due to a ruptured ulcer and severe peritonitis. If this article helps one other person in saving their alpaca then it was well worth writing it.
It all started on a Friday. My husband did the morning feed and called me at work. He stated that Babe was not going in the stall with the other females to eat. This was odd to him as she always had in the past. He asked me to observe her during the night feeding. When I fed that night I noticed that she did not go in to eat, however she would eat out of my hand. I thought it strange, but since she did eat a little I wanted to see what would happen overnight.
The next day, Saturday, I had to go into work. I asked my husband, Tom, to give Babe 10cc of Probiotics in case she had a tummy ache and to let me know if she was eating. At 8 AM Tom was calling me to advise she had not eaten a thing. By 9 AM after speaking with Tom, I was on the phone with a close ranch since my vet was out of town for the weekend. They suggested that I listen to the stomach for noises to rule out rumen shutdown. I was to take her temperature and monitor her breathing. After I hung up I was on my way home. I could sense that something was terribly wrong.
I entered the house and quickly got my thermometer and stethoscope. Tom and I took her temperature – normal. I listened to her stomach and heard it rumbling. Ok, now what? Tom tells me that she has diarrhea. I go get Pepto Bismol extra strength and give her 30cc immediately. Since she could be dehydrated we give her electrolytes as well. I offer her some hay and she begins to nibble. I am able to give her a few handfuls before she stops eating.
We do the same regimen at night and the next day into Monday morning. Before we leave to work Babe is going inside the stall to eat with the girls. Not the amount of food we wanted her to, but enough to keep her rumen going. By mid-morning I am on the phone with my vet. I am told to give her (Babe weighs 206 lbs) Banamine and Vitamin B Complex at 2cc. I am also to give her Naxel at 4cc. I leave work early to give Babe the meds.
I administered all the meds before 1 PM. By 3:45 PM Babe is slumped in the corner of the paddock. Now this is a typical posture for her, but knowing that I gave meds I decided to walk over to her. She allows me to get right next to her and to even let me touch her. This is not a typical Babe reaction! She would not even stand. I called Tom immediately and told him to come home. My next call was to my vet in which she said to bring Babe in right away. This was no simple task, as I had to pull the fiber on Babe’s back legs to get them to lift off the ground. Eventually she stood. (I was thinking how I probably threw my back out, but with all the adrenaline running through me I just could not feel it – luckily that was not the case). I got her in the trailer and we were off. I called Tom to just go home and do the night feeding and I would call as soon as possible.
Babe did get up and walk inside the office. The vet did a fecal exam and noticed that Babe had very dry, hard poop. Odd I thought as she just had diarrhea the morning before. She inserted into Babe a catheter and hooked up the IV fluids. Within an hour Babe had taken in 1000ml of fluids. Her blood was tested and it showed a sugar level of 230. This is high as the standard is under 200. The vet thought she might need insulin, but advised to hold off until the next morning. With some trouble I get Babe up again as she had kushed very early on in the exam and drive her home with more IV fluids.
Once back at the ranch we had originally planned to keep her in the trailer hooked up to the IV to keep her pretty still, but she could see she was home and only paced in a panic wanting to be rejoined with the others. Tom sectioned an area in her stall with corral panels. We were able to keep her pretty still by giving her a small amount of room, so we could pump the fluids in without worrying that she pulled it out and she could still be with her buddies. We again gave her Banamine, but at 1cc and per the vet were to give her 10 ounces of Magnalax to help clean out her colon. Babe ate very little that night. Tom and I took turns staying outside. Babe was kushed most of the time. Every time she would lie on her side and try to put her head down we panicked. Eventually Babe stood up and was looking distressed. She wanted badly to leave the sectioned area. Tom held onto the IV bag and allowed her to leave. Babe went directly to the poop pile and defecated. Yea, we thought. Obviously she does not have a blocked up colon and the diarrhea was gone. We stopped administering Pepto Bismol. She went another time and then we moved her back to the sectioned area. By 2 AM we disconnected Babe from the IV. It was cold out and although Tom tried to keep the fluids warm by using a hair dryer Babe was beginning to shake. We allowed Babe to join the others. We watched her kush.
At 6 AM Tom and I were back outside again. Babe had not moved from the spot were she had kushed. We got her up and walked her back to her area. We connected her again to the IV. Since she was not willing to eat anything this morning I made up a liquid hay mush. Basically I added water to some timothy, which I had chopped up in the food processor. Using a feeding syringe we gave it to her with some more electrolytes. Knowing that the amount I gave her was not sufficient; Tom went inside and grinded up some alfalfa pellets with molasses, yogurt, and water. We forced fed it to Babe again through the feeding syringe. Rumen shutdown was just not going to happen. I then drew blood so Tom could take it to the vet for testing on the sugar level.
While Tom was at the vet he called to advise that the sugar level had dropped to 158. The vet had told us that provided Babe took in carbohydrates then her body would create its own insulin. It looks like we had that taken care of. Tom then let me know that I was to administer Banamine and Naxel again, but this time I was to give Thiamine versus the Vitamin B Complex. By 11:30 AM I had Tom coming straight home. I had let Babe out to go to the poop pile about a half hour before and could not seem to get her to go back in to her area. She was constantly standing up and then laying down. Rolling from one side to the other side trying to get comfortable. All I could do was follow her with the IV bag. Then she started to kick up her back leg while she was down on her side. Babe was in pain. I called the vet and she advised to bring Babe back in. We had not tested for uterine torsion she said. When Tom got home (in minutes) I took Babe’s temp. It was now 98.9. This is low and I know when it is low it usually means they are in pain. I also did my own exam on her for a uterine torsion. I told Tom I did not think it was the problem, but no matter what she needed to go to the vet.
We watched Babe on the trailer monitor as we drove and could see her thrashing about on her side. Our hearts were breaking not only for Babe, but also for her 4-month-old fetus.
We arrived at the vet within the hour. An exam proved that it was not a uterine torsion. We also learned that her poop was still hard and dry. We increased the rate of the IV. Her next suggestion was to pump Babe full of Magnalax to clear her system in case it was the cause of her pain. Then she totally changed her mind and recommended that we drive Babe to Colorado State University for abdominal exam. The vet advised that if we wanted to save Babe this was the best thing we could do, as she had exhausted all her means. Her clinic could not do camelid surgeries nor did she have the equipment to x-ray Babe’s stomach. Without thought Tom gathered all charts and pain medications (he was given 4 shots of Torb to help Babe and some Banamine) and left directly from the vet office. The vet was very kind in allowing me to borrow one of her vehicles to get home since we have more alpacas to care for as well as dogs and cats.
Tom drove straight through the night. Poor guy did not even have a jacket with him and there was a snowstorm in Colorado. I checked in on him continuously to make sure he was ok. At 2:30 AM I was on the phone again and Tom advised he was 2 hours outside of the university. Babe was holding on.
Tom arrived at the university around 5 AM. Babe was admitted and testing began. The Doctor called me to advise that the tests were not providing any true detail. The only way to know what is happening is to have Babe go through abdominal exploratory surgery. The estimate could be anywhere from $3000 - $4000 and that was if they ended up euthanizing her. It could cost us $5000 - $10,000 if she survived and depending on the severity of the after surgery complications. Oh my goodness, but how could we deny Babe the chance? We would figure it out, but there was no question that she would be given the surgery. Tom decided to start driving home for Babe would be there for a minimum of four days.The Doctor from CSU called me about 2 hours later. She was sorry to inform me that Babe had a ruptured ulcer with severe peritonitis in her C3 chamber. Since she had a fair amount of feed in that chamber the food had leaked out. Basically she was poisoning herself. There was no repairing Babe and we were asked to euthanize her. With a lump the size of a golf ball in my throat I seem to mumble out the word ok. She asked if I had any questions and the only thing I could think of is what are the signs of an alpaca with an ulcer? She had no answer for me. She stated that since alpacas are so stoic that they do not usually give signs until it is too late. With tear filled eyes I said my good byes to the Doctor and mentally to Babe and her unborn cria. I called Tom to let him know the sad news. No easy task.
I decided to hit the web and see what it had to say about ulcers in alpacas. Not too much information, but on an Australian forum I read someone saying that some signs were lack of appetite, grinding teeth, staying kushed a lot since stomach hurts, and darker than normal stool (only in cases when blood has gotten into the stool). Now that I think about it, Babe was grinding her teeth. I remember because I was happy to think that she was chewing cud, but I thought it strange that I never saw anything come up her throat. As far as kushing that was pretty much a theme of this article. The one thing that threw me off was the diarrhea versus the darker than normal stool. Lastly, Tom said something to me about CSU administering Kaopectate for alpacas with ulcers.
The next day I called the Doctor back at CSU. I did have some more questions. The doctor was more than willing to answer. To begin with the necropsy was performed the same day. It was not only one ulcer, but several ulcers that perforated the stomach lining. She again went on to tell me it is very hard to diagnose ulcers in alpacas since there is no available test for animals with 3 or 4 chamber stomachs. However, she did say that we were making Babe feel better by giving her the Pepto-Bismol. She went on to say that although Pepto-Bismol or Kaopectate is the best medication they give to camelids there is no medication today that will definitely cure ulcers in all alpacas. Some might respond well to the medication and heal while others will not.
So the lesson learned here to is know your alpacas. Although we saw the warning signs we did not know how to read them. Lack of appetite, grinding of teeth, and constant kushing put together could all mean ulcers. What causes ulcers? Most say it is stress. We have had Babe in with 2 other alpacas since October. We did bring home one of our pushier alpacas and added her to the same stall. Perhaps that caused the stress. Babe had a baby last year that we weaned back in August of last year. Could that be it? There was one girl in the stall who looked to Babe for companionship. Perhaps it bugged Babe that she was so attached.
As you can see this is not an exact science. We still have plenty of questions and not sure when they will be answered, but for now at least we have more to go on than what we had previously. We will keep notes on the whole tragic incident to refresh our memories on what we did and what the signs were in case we come across the same symptoms in another alpaca. This time we hope to be able to save them.