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Sedgeberrow, Worcestershire, United Kingdom
Breeding and Selling Quaility Huacaya & Suri Alpacas.

Monday 23 January 2012

Little Zeus Update

Well its been a week since my last poorly cria update.  Just don't know where the times fly's to!!

He is still not quite right! After speaking to the Vet last week I did feel a bit more confident he was on the up and was very pleased with poo sample results.  So felt it was just going to be time to build him back up.

But after feeling positive on Monday evening, Tuesday morning we were back on the roller-coaster again!  I went out to feed on Tuesday morning, as I entered the barn I caught Zeus doing his business, but I was very dismayed to see   it was extremely runny, not what it should be at all! I caught hold of him and checked under his tail, there was not much evidence of diarrhea, but as I had witnessed it I could not be any more certain that he had a problem.

I check his temperature and it was 39.5, so too high, he did have quite a thick rug on, and it was very mild, so I thought best thing would be was to take the rug off, continue with the morning chores until the vets opened (no point in phoning before they opened as would only get out-of-hours support and this seemed silly as it was less than an hour until they opened).

Before ringing the vet I checked his temperature and it had in fact gone back down to 39, so he had obviously got a little hot under his rug.  After a chat with the vet who had seen him the previous week it was decided we would give him some more Lactosym and continue supplementing him with the yogurt/goats milk.  In the hope we could settle his digestion system down and hopefully build up his strength.

Well he still seems to go up and down, some days he's up and feeding/grazing as much as everyone else, then there are other days, he seems to sit around a lot more.  When he comes down into the barn with everyone, he is eating the pellets and nibbling at the hay.  I have noticed when he does sit down, he chooses a spot with plenty of grass and seems to be nibbling around him while sat!  I am not sure what to make of it!

It has been suggested that if I am not happy we could take him up to the Veterinary Training hospital for more  in-depth investigations, but I am not sure if this is right or fair on the little man?  I worry if he does go he wont come back!!

Why can't things be more clear cut, am I just being paranoid?  oh why can't he just talk to me and tell me how he feels!  so very frustrating!

4 comments:

Judi B said...

So sorry to hear that little Zeus is still not right. It would be very stressful for him to have to go to the veterinary hospital...surely he'd have to take his mum as being alone isn't something alpacas cope well with. When we had a poorly cria the vet advised that we take her temperature regularly as. apparently high/low temperature is a good first indication that something is wrong. Everything crossed for him and you too...we always feel we should be doing more, but sometimes there just isn't any more we can do!

Inthesky said...

Thanks for the updates, I am worried about the little fella and hope he pulls through and get's back to normal asap. It does give me an appreciation of what hard work you have on your hands and a fair amount of worry too. Do look after yourself. I am sure you are happy if all of your animals are happy :) Zeus is very lucky you are so observant and attentive. x

Rosemary said...

I do hope Zeus is improving - it is a big worry when they are ill. Hope the weather is dryer where you are - I am sure all this damp and mild weather does not help things!

Cotswold Vale Alpacas said...

Thanks everyone for your comments, it is a worry, but I think we are doing all we can. I don't feel it would be good to take him to hospital, far too stressful and his mum is quite a stressy girl so would not her as well. Fingers crossed he will improve.