DMAR Alpaca and Maremma Blog

The Latest at DMAR:

Michelle- Rose: OMG! I can’t believe what I am seeing! Those of you who follow my blog know that both myself and Michelle Rose have been battling valley fever for just under 2 years. I can remember clearly the day I called Tom telling him Michelle wasn’t going to make it until he came home. Well I’m here to tell you that miracles do happen. Got back the latest blood work and the Valley Fever test was negative…..not a low titer but negative. My vet said she called the lab to confirm and they told her that they only count titers when they appear and Michelle had none. Could this be true? I’m skeptical but very hopeful. Also her white blood cell count came back normal as well which is wonderful because at one time it was more than double. I’m thinking the move to Georgia has worked wonders for Michelle. Oh and BTW……just last week I caught Magnum breeding Michelle. I’m not sure for how long but when I looked under her tail I definitely saw evidence of breeding. Funny because Michelle was the only female in the boys area even though the gate was ajar. All the other females stayed in their portion. Was this meant to happen? This weekend we will spit check and see. Fingers are crossed.

DMAR Magnum:

 Is this not a good looking boy? Just under 2 years of age and already starting his breeding career with Michelle Rose. Magnum is such a joy to bring into the ring. He just stands posed ready for the judge to look his way. Son to Hraz Lock & Load and Kaitlyn Rose. I just can’t wait to use him this spring in our breeding program.

DMAR Dolce:

      I have to chuckle each time I see this pictures. The photographer obviously has a sense of humor for taking them and even sending them to us. I just don’t understand what is so scary about taking pictures but for the most part even my best behaved alpacas in the show ring don’t want to stand still for a simple photo. Dolce is one of the worst we have to deal with. But her problems stem in the showring as well as the photos. I trained her the same amount that I did Dior and Dior is wonderful in the ring. Anyway I love seeing Tom’s expressions. He starts off being happy with a smile to get a photo taken with Dolce. Slowly his smile begins to fade until we great a good shot of Dolce and he is basically unamused and frustrated. Tom has no patience and the alpacas don’t help. LOL!

Bingo and Gianna:
  Isn’t Bingo adorable? 8 weeks old and weighing 23 lbs. This pup is going to be big! New owner, Driwind Alpacas, has us holding Bingo until they move to Florida from Texas. They also reserved a female out of the next litter which is due shortly between Donatella and Vincenzo. Until he leaves with Driwind Alpacas it is my mission to spoil him rotten. So far I believe I am doing a great job of it!

Donatella and Vincenzo:

 Donatella and Vincenzo are expecting their second litter together shortly. Donatella is currently on day 54. If you are needing a Maremma lgd puppy please contact us at info@desertmtnalpacas.com. This will be the last litter of the year. We are ethical breeders and only breed each breeding pair once per year. We are also part of the Maremma Sheepdog Club of America. All of our puppies are sold as working dogs only and they have gone to alpaca ranches, sheep ranches, and goat ranches.

Things are busy here at DMAR but I wouldn’t have it any other way.

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.