To verify your vet will be totally prepared to give you the most valuable information for

your situation, consider the following questions before you call. The more information

you can provide to your vet the better for the most accurate diagnosis.

1. Evaluate the situation visually

 Are the eyes dull or watering?

 Is the animal able to stand?

 Is the animal eating? Drinking water?

 Does the animal have diarrhea?

Constipation?

 Are the gums bright pink or dull

and/or yellow?

 Is the nose running?

 Does the animal walk normally?

Limping? Act drunk?

 Take the temperature. Is it normal?

 Listen to breathing. Is it labored?

Fast or slow?

 Is there any mucus discharge from

nose, eyes, rectum, or vagina?

 Is there any apparent physical injury?

 What is your gut feeling about

the problem?

2. Evaluate events

 Have you just returned from a show?

 Have you brought any new animals

onto the farm?

 Has there been a drastic change in

the weather?

 Have you changed feed or mineral

supplements?

 Is the animal pregnant? How

far along?

 Could the animal have been exposed

to poisonous plants?

 How long since the animal has been

wormed? Vaccinated? Sheared?

Once you have considered all of the above you will have enough information to call a

vet or treat the animal. If the animal is down and cannot get up, try to get it to a sheltered

area and call your vet immediately. The carry sling is a great tool for moving down animals.

It you don’t have enough people to carry the animal, roll it onto the sling and drag it to

shelter. The more of the above questions you can answer when you call your vet the better

he or she will be able to assist with the problem.

Reprinted from Lincolnland Lama News Aug 2010

HERD MANAGEMENT:

Morris Animal Foundation:

Inbreeding Weakens Camelids

(Reprinted from “Animal News”, the newsletter of the Morris Animal Foundation, Vol. 7.4.  The Alpaca Research Foundation, Inc is the full sponsor for Dr. Marin’s study)

                Wild and captive camelids, such as llamas, alpacas, vicunas and guanacos, as economically and ecologically important species to South America and, at the same time, a rapidly growing population in North America as well.  Unfortunately, these animals are often inbred, which can cause an increase in inherited diseases, reproductive problems and congenital abnormalities.

                Dr. Juan Carlos Marin and his research team at Universidad Mayor in Chile decided to learn more about these species and their health issues.  Using MAF funding, Dr. Marin collected samples from wild, semicaptive and captive populations of camelids in South America.  He learned that, unlike intensively managed and inbred domestic lamas and alpacas, captive guanaco and vicuna populations that were founded from recently captured individuals didn’t lack genetic diversity.  Similarly, wild guanacos and vicunas showed a low frequency of abnormal traits.  In fact, captive and wild guanaco populations revealed few differences, which may be explained by the establishment of recent breeding programs.

                These findings highlight the importance of preserving genetic diversity through good breeding programs.  Dr. Marin will use this information to identify the genes involved in defects in these populations, significantly improving breeding programs and making these animals healthier.