Should Have

Article written for the Hoosier Llama and Alpaca Association, Newsletter in the Hoosier Hummer, March. 2006.

Post emergency numbers on your garage, barn, or door to the house. Get to know your veterinarian, a good relationship is extremely helpful especially when you are panicked with a sick llama or a difficult birth. It also helps to have the vets phone number saved on your home and cell phones

Assemble a basic first aid kit, thermometer, bandages/vet wrap, antibiotic ointment/salve, blue cote, blood stop, iodine/betadine, hydrogen peroxide, plastic gloves, lubricating gel. This is just a basic kit, your vet and/or llama's friends can help you assemble a complete kit.

What is your emergency plan? How would you get a downed animal in a trailer, van or truck? Do you have an emergency number for your vet? How do you get an animal to Purdue or OhioState? How do they get admitted? When scared or terrified, it is hard to do everything the best without an emergency plan.

If you should lose an animal, get a necropsy place, Ohio State and Purdue offers this service, you can even drop off on weekends. I don't know if it would give you peace of mind, but it will give you information as to how to protect the rest of our herd.

Your county extension office could be very helpful in teaching and training you on pasture management. Learned what is in your pasture, how and when to cut it, and ways to make it better. Check with the State of Indiana and PurdueUniversity which has forage guides and information on pasture management.

Walk your pasture each season especially winter to find pot holes or sink holes in your pasture. Mark them with a stake, or fill them in to protect your animals before the grass grows and the hole are lost for another year.

Think and plan, as you walk the pasture, look at your fence, does it need repair? Make a note or fix the problem immediately. Make plans to change fencing, when the ground is soft in the spring and you can put in the posts, and still get out of bed the next morning (not good to do during the hot dry months when ground is hard).

When winter is here, it's hard to get motivated to do much of anything, however, talking to some of the local farmers, there is plenty to do!

Get your tools repaired or serviced. Send out your shearing blades to be sharpened. Check your halters and leads, open up your show tack box and get it stocked before the show season starts.

How's your trailer? If you need new tires, bearings packed, brakes repaired, wiring replaced, now's the time.

Make new obstacles. It's surprising how much stuff gets thrown away on trash day that can be adapted to make an obstacle. Yes, it's good to recycle.

Plan your calendar for the year. Get your 4-H meetings set, llama and fiber show dates written down, due dates for new crias, and whatever else needs to be written down. Writing it all down or putting on the computer helps get things accomplished.

A great tool is a scale for weighing your llama or alpaca, just having access to one can be a great help. Accurate animal weights are important for injections, as well as judging the overall health of your animals. A baby scale is fundamental for evaluating cria growth, getting a cria to cush on scale is also a fun challenge.

One tool we can't do without is our restraining chute. We use it for injections, shearing, nail clipping, weighing, and for general health checks and body scoring. A chute cab be made out of lumber, adapting some plans that can be found on the internet.

Automatic waterer are well worth the money but check them every day to make sure they are working properly. These waterer also have a heat coil so plug them in when the weather is below 30 degrees.

Examine your animal's dung pile. Look for diarrhea, a change in texture or color in any of the piles. Maybe one of your animals has a problem. Anything out of the ordinary, get a sample and have your vet do a fecal floatation analysis.

Smell your animal's breath. We all know the ruminant smell, if you smell something out of the ordinary, call your vet.

Be very aware of your herd. Llamas hide their problems. Watch for abnormal activity and behavior. Look for anything out of the normal, analyze it and find out if it can be corrected. If an animal's personality changes, they seem distant, they don't eat, or don't look right, start with a body check, take the animal's temperature and get their weight. If they don't feel right, have a fever, or have lost weight, call the vet. If nothing is obvious but you still feel uncomfortable about your animal's health, call your vet.

Realize that death is something that happens quickly for llamas. The goal is to be proactive (you notice "call the vet" is mentioned often) but it is inevitable you will have problems in our herd. Plan to stay one step ahead of illness by being constantly aware.