Right, hello. I'm afraid I can't actually be with you today, so we have pre-recorded this webinar on day one skills for camelid calls. And what we're going to do is just go through some basic triaging.
We're not going to go into massive depth about disease processes, but I'm going to talk to you about alpacas, give you some terminology. And llamas as well, actually, because they are included in the Cali umbrella. The reason I am talking to you today is not because I am a specialist or anyone particularly eminent.
I just happen to have a real enthusiasm for, for Camali medicine, and now I am part of the vet Partners Camaid group. I, I run that for vet partners. And I also have done my cert AVP, I'm hoping to designate that in Calis later on this year.
But I, I suppose the point I wanted to drive home is that I'm still learning, as we all are about these, physiologically interesting creatures. OK, so we're gonna start really basic, so please don't, be offended if I insult your intelligence here. But in the UK, generally the camelid species that we deal with are alpacas and llamas.
There are, also camels, which you may deal with, but we're not going to go into detail about them today. Llamas and alpacas are relatives of the Vicuna and the guanaco, but again, they're more likely to be found in zoos, so let's avoid for now, we're gonna go very, very domestic. The main ones that we tend to see would be alpacas.
So please forgive me if I use these terms interchangeably. If anything is desperately different for llamas versus alpacas, I will say so. The alpacas come in two flavours.
There is a Wakaya, which is the, the traditionally very fluffy, ones with the big boofy heads. And then you've got your suri, which, you can see from this photo, the, the staples tend to grow in like long pencils. They look like, locks of sorts, and can be a little bit difficult to tell them apart when they've both been sheared.
Generally Wakaya need shearing yearly. Suri may go another year, and they may go two yearly. But it it does pay to know because whilst, you know, physiologically they're mostly the same, sometimes Siri can have little quirks, especially because of their long hair, they are more prone to hair balls and things like that when they're little.
They all originate from the Andean plains, which has implications for how they behave in the UK. So they're used to equatorial high altitude climbs, which means they're very, very good at binding haemoglobin, which, fortunately for them, rather unfortunately for us, they can be wandering around with a PCV of like 3%. And you'd be none the wiser unless you really got your hands on them.
So they can cope really, really well with having very poor oxygen levels. So that means that they can fool us a little bit into thinking they're much better than they actually are. Now, there are some particular elements of terminology, which I think is sensible for you to know when you get into contact with, with owners.
They do tend to like you to know, the right way around things. Probably try not to call their, their, their coats, wool. I would go more for fibre, fleece at a push, perhaps, young as as you probably know, are called rea.
Females are hembra and males are machos. I don't honestly, hear a lot of people really refer to the adults by their, their proper names, but certainly Cria is is worth knowing. Things that they do, so these guys are lying down, and the terminology for lying down is cushing.
If you're actually tying an animal down as a means of restraint in that position, that would be called chuckering, and I will take you through that in a bit. And the traditional sort of carving and birthing process is actually called unpacking. Very rarely people will call it creation as well.
But unpacking seems to be the, the accepted term among most breeders and, and keepers. I'm going to take you through some very, very basic parameters. This is stuff that I would hope, you know, eventually would be committed to memory.
It's probably worth noting that rea, so any, any juvenile animals, tend to run a bit, hotter and a little bit faster than adults, which I think is the same for most farm species. You'll be auscultating these animals much like you would for any other clinical exam. You'd still be looking, at their gut movement in the left parallel the fossa area.
And you will be able to hear, although it's not technical rumination, it is sort of the contractions of their, their stomach compartments at that 3 to 5 per minute. Something that is really, really important when it comes to Tamaid clinical exam, and something that I always emphasise that owners should do if they're confident and competent, is have a good look at their conjunctival colour. So I will show them how to look at, the mucous membranes around the eyes.
Sometimes the gums, but obviously they can be pigmented, so they are a little bit deceptive at times. Now owners may ring you up and say, our gums are really pale, or our gums are very red, and that does actually tend to be fairly good indicator of, of what's going on with the animal, whether that is an anaemia based thing or whether there's an infectious process and potential septicemia there. So get owners into the habit of looking at what's normal for matches scoring their their animals, for example, with those little cards or a print out that they keep in a, in a dark box that they don't expose to light.
So they can keep track of what their animals mucous membranes are doing. PCV, you know, has quite a high range, but as I alluded to earlier, they can be trotting about happily with much lower PCBs than that. But I would say below 12 is, is a transfusion candidate, if I'm perfectly honest.
Total protein sits there, but obviously, do be aware that, your total protein can be skewed by a dehydrated animal. And there's you in specific gravity if you are ever interested. So in general, the principles of handling are what I tend to say is animals respond much better to the suggestion of power rather than you outright demonstrating it.
If you go in all guns blazing, holding it really tightly, putting your hands over its nose, it's going to freak out and and who could blame it, really? And so handling should generally be quite sensitive and, and gentle with these guys, and they do tend to submit. One thing is very handy to get your owners to get into is halter training.
So that you can see in this animal, the halter is pushed right up to the bridge of the nose, and, and that is the best way to do it because they, they do have a lot of cartilage in their nose, which obviously don't want compressing with the, with the halter. And they are obligate nasal breathers. So if they are breathing out of their mouth, there is something wrong, whether that's just because they're stressed or, or they have something up with them.
But they will not be particularly happy animals if they're ever breathing out of their mouth. So you should make sure that the nose is not sort of compromised by any of your handling. Are there indicators that the animal might be stressed, would be a little worry line below the eye.
Obviously this animal is pretty, pretty happy at the, at this point, so, there's nothing really wrong with him. But they basically get bags under their eyes like a, like a stressed person. They can also get, you know, much like a dog, quite a tight, like pulled back chin.
They're quite subtle signs, but once you get your eye in, it might be quite easy for you to determine that an alpaca's not quite at its best. Naughty things they do, they do spit occasionally. I, I, I would say it's less common than you think it is, and owners will tend to know whether they've got like a spitter or a kicker or one that defensively just sits down every time you try and do something with it.
The, the naughtiest alpacas I do tend to find have been hand-reared ones. You, you may come across something called berserk male syndrome or animals are on the way to berserk male syndrome. And that's just basically they haven't developed a healthy sort of respect for, for humans.
They associate humans with food too much and they just don't have any boundaries anymore, and they can become very, very dangerous. Which is why we always advocate being almost quite standoffish, with babies, even though they're very cute and we do want to cuddle them. They, they really ought not to be cuddled.
And certainly, I wouldn't advocate anyone buying these if they wanted a pet that, you know, really enjoyed cuddling and handling, because quite frankly, they don't. So in terms of handling, alpacas are largely handable. They, they, they're, they're about 60 to 80 kg, relatively speaking, .
But llamas are are much bigger. They're, you know, 120 to 160 kg fully grown. So it may be worth someone who is wanting llamas who invests in a llama shoot, which is, is almost like a crush for them, which just helps you be a bit safer, when you are examining them.
In terms of moving them around, they are herd animals, they do get very, very wound up if you take them away from their friends. So if you need them to go anywhere, they're actually really open to suggestion, and I would, I would suggest herding, you know, several into a corner, even if you just wanted to grab one out of the mix. And they're also not great challenges of fences.
So you can sort of wander around, with the owner with a rope between you, say, the rope's about 4 ft high. And they will follow that like a fence line, and you can herd them with ropes or, or, you know, hose pipes or whatever's sort of lying around. I would, to be honest, expect most owners to know this by now or have done a little course or to have learned from the breeders, that this is how they move them around, but there's outliers everywhere.
Little bit more on handling. But what I tend to do is, is get them gently around the neck. The neck is, is, is strong and sturdy, but obviously they, they can be prone to injury in that region.
So, pick your battles, I would say. Restrain them, just around, around the neck really gently and just pop a little bit of pressure down on the withers. Their, their defence mechanism is usually to lie down, although some will, will try to jump, and the pressure on the withers just sort of reminds them that that's probably not the best way to go.
Tuckering, I talked to you about before. I just do this with my cattle head rope, to be honest. I, I'll tie around their waist, just make sure that they're not particularly kicky when you swing it underneath them.
I will tie a knot, just about a fist's width, away from the top of the animal. And then basically you just thread their back legs, through it, and then they will, they will drop down to the floor. They might flop about for a little bit, but once they discover that they can't really move, they do honestly tend to stay there.
So I wouldn't keep them there for very long. The, you know, that their knee joints, the stifles are under pressure when you're doing that. But for procedures like dental work, castration, I, I think this is a really nice, safe method, and particularly for things like castration, I'll either do that standing or, or chuck it like this, and it, it removes the need for for sedation, which, which can be entirely unnecessary as a routine.
Procedure during castrates. You also see this fellow on the right, he had a towel over his head, just reduces a bit of stimulation if you're wanting them to succumb to sedation that little bit faster. Here are some very basic injection sites of alpacas, and it is not true that all injections must be given subcuts.
I think that was definitely bandied about for quite a while. And usually if a medicine is licenced for for cattle, for example, I am, it's OK to go in, in, in alpacas and llamas. With the exception of oxytetracycline, it, that still is, is quite irritating into the muscle of these guys and, and may cause abscessation and irritation.
So, best, best leave that subcut. But as for your white antibiotics, there's no reason why they can't go IM. And in fact, the distribution in the body is much, much better for IM injections, is where you go subcuts, have, have a poorer blood supply, just generally.
So the absorption isn't, isn't fantastic, and it can render some drugs largely useless. As a, as a way of remembering it super easily, I am injection sites, I tend to go back of the front leg, front of the back leg, and then just for the subcut sites, you know, around the armpit, pretty much anywhere where you can just pick up a bit of skin because it's very, very adherent to the tissue below. Obviously, everything is off licence, absolutely everything.
So do make sure you're getting consent from the owners, preferably signed, and, and written, because I think they're mostly aware of the fact that nothing's licenced, but obviously we cannot guarantee in safety. that said that, you know, there is a bit of evidence about, and it's always worth checking in with that when it comes to drug administration. Blood sampling is something I feel like a lot of people get quite hit up about, indeed they can form hematomas quite readily, but, but don't fret about it, there's ways to mitigate this sort of thing.
The jugular vein is quite superficial, so I would say if you are putting a needle in there, go for something like a 1920 gauge and do it at about a 30 degree angle, in the mid, the distal, you know, third of the neck. And if, and by doing that, you, you're more likely to go into the jugular, than you are the very closely underlying carotid. But even if that does happen, take your needle out, bob some pressure on and stay calm.
That's the most important thing about taking blood. And if I am putting drugs in IV, I tend to go higher up in the neck just because you've got a little bit more ring between the jugular, and the parotid artery. But yeah, it's, it's got a really nice, groove just underneath the, the transverse processes of the cervical vertebrae at the bottom there.
And it, and it really is pretty easy to find even if you can't see it. And I do tend to use the right hand side just to avoid any hematomas forming and, putting pressure on the oesophagus, which can cause them to sort of be a bit dysphagic and like. So just remember right is rights when it goes to messing about with the jugular.
Little quirks, to do with drugs. I'm not gonna read off the slides, but, I would say just be careful with certain drugs. If you're lucky enough to have a referral facility or, or inpatient facilities where you can really check and keep them on IV fluids, then certainly, you know, aminoglycosides are available and can be used.
In terms of steroid use, just be aware that that there are certain thresholds over which I probably wouldn't use steroids. So it's worth using if you can monitor blood glucose. It will cause abortion, but it, but it might not actually cause proper induction, so you never induce an animal with steroids because it just causes foetal stress.
We've talked about Oxitec, so I won't labour that. They are very, very sensitive to local anaesthesia. So if you're using procaine, you know, try and keep the 10 gigs per max dose, and certainly be diluting that down 1 to 1 with water if you're doing something like a caesarean.
They can tolerate, you know, 2 mLs in a testicle for, for castrates, for example. Would very much avoid my till and most of the macrolides. It can cause sort of instant death of the needles, so I would rather avoid that, rather than, risk it.
And just be careful with trimethoprim, they don't tend to tolerate that terribly well IV, but it is absolutely fantastic, by other means. If you are doing any repo work, I would stick to just using Esreate because some of the other analogues have caused sudden death for reasons unknown, to be honest. Little quirky things about these guys.
Alpacas are a little bit sensitive. Having said that, like, you know, you don't have much bother when you get them on a, a regimen, you know, that's appropriate for treating whatever disease you're going for. I don't, I am not afraid to use NSAIDs in, in alpacas.
Certainly short courses. I, I don't always, you know, go helpful like they do in gastroprotectants. Certainly if they're on them for longer, then it's worth considering.
But you know, don't be afraid to, you know, to manage their pain appropriately. Certainly worth giving probiotics, definitely doesn't hurt to give them alongside long courses of antibiotics. And also we have noticed that they do tend to get a bit thiamine deficient when they are very stressed or very ill, if they've had heavy parasite burdens or or after long courses of antibiotics.
So never be afraid to supplement in vitamin B1. At least 3 times a day, for disease processes because you, you can't overdo it, and owners are, are very engaged with nursing care for the most part. Little chat about vaccination.
This might vary as per your your practise policy, but this is, this is our vaccination policy, which is based on the appearance of certain clostridial strains in the UK that are only covered by Roxxone or vaccine 10, so basically a 10-way vaccine. And I'm quite happy that if you're, you've got a career from a fully vaccinated dam who was boosted appropriately, can wait, until 10 to 12 weeks of age for, for their vaccination, and that they do the primary course as per sheep. So it's 1 meal, 2 doses, 4 to 6 weeks apart.
We're not entirely sure about the duration of immunity, but in the US, animals do tend to go 12 months between boosters, without adverse effect, but there aren't any challenge studies, to back this up. So if you feel like you're getting, you've got animals that are in a high risk area for, for Clostridia or a history of Clostridia on the farm, then discuss it with the owner, and it might be worth reboosting. Probably wouldn't give a full primary course to pregnant animals, obviously the handling and stress of that and on the immune challenges may cause some abortions.
But it, I wouldn't stop me giving like a booster to a pregnant animal or in the primary course while they're still pregnant, and then, and then doing the second part of it while she was open. They're pregnant for so long, you've got very little window to have like an empty animal. Similarly, if you're concerned, about the dam's vaccine status, or you're concerned about the potential for failure of passive transfer and the career is still healthy, some I do like to give Lammy back when they're at 2 days and, and 3 weeks old.
Don't, don't hate it, but also it's unnecessary if, if you're, you've got a, a decent vaccine protocol in, in the rest of the herd. And then I, I would advocate getting the career back onto to to Quebec and or ox intent. At 4 to 6 months and getting them in sync with the rest of the herd.
Vitamin D is something that you hear an awful lot about when it comes to alpacas and llamas. Because they are in the UK, they are not, exposed to the level of sunlight that they would expect over the winter months. So they do have low serum vitamin D, and that can manifest as, as anything really, slow, slow digestion, stunted growth, and at the very worst of It really nasty, deformed, painful limbs.
So it's definitely worth, encouraging owners to get onto an 8-week injectable regimen of 1000 international units of vitamin D per kilo, over those winter months. But obviously, if they favour pace, that's fine, but you might have to look at, increasing the frequency of, of paste dosing. Treatment for, for rickets, is, is also vitamin D, but you might wanna sub in some phosphorus there as well.
So what does a sick alpaca look like? Oh, if I knew I would be a very, very accomplished vet. They are extremely stoic.
So whilst the animal might only show you some signs on that Wednesday, you can bet that it was probably 6 since the weekend. And that's not because the owners aren't looking at them because they are. They're just not very good at letting us know that they're ill until they're nearly dead.
For that reason, I would say it's very, it's probably not wise to leave them overnight with a sort of wait and see approach, if you've got a sick alpaca or an alpaca that basically just isn't acting like it normally does. I have to say the owners are usually right when they say that they're not behaving normally, and that can be as innocuous as they're not hanging out with their friends anymore, or they're lying down more often than normal. People to get into the habit of asking owners when they're on the way to or triaging a case.
All the basic stuff like about, you know, secure handling and making sure they're in, not wandering around the field for you to waste time going to get. But it's also important that the animals are sort of chilled and, and at their baseline level when you get there, so you can properly assess what their heart rate and respiration really is, rather than what it is now you've chased them around a field. Important things to know would be vaccination history.
You need to know sort of what it was with, who did it, etc. Because, unfortunately, there's, there's a, there's a real culture of shearers coming in once a year, every year, jabbing them with lay back or head to back and then, and, and jabbing them with ivermectin. And a lot of people mistakenly believe that's a vaccination regime and a worming protocol, which it isn't.
For, for many various reasons, but, you know, there, there's short, very, very short brooch hours on a, a vial of vaccine, they must be kept cold. I don't feel like that can be guaranteed in the height of summer when people are doing multiple slides a day. An injectable ivermectin really isn't effective on, on worms.
So if it's a case of, oh, the shearer or the breeder came round and jabbed them, I would probably take that animal as an unvaccinated, unwormed animal. The things to know, is whether the owner's, faecal leg count, for both worms, poxy, and, and if necessary, fluke, when this was last done, mainly because a lot of the problems that we see are parasite-based. And find out what they used, and which, which route and which dose they use, because we've, we know from recent study that they're extremely variable.
Also ascertain if she's pregnant, because that might change your treatment regime. Things to look at. Let's talk about clinical exam.
As, as I said before, it's, it's the same as normal, but do pay attention to, the, body condition score as well. The colour of the mucous membranes is quite indicative of issues. Do try and get a good worming history and, and if you are going to go down the route of parasite treatment, do get a faecal leg count first and do a reduction test, because we don't want a situation like they are in other countries where they have massive amounts of resistance.
Have a chat about nutrition and do, I mean, I don't want anyone to consider these, these things as like weird sheep or tiny cows or, you know, fluffy horses. But But do consider all of the things that you would do in a, in a sick cow, or sick sheep. Is the nutrition correct?
A lot of time I've gone to things and it's, it's really been a simple case of adjusting the rations and stuff like that to help the animals. They are quite prone to, to jaw issues, so do have a good feel of the jaw and do get in there if you've got a gag. Have a, have a feel of their teeth because they, they do, get quite a lot of sort of dental abscesses, which can in turn, turn into jaw problems and osteomyelitis.
They can also get osteomyelitis and, and jaw issues without the teeth really being involved, which is very curious but very frustrating. I always advocate doing bloods, if you've got a sick animal, because even if you don't send them off, you've got that baseline level in the event of treatment failure. And I've got a little slide on haematology and biochemistry coming up.
Diagnostic imaging is so helpful, and, and oftentimes these owners are prepared to go to a referral level to find out what's wrong with the animals. So, certainly do use all the diagnostics that are at your disposal. Little chat about a Camali profile.
Most laboratories will offer them. This is an example from Bioas, which is one of our laboratories, things to look out for. Obviously, we could go into much more detail than this, but let's not.
pack cell volume, you know, as I said before, it might be worth transfusing if it's below 12. You know, if you've got a normal PCV but your, your protein levels are, are different from normal, do consider sort of enteropathies or for protein loss, but do also, you know, things like, anaemia. If you've got a low PCV, we're looking obviously at bleeding or potential overhydration if they've been on fluids.
But they are, they are quite prone to anaemia. So do, do look into that if you are getting one. In terms of biochemistry, the main thing I like to take away from biochemistry in sick animals is, are we tipping ourselves into hepatic lipidosis?
In, in which case, you know, that they do need a lot of intensive nursing care to get over that and potentially also total power and terrible nutrition. So sick in appetite animals need to, to, to really be encouraged to start eating again as soon as possible to prevent them nose-diving into that. And, and that really doesn't matter what's wrong with them at that point, that they'll still be prone to the fatty liver, which just is, is an extra headache for you.
I would also suggest that if you are taking bloods from these guys that you do a, a fresh smear. That's, and, and by fresh, I mean literally at the side of the animal, not when you get back to the practise and not when it gets to the lab. Because, mycoplasma hemaamma, which is, sort of a, a, a parasitic bacteria, drops off the blood cells, before, before you get them, to the lab.
So you might get a false negative result and it is quite a significant, disease of these guys and, and warrants treatments. And they also unfortunately end up in a lifelong carrier state. So, I'm largely running out of time, but let's talk a little bit about reasons why animals might do things.
As I said before, animals choosing to lie down more often than normal is not, is not normal, and it's often a sign that something's already going wrong. Unfortunately, most signs and alpacas are so non-specific that a simple lying down could be colic or trauma or CCN or a neuro issue or hypercal. So it's very important that you take into account the whole picture of the animal, the clinical exam, the history, husbandry changes, anything like that.
For example, here, we're looking at loads of differentials for weight loss. And as you can see, the list is extremely long, and will require you to go down probably several diagnostic pathways, which, which is why it's worth when you get into practise, explaining this to the owners, that you're not gonna get, you know, a test that automatically pops up, like, oh, this is the problem, that there are pathways that you go down and you sort of eliminate things, you know, process by process. Certainly parasitism, I would say, is at the top of, of most weight loss, and sick alpaca issues.
But I, I certainly would never rule out things like infectious diseases that have implications, for the rest of the herd, things like you know and, and unfortunately, TB, but that's a whole kettle of fish. Skin, I think, skin is another top reason why you will see alpacas in practise. I, I will suggest that a lot of things are mites, like a lot, and they have their very own specific treatment regimens, which again, is a story for another day.
But certainly do also consider fungal and, and bacterial, and viral, issues. Do make sure you're getting in there, doing your skin scrapes and going down skin diagnostic pathways like swabs or biopsies, because you can make certain things worse by treating for another thing. Like this example on, on the right was treated for mites that had a fungal infection.
And it was spread by the, the mite treatment. So it's very, very important to emphasise to owners that diagnostics are important, not just spraying them and, and, you know, jabbing them for mites all the time. I've put a little about 23 abscesses, so I'm probably not going to labour this one.
Just, just do be aware that, you know, mandibular osteomyelitis needs to get, you need to get in there very, very quickly and you'll get permanent bone remodelling. And it can be quite an unrewarding thing to treat, but always worth referring for curettage if you can do. I'm starting to rush through here now.
Not an exhaustive list again, we've got a lot of GI conditions that we could talk about certainly when it came to the things that can go wrong with them. And that's certainly stuff we can look at, in terms of training or CPD for you guys at another time. End of parasites, huge, huge, huge, sort of section of alpaca medicine.
So definitely worth getting yourself, familiar with the type of parasites that they, they get. The monkus is an absolutely huge one and a big killer of alpacas, but they also have their own specific, pathogenic breeds of, of coxy, which is this guy in the middle that looks like a popcorn kernel. That's I'miria Makisaniensis.
They do have a chat with your labs that you're using, just make sure that they are using techniques that will, allow them to, to really get down to sort of 5 or 10 EPG of these guys, they can be significant at low levels. But again, all parasitology CPD can be done. It's very, very, in depth with these guys.
Couple of notes on parasite prevention. If you're doing a herd health planning visit, I would encourage owners to get down to 3 to 7 alpacas per acre. Any more, and they risk really overrunning their land and then not having, any chance to rest it.
Overstocking is a huge issue with alpaca owners. Because alpacas can be quite addictive, I'm told. Poop picking is a practise that I would hugely encourage in owners, a minimum of 3 times a week to try and break up the life cycle of things like hemonus that can, it's like a 4 day life cycle, I think, on pasture, well, that they develop on pasture.
Routine faecal egg counting, I'd say at least quarterly for your, for your sort of pets, but certainly, if your herd health planning for commercial herds, this may be more frequent and it will be definitely if you're breeding. And, you know, be, be sensible about this. A lot of the time, these, owners like to sort of do drive-by matings where they're dropping animals in, you know, for a quick mating and then they're leaving.
But, you know, that's a potential biological hazard. It's really bad for biosecurity. So, you know, do encourage them to do those sorts of things on concrete that they can at least clean up after themselves and they don't contaminate their pasture with these different interlopers.
I'm sorry, that was a huge whistle stop for, but obviously I am available for, any questions, at any point, I'm pretty easy to contact. And obviously we can do further CPD both for, both for, practises, vets, individuals, and we can do consultancy, for clients if you're feeling a bit under confident with, with them yourselves. But yeah, please feel free to get in touch.