Alpaca Articles

The Joys of Unpacking.

The unpacking season is always exciting, the culmination of a year’s efforts, not only for the dams concerned. What will the mating choices made all those months ago result in? Will the crias carry the desired qualities in their fleeces, temperaments, and even their health traits? Much of this is revealed in the final act of the pregnancy - birthing.

Unpacking normally happens without incident which is fortunate as it often starts without warning and the first an owner knows is that there is an extra head in the paddock, or in the case of one of our crias this year, in a dry stream bed! There is, however, quite some variation in the process. On our farm, we have had a dam go into labour and by the time I had fetched the birthing kit, the cria was on the ground. Another dam paused labour for half an hour with the cria dangling, ate lunch, and then expelled the cria like a champagne cork, whilst another slightly overweight dam took almost three hours. The challenge for an alpaca owner is identifying when things are actually going pear-shaped during unpacking. In my early days of breeding, I have to admit to making a number of calls to fellow breeders for reassurance when a dam deviated from a ‘textbook delivery’ - their range catching me out. In all cases though, a healthy cria resulted, and the dam’s and my blood pressure returned to normal.

This year, we had our first real problem. Illini was spotted in the first stage of labour in one corner of the nursery paddock. She showed the typical symptoms of frequently going to the poo-midden without much effect, humming and behaving in an atypical way for her. It was her fourth cria so we did not expect her to have any difficulty in birthing so I wandered back to the house to collect the birthing kit, half expecting to find a cria on the ground by the time I got back. On my return, I found the cria’s head and one forelimb dangling so I sat down a little way from her and waited for the second leg to appear. What I saw when Illini strained was the cria emerging further, but when the contraction finished, it slipped back inwards and there was no sign of the second leg. This was clearly wrong, so I contacted the vet. Most alpaca owners will agree that issues only occur ‘out-of-hours’, and so it was here. It took a few minutes for the vet to call back, and almost his first question was, “Is the cria still alive?”. I told him “Yes!” and he came right away. The cria was certainly alive, grunting and snorting as he/she dangled.

The vet arrived and we were quickly in the paddock where a quick examination showed that Illini had made no progress. Although the vet had assisted a number of lambs in the same situation, this was his first alpaca. But with plenty of lubrication and some manipulation, the cria was extracted quickly and lay on the ground recovering. Alpacas seem to know when they are in trouble and Illini’s behaviour was perfect - I barely had to hold her.

After a brilliant job, the vet departed and Illini passed the placenta an hour later. Although the cria wriggled on the ground, he was very slow to kush as he seemed exhausted by the difficult labour. A small bottle of glucose solution (guzzled down!) followed by colostrum fixed this, but it did take him several hours to recover. The photo taken two days later shows ‘Mocca’ in the foreground - a big and very bouncy boy, along with a paddock-mate, Kamal. If there is anything to be learned here, it’s probably that owners should try to be present during unpacking. Birthing difficulties cannot be predicted and as told here, human intervention can save the day, for both dam and cria.

Going back to the slightly overweight dam that took almost three hours to birth, she was so exhausted by the protracted labour that she was completely confused and promptly sat on her cria. This too could have ended badly but I was there to make her immediately stand up and keep watch on both until she recovered.

To conclude, the unpacking season should be a reminder of the unpredictability of a successful delivery. Each new cria is not only the result of careful planning but a result of quick thinking in those moments when things don't go according to plan.

Facial Eczema.

If there is only one article here that you read and act on, I hope it is this one. Facial eczema is a very serious but avoidable disease that affects sheep, cattle, goats and especially llamas and alpacas. It is especially prevalent in New Zealand but also known in other countries. Alpacas should have a healthy lifespan of 15-20 years so preventing them from being affected by FE is vital.

The facial eczema season starts in early January. The disease is caused by a toxin contained in the spores of a fungus that grows on dead grass in the paddocks. Growth begins after several days of warm humid weather with night time temperatures of over 13°C, especially with rain, heavy dews or high relative humidity. The fungus can then start growing and producing spores on the ground-level decaying grass leaves.

When eaten by animals, the spores release their toxin into the gut which causes severe liver and bile duct damage. Eventually this leads to an irritating photo-sensitization of the skin which the animal tries to relieve by persistent rubbing of its head against objects (e.g. fences, trees). This causes swelling and peeling of the skin, especially around the eyes and on the jaw and ears. They may also show restlessness, urinate frequently, shake, have drooping ears and swollen eyes and seek shade to avoid sunlight. Unfortunately, by the time these symptoms are seen, damage to the liver has already happened.

Veterinary assistance is absolutely essential in treating affected animals.

Detection.

Counting spore numbers is a reasonable indicator of how toxic the grass in a paddock would be if eaten. There are many commercial and local veterinary services available for doing spore counts and they will explain how you should take the samples. The bagged grass samples are returned to them for sending on to the testing laboratory. Local area spore counts may be available at feed stores and vet practices. Aggregated counts for areas nationwide can be viewed on the Gribbles Veterinary website during the FE season. The graphs shown are real-time and indicate when the spore counts are climbing.

Counts in excess of 30,000 spores/g sample are regarded as hazardous to all stock. The peak of the spore counts is usually in March/April though the magnitude and exact timing will vary with seasonal conditions.

It should be noted that spore counts are highly variable between farms in the same vicinity, between paddocks at the same farm and even within a paddock. Effectively, this means that local spore counts can be taken as a guide but alpaca owners must carefully time their protective measures to ensure the health of their animals.

Even if you are unable to take spore count samples, it may be assumed that the FE season starts early in the New Year on the North Island and your preventative measures should have already started.

Protecting your alpacas.

There are four parts to achieve the best protection for your animals.

1. Preventing growth of the fungus
   Spraying paddocks with fungicides - ideally, this should be done before the start of the season as the fungicide kills only the fungus cells and not spores already produced. Thiabendazole sprays have been shown as effective in reducing spore production throughout the facial eczema season. Your vet or farm supply store can advise on the appropriate product and application method. Alpacas may graze the sprayed paddock only after a number of days as specified in the product description. The treatment provides a level of protection for around 6 weeks unless there is significant rainfall. Reapplication of the fungicide to each paddock will be necessary and taking samples for spore counts will indicate when the protection is fading.
2. The topping of pastures
   This should be avoided during the FE season as it increases the amount of dead plant matter at ground level in the pasture.
3. Reducing exposure to the toxin.
   
   • If possible, rotate your alpacas around paddocks that have good growth on them.
   • Grazing to low level must be avoided. Paddocks with minimal remaining grass should be closed off until good regrowth has occurred. Heavy rain helps by washing spores into the ground.
   • Alternative feedstuffs should be freely available during the danger periods, especially good quality hay as they reduce the proportion of paddock grazed material. Chaff, haylage and silage can also be used if your alpacas are familiar with them.
4. Minimising toxin damage.
   Zinc supplementation can be used for effective protection against the toxin. In practical terms, zinc oxide in alpaca nuts (kibble) is the only way of getting an alpaca to consistently consume enough zinc. Sacks of kibble formulated with additional zinc oxide are widely available from farm stores during the facial eczema season. Putting any zinc compound into the drinking water is pointless as alpacas drink too little each day for the zinc to be effective and the zinc has a bitter taste. Slow release boluses (Time Capsules) and oral zinc sulphate slurries must not be used for alpacas as potentially toxic levels of zinc may be absorbed.
   Given that it takes about two weeks for the blood zinc levels to rise to a protective state, the feeding of zinc-containing kibble is normally started by New Year. Introduction should be gradual - initially add some to normal alpaca nuts and steadily increasing the proportion over 7-10 days until the correct level is reached. Two grams of elemental zinc per 100 kg live weight per day is recommended by the feed manufacturers and scientific literature. This means 188g of zinc kibble should be fed to each 75 kg animal per day, ideally half in the morning and the the other half at an evening feeding. Always mix the kibble in with a generous handful of chaff to prevent any alpaca from choking.
   There are no studies with alpacas into the maximum dosing period so rightly or wrongly, the recommendation for sheep is followed - 100 days (14 weeks). However, a return to low numbers of paddock spores may not be reached until well over the 100 day dosing period, a reality that is likely to occur more often with climate change. When this happens, many owners will continue dosing. There is a risk of a mild but reversible side-effect due to the zinc though it is a much better scenario for your alpacas when compared with death through liver failure.

In an ideal world, every alpaca owner would use all of the above measures to prevent facial eczema. In reality, few owners of small numbers of animals on lifestyle blocks will have the equipment to spray their paddocks. Feeding zinc kibble is the most practical method and essential for these owners. For larger block owners, boom spraying fungicide is a viable option. All owners should manage points 2 and 3 above with alternative feeds such as hay being particularly valuable. If you have any questions concerns about FE, animal health or any other alpaca health matter, do seek advice from a vet.