DMAR Alpaca and Maremma Blog

Valley Fever Update on Michelle Rose for week 3/29/09: Michelle is responding well to her meds. Her breathing is not as labored as past weeks. Also Michelle gained over 5 pounds in one week! She is currently at 159 and this is only 6 pounds less than her normal maintained weight. She eats well, but is now really hesitant to eat her grain. This is where I sprinkle her meds and she is onto to it. She tries to eat around it, but it’s pretty much all over the place. She has no choice, but to eat it. We are very pleased with her progress.

Valley Fever and Michelle Rose:

Before Valley Fever Pictures (taken in December 2008):

Tom and I always try to do herd management every month. However, we were so busy with the Phoenix show coming up in March that we didn’t do it in January. February came and I remarked to Tom at how skinny Michelle looked. We didn’t think too much of it since she had a cria at side and figured his nursing was causing her to lose weight. Regardless I couldn’t believe my ears when Tom read me her weight from the scale. Michelle is a tall girl and has always been on the skinny side, but we were able to maintain her at 165 lbs. Now Tom was telling me she was weighing 150 lbs. Valley Fever went through our minds, but the only symptom she was showing was weight loss. We kinda brushed it off, but I made an appt. for her anyway. The vet was out of town and with our show coming up we didn’t get Michelle in until 3 weeks later. In the meantime I started feeding Michelle extra grain.

The week of the show we weighed Michelle again. We couldn’t get a straight reading, but she was anywhere between 148 and 150 lbs. This wasn’t good. I separated Michelle and her cria, Valentino, into their own stall. I began free feeding and giving grain 3 times a day at 3-4 cups daily. The grain was Mazuri Repro & Growth formula, alfalfa pellets, and now beet pulp in the hopes of chunking her up. While at the show I had a volunteer to come in to feed Michelle personally. At least she was now maintaining her weight and not losing anymore.

The following week I heard what sounded like fluid in Michelle’s nasal passage. Pretty much like she needed to blow her nose. I called the vet and was advised to start administering Naxcel. The next day I took Michelle in and the vet drew blood. It would be a couple of days to find out if she had valley fever or not. Sure enough she did. Michelle was put immediately on Doccicyclene (antibotics for her upper respiratory infection) and Ketoconazole (antifungal med). It has only been a week, but Michelle is now up to 153.6 lbs. She may or may not have to remain on the meds for a year. We will have to see how her body reacts to the medication and if she is able to kill off the fungus.

Pictures of Michelle with Valley Fever Disease taken in March 2009: Notice that you can really see her spine. Notice her back legs have very little space between them. Notice how her hip bones are showing way too much in her rearview photo. Due to a couple of fevers recently Michelle has wool break. This fiber will be worthless this year.

The medical name for Valley Fever is coccidioidomycosis. Valley Fever is a fungus that lives in low desert areas with high temperatures and dry soil. Valley Fever can be contracted in the Southwestern US including California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas. The fungus in the form of spores becomes airborned when the soil is disrupted by construction, walking, or wind. The spores are breathed into the nose and land in the lungs.

Once in the lungs the spore changes into spherules which continue to grow until they burst. This burst releases hundreds of endospores. Each endospore can grow into a new spherule and the cycle continues. If not treated Valley Fever could move out of the lungs and into other organs and joints causing lameness.

Symptoms of Valley Fever consist of the following:

• Loss of appetite
• Extreme weight loss
• Lameness
• Coughing
• Fever

Valley Fever symptoms can take between 1 -4 weeks to appear. The day before I took Michelle into the vet she started to cough.

Valley Fever is not contagious. A spore must be inhaled by each individual animal. Coughing does not spread spores. Valley Fever is not an animal disease alone. Humans can also get inflicted with this disease. Most don’t even know they have it.

We expect Michelle to recover, but it will take time. It appears we caught it at the beginning. It does need to be noted that she may relapse again in the future. Michelle is being held open until she no longer needs to take the meds. After that there will be no problem in getting her pregnant.

I will keep you all posted on her progress. Feel free to comment or ask questions.

I used two sites in order to write this article: http://phoenix.about.com/cs/health/a/valleyfever01.htm and  http://phoenix.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?zi=1/XJ&sdn=phoenix&cdn=citiestowns&tm=455&gps=126_1651_1020_552&f=00&su=p284.9.336.ip_p554.12.336.ip_&tt=2&bt=1&bts=1&zu=http%3A//www.vfce.arizona.edu/VFCE%2520OLD/ValleyFever/canine/canine.htm

 

 

DMAR Update for Week Ending 3/21/09:

Mom’s Club of Sierra Vista was here today for their annual tour. Toddlers love visiting the alpacas and Diego loves kids. He follows them and gives them alpaca kisses. The kids and parents both were able to feed some of the males and pet their beautiful fiber. Once we were in the cria stall both Magnum and Mercedes greeted the visitors by walking up to them and allowing some quick pets. It was a beautiful morning and everyone enjoyed the alpacas.

I am trying to finish skirting and cleaning last year’s fleece that I have so procrastinated doing. I sent just a little over 4 lbs of fawn colored fiber to one mill and approx. 6 lbs of white fiber to another mill. I am now working on sending some fiber to another mill to have crew length alpaca socks made.

Shearing is next month. This will be the first year that we actually shear on the ranch instead of dragging the alpacas to someone else’s ranch. Tom will be busy placing a wood floor in the quarantine area that will double as our shearing area. The alpacas look so wooly right now and I have already started to hose down legs and belly trying to keep them cool in the 80 degree temps.

SWRAS Show:

 Finally DMAR Dominique gets her blue ribbon. Dominique is a beautiful girl filled with density, crimp, and lock structure not to mention fineness. Yes these are all fiber characteristics, so just take a look at the picture and there is no denying her outstanding conformation. She is the overall package with a sweet demenor to boot. Dominique has taken 2nd in the two previous shows, so you can imagine how excited we were for her to take first.

 DMAR White Russian also took a first. Unfortunately we ran out of time to take pictures of him with his ribbon, but the judge commented on how fine his white fibers were. Exactly like they should be. This was Ruski’s first show and he did great.

Unfortunately with Tom and I both running the show we had very little time to clean up our alpacas. Although DMAR Armani and DMAR Royal Knight both received ribbons it definitely was not first place. The judge even commented on how dusty Armani’s fiber was. Boo for me. Anyway, since Tom and I have paid our dues we can now relax and actually clean our alpacas before and during the shows from now on.