Alpaca of the Month

October 2007

Orrapoora Achilles—a tough little boy

Achilles day 2

Achilles day 5 after treatment

Our first for the season, Orrapoora Achilles, was found brand new in the paddock, but looking very flat. He was found to have a dripping umbilical cord and blood was pooling underneath him. His mum didn’t want to know about him and thought she would prefer to join her mates rather than stay with her fourth son. His cord was clamped, one problem solved, and then the whole herd was run in so we could separate his mum and put them both in the hospital shed for observation.

She still wasn’t too keen on him and he continued to be too flat for our liking, so he was given a pick-me-up of warm honey and water. After some hours his mum was given oxytocin to help dispel the placenta, which helped her change her attitude. Little Achilles was still a little weak but after some help managed to latch on to the milk bar and have a good feed. All seemed OK.

The next day the clamp was removed, and Achilles and mum were returned to the paddock. He was a strong and active little boy and was the centre of attention with lots of aunties wanting to sniff him out. On day 5 he seemed a little down so was caught and examined and to our horror was found to have a gaping wound of about the size of a 10c piece on the side of his belly, completely compacted with maggots. Horrible mess. We don’t know what happened, don’t know what caused the injury, but he wasn’t a very happy little chappy at that stage.

We flushed the wound and picked out all the offenders, one by one by one... We sprayed the wound and put a dressing on him, covered with a stretch bandage to keep it in place. When checked a couple of hours later the wound was already drying out and he was looking a little brighter. Hoping for a full recovery! Never had such an experience before!

Follow up—Next Day

Straight after surgery to remove dead skin

Homecoming, straight under mum

On removing the dry bandage from Achilles this morning, to our utter horror and dismay, we found hundreds more maggots had tunnelled up under his skin and eaten out a large section above the original hole. The skin was already necrotic and beginning to smell something terrible. We flushed the whole area with saline solution and again got to work with tweezers. It took ages to pull all the offending nasties out of all the holes they had created in the skin. We wrapped him in a towel and took him in to our vet who fortunately was on duty, and he put him straight on the table and proceeded to cut away all the dead black skin. He was given penicillin and Septicide was liberally spread all over the area. We brought him home and will continue the penicillin for another 9 days, plus treat his wound twice daily, and it must be left uncovered to let the air to it. His mum is fast losing patience with being shut in the hospital shed, but is looking after her cria well. We have to watch to see if any more skin dies off, and if so, then the prognosis isn’t good.

September 2007:	Gwenda Douglas
August 2007:	Orrapoora Trumpeter
July 2007:	Rain of the Month
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