All I can say is “WOW” what an experience! Our big day was finally here and we were all so full of joy and anticipation as we waited for the transport to pull in. Since we live in West Texas it is very flat and you can see for miles. We spotted the transport rig coming down the street and everyone was whooping and hollering and so excited to finally have all of our babies home with us. We had five boys already here and this transport was bringing the rest, 6 alpaca girls (4 pregnant), 5 alpaca males, 3 Llama girls (2 pregnant) and 1 Llama male.
Once the transport was backed up to the gate, which of course, felt like an eternity even though it was a matter of minutes, we were ready to begin unloading our babies. Everyone was standing up and they looked as excited as we were.
Our transporter started haltering the girls up first and the unloading began. The first three girls came out and into their pen and started to graze right away. It was such a wonderful sight to see. Needless to say I started tearing up because I was so happy after all of the hard work we had put into our ranch the moment had finally arrived. The transporter had the next three girls haltered and ready to unload so we were off again to bring them in. All of them unloaded so great and walked right along with us. As we unhooked the leads they walked out to join the other girls and then the worse thing happened!
Susy Creamcheese started walking like she was drunk! We all stopped dead in our tracks to watch her for a minute. We thought that maybe she had been cushed the whole ride and just had to work it out. She is one of our pregnant females. As we watched her go across the pasture it started to look a little better and then suddenly she just went down. We all ran out to her and she was shaking. Our first thought was to call the vet which we did before anything else. We then were able to get her up long enough to get her in the barn. We put fans on her right away even though we doubted heat stress because the transport was air conditioned and also had fans.
We are so grateful to Mitch Ramsey of Camelid Express and to Susan Frank of Dusty Creeks Ranch for walking us through a very terrifying moment. We gave her a dose of probios and Mitch suggested that our vet bring out some Thiamine. Once our vet arrived, in short order, he started an IV, gave a Thiamine shot and a small sedative so she could relax. By later that evening our Susy was much better. We have done a three day regime of Thiamine and probios and she is up and out in the pasture eating, drinking and all bodily functions are in great working order. She has access to a pen inside of the barn any time she needs it and she loves to come in to visit when we are in there.
So, to make this long story wind down we had a very exciting, scary and humbling experience on our first full day having all of our babies home. Susy had a Thiamine Deficiency. It was as simple and as complicated as that.
