# Colostrum may not be the only way to get antibodies...



## hallsthirdacrefarm (Mar 30, 2011)

Very interesting:

We had a llama who never produced enough colostrum, and its quality was poor. She always delivered early, before antibodies were present in what little colostrum she produced. My veterinarian suggested giving her premature babies blood plasma, the part of the blood which contains the antibodies. She brought the equipment, took 500 ml of blood from the mother and I let it sit undisturbed n the refrigerator until the clear plasma portion separated (overnight). She returned the next day to give it intravenously to the valuable baby. We did IgG (antibody) tests on the baby's blood before and after giving the plasma to monitor her condition. She had no antibodies before the transfusion, but afterward she had plenty. It worked like a charm.
Giving the plasma intravenously (IV) was necessary because the gut of a newborn begins to close two hours after birth. By the time we could administer plasma, the baby's gut would not have absorbed any antibodies, so we needed to deliver the antibodies directly into her blood stream. Antibodies are large molecules, and the newborn gut can only absorb them from the stomach into the blood for up to 24 hours following birth. The optimum antibody absorption time is 2 hours, then the ability to absorb antibodies delines rapidly.
Some of the plasma was left over. The vet said to freeze it for oral use, just like colostrum, if we had future llama baby who needed it. Plasma can be given orally if it is given soon after birth, on the same timing principles as colostrum. Plasma only needs to be given intravenously if the animal is approaching or over 24 hours old.
Unlike colostrum, plasma should not be heat treated to neutralize CAE antibodies. Doing so might destroy good antibodies. Only disease-free animals should be plasma donors because it is possible to introduce disease this way to a newborn. Any disease-free goat can be used as a plasma donor, not just the mother.

see http://kinne.net/plasma.htm for more & maybe talk to your vet if you find yourself with a kid who did not get mom's colustrum in time...Blood plasma makes sense...


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## Scottyhorse (Feb 11, 2013)

Very interesting!


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## ksalvagno (Oct 6, 2009)

There are 2 llama farms that hyper vaccinate their llamas and then pull blood and sell the plasma. We used to do transfusions a lot in alpacas.


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## jackiesme (Oct 16, 2013)

Thanks, good to know.


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