DMAR Alpaca and Maremma Blog

Update on Michelle Rose’s Valley Fever:

 This is Michelle Rose. She is a proven female with 4 offspring on the ground. She is a wonderful mother who always has plenty of milk for her crias. In March 2009 I took Michelle to the vet with symptoms of weight loss, fiber stress breaks, and coughing. Blood tests came back showing that Michelle had valley fever which is a fungus that comes out of the dirt in Southwestern states.

Michelle took very ill combating a secondary bacteria that was giving her a respiratory infection. We had her on ketoconazole for the valley fever as well as an antibotic for the respiratory infection. Michelle continued to lose weight and got weaker and more depressed. The vet didn’t have high hopes for her as Michelle’s lymph nodes were the size of golf balls. The vet told me she had only seen this size lymph nodes on dead alpacas.

We switched Michelle’s medication to fluconazole but that med proved to be worthless for her. Michelle dropped 15 lbs in one week alone and her lowest weight was a very scary 133 lbs. Michelle’s normal weight was anywhere from 165 – 175 lbs. We had to remove Michelle’s 4 month old cria and wean him early as Michelle continued to nurse and lose even more weight.

At one point in time Michelle was literally only skin and bones. She could barely walk since she had no meat between her legs separating them. She would try to walk and could only stumble over her own legs. Her eating was maybe a mouthful or two of food per day. I called the vet and she told me to bring her in to euthanize her as Michelle was starving to death. Heartbroken I called the insurance company who advised that the vet needed to see Michelle one more time before euthanizing as the vet hadn’t seen Michelle in three weeks. I called Tom and told him I didn’t think she would make it until the end of the day. At this time she was laying completely on her side and breathing irradically.

I went into the house and got a shot of banamine. I wanted to try to make Michelle as comfortable as possible. I also wanted to move her back into her stall so her cria wouldn’t see her die. To my surprise after the shot Michelle got on her feet and walked back into her stall where she started to eat. This was not just a mouthful or two of food but she ate like she knew this was her last chance to survive.

I took Michelle to the vet the next morning and in transit she ate some food. When the vet saw her she said she could not consciously advise to put her down as Michelle was alert, standing, and eating. We switched Michelle back to ketoconazole and continued with the antiotics. Michelle started to improve slowly. Around December we took Michelle off the antibotics as she no longer had a respiratory infection and the med wasn’t making a difference in her lymph node size.

 Here is Michelle 16 months later. She weighs 170 lbs and if you notice she actually has meat between her legs so she no longer stumbles around. As a matter of fact she runs and jumps with all the other females. Her coat is beautiful again with no stress breaks and just looks healthy.

In April of this year after taking Michelle’s blood we learned her valley fever titer was 1:32 which is a huge improvement over her initial 1:256; however, Michelle’s white blood count continued to be over double the normal count. The vet switched her to itraconazole.

Now we are on this med for the past 4 months. Michelle’s lymph nodes have made a drastic change in size. On the left side of her neck it is probably the size of a marble and the right side is slightly larger but definitely reduced in size. In a couple of weeks I will take Michelle back to the vet to get retested to see where we stand.

We’ve stuck by Michelle all this time. If she wanted to live then we were going to help her. Our goal is to see Michelle get pregnant and have another cria but this won’t happen unless she can prove to be healthy enough to do so. We can wait and so far she is proving she wants to live!

You can read more on Michelle’s past valley fever ordeal by clicking on the health category and the alpaca article menu from the right side of this blog.

What wouldn’t I do for my alpacas? That’s a good question as I find myself doing more and more for them every day.

  This is our full Peruvian MRG stud, Snowmass Incan Emperor. We currently have 6 offspring on the ground ourselves from him. One male is a 2x Reserve Color Champ, and another male is a 2x blue ribbon winner. The last two crias, DMAR Dolce and DMAR Dior, are turning out to be some nice contenders in the upcoming show season starting in the fall. With this in mind I used Incan on Shasta who is currently confirmed pregnant. Because I loved the way Dolce and Dior have turned out I was going to use Incan again on the mothers, Alexis and Electra.

Last week sometime I tried to use Incan. I noticed him getting down and then back up again. He was quite frustrated and I thought it was because of me since I kept reaching in to move the tail out of the way. After 5 minutes I was more frustrated than Incan and decided to put him back with the boys. A couple of days later I tried to breed him and the same thing was happening. This time I looked closer and noticed that he was not extending his penis and semen was dripping out from inside the shaft. Ok, now I understood why he was so frustrated. Incan obviously wanted to breed, but something was wrong.

I made an appt. for him to see the vet, but it would have to wait a couple of days as it was the weekend. In observing Incan I noticed his appetite was good and he didn’t seem to have any problems urinating.

Monday morning he was the first off the trailer and my vet began to palpate his shaft and penis. The doctor thought the front of his shaft was a bit swollen, however, she did ask me to go home and palpate other males to see if this was normal. She advised she hasn’t palpated that many males to know the difference.

After I explained what I noticed with Incan she then went on to snake (I use snake for a lack of a better word) the penis out of the shaft. In doing so she quickly noticed the side of the tip was swollen and had two small cuts on it. Ouch! She had me look at it while her assistant went to get Panalog cream. She applied the cream to the penis directly and then proceeded to stick the tube up the opening of the shaft to apply more panalog.

Directions for me was to go home and apply panalog up the shaft for one week once per day. I am also to give Naxcel once a day and banamine 2x/day. I’m sure Incan is thankful for the banamine relief. I am not to introduce Incan to a female for at least a month as to not cause more trauma to his penis.

Good news is that Incan should recover just fine. The steroids in the cream should ensure that his shaft doesn’t get any scar tissue build up and he should be able to breed with no problems in the future.

We’re not sure how this problem occurred. Many thoughts pop into our heads like during breeding some hair wrapped around his penis and when he extracted it could have cut into him,  possibly he hit the ground and scraped his penis on some small rocks, or maybe he extracted his penis pulling some kind of debris back into the shaft. We’ll never know for sure.

Tom can’t believe that I am able to apply the med by myself into Incan’s shaft, but I do. Incan isn’t thrilled about it, but he’s a good boy.

So what wouldn’t I do for my alpacas?

DMAR Update for Week Ending 10/11/09:

Patagonia Fall Festival: Is this Friday thru Sunday in Patagonia Park, AZ. There will be plenty of vendors plus us. We’re all packed up and ready to head on over to Patagonia this afternoon to set up. We have all your alpaca needs from rovings to finished products like sweaters, coats, hats, etc., etc. Come on out and say hello. It’s never too soon to start your holiday shopping!

Michelle-Rose: Michelle is living with her valley fever. Her last titer showed that she had not improved, but did not worsen either. Her lymph nodes are still quite swollen, however the good news is that her white blood count was down to 23,000 from the high of 34,000. She is making some improvement. As far as appearance goes Michelle now weighs 155.8 up from her low time low of 133. We would love to see Michelle at her average weight of 165 or better yet at 175. Remember that Michelle is a tall girl so she really should be heavier than most. Also, Michelle is no longer on free feed and no longer has her own stall. Well we needed the room since our fall crias have already started to hit the ground. On a good note Michelle is holding her own and eating her portion of the food. No more dilly dallying around. Also, Michelle seems to like the company. I think she feels more and more like a healthy alpaca. Overall, Michelle appears to be as happy and healthy as can be while living with her valley fever and taking her meds 2x per day.

Athena and Cria Watch: Today is day 345 on our cria watch with Athena. As I stare at the tv monitor in my bedroom I can see she has no plans on having the cria today. She is eating well and laying around a lot. Last pregnancy she didn’t birth until day 372. I’m just hoping she will have this cria in the same year she got pregnant. The cria is another one from HRAZ Lock & Load. We so look forward to this baby as Athena is Kaitlyn Rose’s much improved daughter and it was Kaitlyn’s and Lock & Load’s son, Magnum, who just recently won reserve color champ at the NMSFAS.

New medicine found for treating alpacas with ulcers:

In looking at what brought visitors to my site I noticed that lately a lot of them are inquiring about ulcers in alpacas. It was less than 3 years ago that we lost our beloved Hip Hop Babe to perforated ulcers. You can read all about it by Clicking Here.

It was very sad and as most of you know at the time there was little if anything that could be done. Yes, some people were able to use gastroguard, but if the ulcers were in the third compartment (alpacas have 3 stomachs) then you were out of luck as there was no treatment that could reach it until now.

The Alpaca Research Foundation (ARF)  has published the following:

THE ALPACA RESEARCH FOUNDATION,being committed to funding research that will aid in better care and understanding of camelids worldwide, has funded several studies of frequently used ulcer medications for their effectiveness in camelids.

ALPACAS AND ULCERS

Ever have an animal that seemed especially stressed either ‘emotionally’, physically, or both? Did the thought of ulcers then enter your mind as a possible result of that stress?

The veterinary arm of the alpaca industry has utilized several drugs for both ulcer prevention and treatment that were formulated for humans, but until recently had no research data upon which to base the efficacy of those drugs in camelids. We now have some enlightening data to share!

The Bad News First

We know that ulcers can affect both alpacas and llamas of any age, including young crias. Ulcers also have the ability to kill camelids of all ages if they are not adequately treated and resolved. Camelid ulcers occur in the third stomach compartment and have proven somewhat difficult to treat. In addition, the drugs that have been available for use are limited.

Geoffrey Smith, DVM and his colleagues at North Carolina State University, recently published their findings on the use of Gastrogard (oral omeprazole) in llamas. In that study, blood levels were measured over the course of a six day oral treatment at somewhat high doses. Unfortunately, they found that Gastrogard did not produce “concentrations likely to be associated with clinical efficacy in camelids”.

Another Gastrogard study was conducted by Jennifer Lynn Johnson, DVM and colleagues at the University of Minnesota. Their study surgically inserted a cannula into the third stomach compartment of normal alpacas to measure the actual stomach pH. Out of 22 samples taken, none showed a rise in pH to indicate the drug was having any effect.

The Good News NOW

A third study has been conducted by Geoffrey Smith, DVM at North Carolina State University which offers more hope and a much more positive outcome! Pantoprazole has been demonstrated to reduce the acidity of the third compartment when administered either subq or intravenously. The animals used in this study also had a cannula inserted into their third stomach compartment in order to test the pH of the actual stomach contents. When administered either IV or subq, pantoprazole provided a slow, sustained, significant increase in pH, indicating a therapeutic level had been reached! An effective and safe treatment now appears in pantoprazol for the use in both treatment and prophylaxis of camelid ulcers! Thank you Dr. Smith!

Your donated dollars to ARF allow this research project, and many more to continue. Please make your contribution today.

For further information or to contact a member of the ARF board please be sure to visit the Alpaca Research Foundation Website at www.alpacaresearchfoundation.org

Please CLICK HERE to DONATE to support camelid research!

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 This is wonderful news, so for all you alpaca breeders be sure to let your vets know!

Cooling down the alpacas at DMAR is an ongoing theme here. Temperatures are reaching 1oo and the alpacas are feeling it. Fortunately for them we have several ways to cool them down:

1. They have plenty of shade and fresh water.

2. We turn on fans for them daily. Some alpacas like it more than others. Shasta literally kisses the fan and leans her head, neck, and upper body right into it.

3. I hose down there legs and bellies daily. Again some like this more than others, but on these hot days I have them lined up giving me kisses or biting my shirt trying to get me to do them first.

4. For days that reach 95 or above we turn on the evaporative coolers. Yes my alpacas are spoiled, but a lot of them are carrying the future crias of DMAR. 

Update on Michelle: I know I said I would keep positive and believe me I have tried, but there were many days in which I was sure she was going to give up the valley fever battle. Well I’m glad to say that Michelle is doing better. Her weight is now at 147.4 lbs. We can no longer see her ribs, which at one point were so pronounced that she was a walking skeleton. Michelle’s appetite is great and she is now running around with the rest of the herd during social time.

Michelle is not cured, but she is definitely acting like an alpaca should. However I don’t ever take her illness for granted. She’s got a long way to recover still.

DMAR Update for Week Ending 6-27-09:

DMAR Site Under Attack: Well a few things have been going on. For starters my blog was hacked into and a malicious code was added to my scripts which began attacking other sites. My web host shut me down advising that I was in violation of subscription term. Not knowing what this meant I called them and was told of the issue.

Since I am the designer, writer, and overall maker of my website I was left totally perplexed as to how to clean it up. My host provider sent some information on what might help, but basically I was told to clean up my scripts. I tried to do this, but to be honest it was so over my head.

After a week of having my site down I got online and went to elance. This is a site where you can hire a freelancer in areas of computer programming, website design, administration, etc.. I posted my job and a couple of days later I hired a person in Romania. Within a couple of days my site was up and he even upgraded me to the newest version of WordPress, which is my blog. I couldn’t be happier and what’s best is that I was able to talk him down to my current budget. What a great experience for a terrible problem!

Michelle Rose Update: I haven’t been able to give any updates lately, but Michelle has lost about 5 pounds in about 2 1/2 weeks time. She now weighs 140 lbs. I would be really concerned, but she is so alert and active that I am not terribly worried. This is the best she’s looked in a long time.

I’m not sure if I mentioned about her swollen lymph nodes. When the vet first felt them she was not optimistic at all on Michelle’s outcome. She sent me home with instructions to give antibotics of Naxcel as well as Doxycycline for 10 days. Today I took Michelle back to the vet for her blood draw and the doctor was happy to say that she believed the lymph nodes under the chin had shrunk in size. They are still swollen, but slightly smaller. Overall she thought Michelle looked good and sent us on our way home. I’ll find out the blood test results tomorrow to see if her white cell count has come down. At one time the doctor thought it might be cancer in the lymph nodes, but after speaking with a blood specialist they concluded her lymph nodes were so swollen due to the valley fever.

Finally I believe that even the vet sees a ray of light at the end of the tunnel. I keep praying for Michelle and tell her I love her daily. Do you think that helps?

Testimonial: A couple of weeks ago I had a ranch visit from two sisters that drove approx. 4 hours from Phoenix to see my alpacas. She wanted to learn more about alpacas since she wanted to get some when she retired in the next couple of years. During her visit she mentioned at how pleasantly surprised she was at the information we provided as well as our hospitality. She mentioned that she had gone to another ranch where her visit didn’t last even 30 minutes and she had left deflated. She felt renewed and looked forward to learning more.

A few days later we received this email from our visitor and she has given me permission to share it with you all:

“Hi Tom and Janice,  Once again I would like to thank you for your wonderful hospitality on Saturday.  My sister Nancy and I had a very enlightened and educational experience.  You really went above and beyond anything we had expected. On our drive home she commented about how this would be “right up my alley”.  Our visit has given me a renewed incentive to start looking for property and start making plans for my own ranch.”

Let Tom and I renew your interest in alpacas too. Simply call us at 520-803-9569 or email us at info@desertmtnalpacas.com to schedule your ranch visit.

2009 Estes Park Wool Market Alpaca Fleece Show:

This year I placed two fleeces into this show. It was RK and Dominique. Here is how they placed:

DMAR Royal Knight – 1st and Reserve Color Champ

DMAR Dominique – 3rd Place

Valley Fever Update on Michelle Rose:

I couldn’t be happier with Michelle’s recent progress. She has gained a little over 5 pounds in the past two weeks. She accomplished this even after getting a pretty severe upper respiratory infection. Michelle now appears to be over her current respiratory infection and is really alert and looking much better. With the weight gain she now has strength in her legs to walk normally. She no longer walks like an old lady taking baby steps. When Tom goes to give her medication she sometimes gives him a run for it. Tom has to ask me to step in and help catch Michelle. Yea!

I will take Michelle to the vet tomorrow to have blood work done. The last time her white blood count was three times the norm. We need to make sure that count comes down. I have taken Michelle off the naxcel and again am giving her doxycycline.

Although Michelle has a long way to go in terms of weight gain you can see she is actually starting to fill in. I definitely cannot see her ribs as defined just a couple of weeks ago. You go Michelle!

Valley Fever Update on Michelle Rose:

Last I wrote I said it was touch and go. I just didn’t realize that it would be that very afternoon after I had finished blogging. Michelle looked depressed and so I thought that I would move her with the other girls into the front pasture. Although I knew she was quite weak from the weight loss she seemed happy to be able to move out of her stall.

After a little while things went down hill. I noticed Michelle wasn’t comfortable and constantly kushing then standing. Her kushing wasn’t normal either. She was leaning heavily onto walls to catch her from falling over. When I moved her to the pasture there were no walls and eventually she would roll over onto her side. Her breathing was hard and I thought each one would be her last. By mid-afternoon I gave her a shot of banamine and placed a call into the vet. I gave her all the information and basically I was asked if I wanted to bring her in to be euthanized. The vet said that Michelle was starving to death and that it sounded like the valley fever had moved into the joints. Heart broken I advised that I needed to call the insurance company first.

After giving all the information to the insurance company they wanted to speak to my vet. They were pretty much in agreement with the euthanasia, but wanted a full exam to take place before hand. Since the vet was leaving work early the appt was made for the next morning. I called Tom and told him I didn’t think Michelle was even going to last until he got home from work. The afternoon moved along at a very slow pace with both Michelle and me very depressed. Dominique must have felt my sadness as she kept coming over to where I was sitting and nibbling on my shirt trying to get my attention. For a minute or two she got it and allowed me to rub her neck.

Finally I decided to move Michelle back into her stall. Luckily she did get up and walk in by herself. She seemed agitated until the rest of the girls were moved back into their stalls. Then all of a sudden Michelle got up and went over to her food bucket and started eating like there was no tomorrow. I’m not sure what got into her, but by the time Tom got home I had to comment that Michelle was 10 times better than she was just hours earlier.

The next morning I took Michelle to the vet and explained to her the change in Michelle. When we opened the trailer door Michelle was standing there with ears up and alert as normal as can be. Of course the vet couldn’t recommend euthanizing at this time. Instead she drew blood for a full blood work up.

That brings us to today, Tuesday, May 26th. Michelle is doing well and eating regularly. Although she has a long way to recover. She’s gained just a couple of pounds, but that is pretty remarkable considering she caught a respiratory infection the day after the vet exam. She’s been on antibotics and the first couple of days she was pretty congested. She didn’t eat as well, but regardless never stopped eating. Her balance is so much better to the point that she can now lower her neck to the floor without fear of toppling over. She is still walking like an old lady, but overall much swifter than before.

Michelle has beat death so far and continues to fight. This will be a long and slow recovery, but she’s hanging in there. All we can do is take it one day at a time.

Michelle Rose Update:

It has been a very challenging past few weeks. Michelle’s turn for the worse with weight loss of over 25 lbs in three weeks has her fighting for her life. I literally go out daily almost on an hourly basis to hold her hay in front of her begging her to eat. I can tell she isn’t ready to give up the fight as she takes piece after piece of hay.

Last week I started to wean her almost 5 mth old cria, Valentino. I usually don’t start this process until they are least 6 mths of age, but I just couldn’t afford her losing anymore weight by nursing her cria. I started with just taking him out in the early morning and leaving him with the other juveniles and yearlings until approximately 5pm. After a week of doing this and Michelle losing another 6 lbs, Tom had me remove Valentino for good. I hated doing it, but we are now on day 4 of the full separation. It is still hard for Valentino, but he is doing well and getting closer to the other boys in his area.

Michelle is a very good mother who even after losing 25 lbs was still nursing her cria. However, she doesn’t seem too bothered that we have now removed him. She can see him easily as his area is directly in front of her stall.

So we have had to make a few changes in Michelle’s stall. I told Tom that although I felt she was eating more than in previous days she appeared to be weaker. Her tall legs are so skinny and I truly believe the muscle in them has deteriorated so much due to her “starvation” from having valley fever that she is having a hard time manuevering around. At first I thought she wanted to be pampered by having me hold her food for her, but now I realize that she is afraid to lower her neck and head in fear of losing her balance. Therefore, Tom has hung up a bucket for her with food overflowing out and we have also raised her bucket up off the floor. Since this has been done I notice that Michelle is able to feed herself and drink much more water to keep hydrated. I have even noticed that her stride is much better, however she is still weak and has a way to go.

It is really touch and go with Michelle, but as long as she is willing to fight we are here to help her. I am forever the optimist and do see a future for Michelle with us.

DMAR Update for Weekending 5/9/09:

Gianna is finally home. She is our newest maremma. Tom and I imported her directly from Italy and I flew to NY last week to pick her up. She is only 9 weeks old, but she is a big girl. Probably weighing around 25 lbs. She has made our ranch her own and gets along great with all the other maremmas. She shows no fear of the alpacas and has already started guarding the property with her barking. Of course not to the same extent as the older dogs, but still she is trying. Gianna will be Santino’s new girlfriend as we had to spay Bianca earlier this year. She has already taken over Santino’s spot laying next to the dog house. Tom wets it down each morning and night making the dirt cool. As you can see she is already dirty.

 Armani with Vincenzo - People are constantly asking us how the alpacas get along with the maremmas. I think this picture says it all. Armani is literally laying his head over Vincenzo’s head while napping. Unfortunately I could only get one picture because Santino started barking at me, because I was sneaking up to the fence trying to be quiet. He gave me away which made both boys lift their heads. However it is obvious that they get along great. Both boys are yearlings in this picture taken just yesterday. Cute, cute, cute.

Update on Michelle Rose: Well we sheared her on April 22nd. Her wool was 3 lbs. Then the next day I left for NY for 6 days. Tom could feed her in the morning and night, but mid-day she wasn’t given any grain as he works. When I got back Michelle looked noticeably skinnier. We weighed her and she was only 144 lbs. She lost about 15 pounds in the 6 days I was gone. Now I am starting all over again in making sure she eats. I may have to change her medication back to ketoconozole. Not sure yet.

 DMAR Store: Have you been in our online store yet at www.dmarstore.desertmtnalpacas.com? We have sweaters that are 100% baby alpaca, teddy bears and cats, scarf sets, coats, ponchos, yarn, and plenty more. It’s never too soon to purchase your holiday gifts.  

 

Knitting:I made this scarf from my 100% alpaca skein in color rose grey. You can purchase the skein online at www.dmarstore.desertmtnalpacas.com. It took a little less than the 250 yds that come in each skein. Using size 9 knitting needles the pattern is as follows on a multiple of six stitches:

row 1: *k3, p3, repeat from *

row 2: *k1, p1, repeat from *

That’s it. This is a real simple knitting project for any beginner. Pattern was found online at http://fuzzygalore.biz/patterns/reversible.shtml.