A Sick Alpaca & Wireless Vet Tools
Journal Entry, Week-1. 2021-11-02.
As of yesterday, I'm volunteering (feels more like an internship) every Tuesday at the Alpacas at Windy Hill ranch just northeast of Oxnard. Last week, in conversations with the owner, Cindy Harris, I committed to volunteer once a week for the next year. We chose Tuesdays, 11am-4pm to start with. We were both very excited to implement a project to make ‘alpaca-wool felt’ rain ponchos. Alpaca wool is waterproof and Cindy has lots of wool… and a felting machine on-site!
As it turns out, the day-to-day ranch life can be unpredictable. I arrived at 11:30. There was a family taking their "pet" male alpaca (who they board at the ranch) out for a walk. I guess they spend 1-2 hours doing this a few times each week. Once they were off, Cindy & I had to collect poop from three recently arrived alpacas who were in quarantine. The poop was sent to the vet to make sure they were healthy and could join the others in the field. One of those was a blue-eyed beauty, which is a rarity.
When we were done and about to get started with our day, Cindy got a call from a ranch hand in one of the fields. One of Cindy's main breeding females had taken ill, vomiting blood. I asked if this was common and Cindy replied it had never happened before. (She's had the ranch over 20 years, with up to 600 alpacas on site. There are currently around 300, half of whom she owns, with the remainder being boarders.) The other alpacas in this particular field (there are at least 20 separate fields) were quite alarmed, gathering around the sick one, some trying to nudge & climb over her, trying to get her to stand. Not knowing what else to do, Cindy gave her a shot of pain reliever. Once the sick alpaca was able to stand, Cindy put a halter with a lead rope on her and led her out of the field to a shady, quiet place that the other alpacas didn't have access to.
Cindy suggested I just wander around for a while to get to know the ranch & the different types of alpacas while she called the vet. It was a beautiful day out, perfect for wandering & observing. Walking to the various fields, the variety of wool colors & textures was immense, which astonished me. Some of the alpaca faces were beautiful, while others were kinda goofy looking. These are very curious animals, following my every move, many wanting to smell me, others too shy to try. Unfortunately, my phone battery died that day, so I couldn't take any pictures.
It took the two vets over an hour to arrive. Their vet-mobile was impressive - a portable clinic in a truck. Once they arrived, x-rays & ultrasound pics were taken. The portable devices were wireless, producing instance pics of the innards of this poor alpaca. They determined there was bleeding, blood pooling, in the left lung for unknown reasons. They prescribed a regiment of shots every eight hours, giving her several injections on the spot (pain reliever, steroid, antibiotic, vitamin d, and more). Side note: alpaca's need vitamin-d supplements on a regular basis. Due to the thick wool on their body & head (which often hangs over their eyes), they don't absorb enough. After the vets left, Cindy led the sick girl to a small, shaded paddock near the barn where she could keep a closer eye on her.
Next, Cindy & I moved one of the herds to isolate 5-6 alpacas in a smaller pen for potential buyers to see later in the day. The smaller herd were non-breeding females ages 6 - 13. Cindy thought the buyers wanted the alpacas for a petting zoo in the Malibu area. When we returned to the barn, it was time to give the sick alpaca a couple more shots, which Cindy recorded in a log. I assisted by holding the neck of the alpaca to ensure it didn't move too much during the shots. Cindy instructed that one type of shot went into the muscle, while the other went just under the skin, and why.
Then, a person arrived to fix the water heater in her home, so we ended my volunteer time a little early. Other unexpected things happened, but too much to include.