October Fest goes to the hospital

When you and your vet finally decide a trip to the veterinary hospital is the next step for you and your alpaca . . . don't equate that to a negative experience. You are in for an educational experience. In our case it was a trip to Oregon State University's Lois Bates Acheson Veterinary Teaching Hospital. The staff at this facility is very user-friendly and very qualified when it comes to camelids. They didn't usher us to the waiting room or tell us to come back later in the day. We spent the day with October Fest and her cria, Zafiro, as she was shaved, poked, proded, ultrasounded from every possible angle, scraped and pretty well examined from stem to stern so to speak.

To summarize the reason for the trip . . . even after her delivery of beautiful Zafiro in September she continued to be bloated . . . and the bloating would go from one side to the other and some days both sides.

By the end of the day no one was able to shed any light on her bloating . . . but we did learn quite a few other important bits of information. She has a variety of heart issues. . . none that can be treated . . . none that would be identified as inherited . . . but now we know. She was low on phosphorous . . . so now we are looking at her overall diet and what we can do to improve her overall levels. She has had a limp for years and it does bother her from time to time . . . especially during breeding. They recommended several days of phenylbutazone prior to breeding to reduce any discomfort associated with her lameness. Additionally, glucosamine and other joint supplements were recommended to supplement her current care.

This trip reinforced the need for extensive research in camelids and supports the need for all of us in the industry to contribute and support the work being done by the Alpaca Research Foundation as well as the various colleges around the country such as Oregon State University, Ohio State University, University of California at Davis and others who are making strides toward that end.

So we didn't get the answer we were looking for . . . but we learned a great deal about October Fest . . . every specialist that could possibly have seen her did see her and the bill for the day was way less than one would expect for the caliber of care and the technology that was employed for her examination.

Thank you to Dr. Erica McKenzie, Dr. Laura Waitt and the entire staff at OSU for your continued concern for the patients in your care and the owners who love them.