# Alpaca had a fit



## katiescarlett (May 20, 2013)

Anyone own alpacas?

My male, Hoppy, was a bit placid this morning but I wasn't thinking too much of it. Anyway, I caught him by myself (bit unusual) to give him his wormer, and he sat down to have it (really unusual).

After I gave him the wormer I was checking his body weight, toenails, etc when he flopped onto his side and had a fit. He attempted to get up, and lost his legs so fell over. I gave him space for a moment and when he stopped fitting I propped him back into a sitting position. He has since stood up again, had a drink and is eating hay. I've put him & the girls in the day yard/shed so 1. Can keep them quiet & an eye on them and 2. Keep them away from a toxin - if that's what this is. 

It is Sunday here and after hours. My local vet is closed so I did some calling around and FINALLY got to speak to a vet about it. She is over an hour away and baby sitting sick horses so cannot come. She said she will definitely come if he fits again but it is hard as she's on her own today. She said she can come tomorrow to run some bloodwork and see what to do from there - she was really helpful, tended to think it was due to a toxin as well. 

We treat them for worms and this is the same wormer we always use, so I don't think he had a reaction because of that. We thought maybe tick, snake or another toxin. He was drooling a bit, but stopped, and has very watery eyes. 

If anybody has any thoughts I'd love to hear. It looks like I'm a little limited in what I can do until regular vet hours but there might be something I'm not thinking of. 

Sorry if my typing isn't great - I'm on the iPad and I'm not too good with this keyboard.


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## Serenity Woods (Apr 2, 2012)

Do you have any activated charcoal you could give him? That's often helpful for toxins.


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## katiescarlett (May 20, 2013)

Not handy, but I'll get some - thank you


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## ksalvagno (Oct 6, 2009)

What do you mean by have a fit? Have you seen any back end weakness? I would start with checking him over thoroughly for ticks or snake bite.


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## katiescarlett (May 20, 2013)

Sorry - yes, like a seizure. 

I initially thought it was a paralysis tick when his legs gave out, but he's been walking around on them okay since. 

We checked for a snake bite & ticks but could not see anything - I'm not 100% confident I'd find it through the fleece on his body, but I checked and felt him all over and got my dad to do the same.

I checked on him about 15 mins ago. He still isn't looking very good but he's sitting upright. 

I got him as a cria. He was delivered to us and his mum had stepped on him in transit, breaking his leg. We were told we'd probably have to put him down but we got his leg fixed up. I need him to pull through tonight so I can get him down to the vet in the morning.


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## ksalvagno (Oct 6, 2009)

Do you have Banamine? I would get some Banamine into him. I would also get some B Complex into him.


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## katiescarlett (May 20, 2013)

Thanks - vet came out and said it looks like polioencephalomalacia. Not going to say that three times fast.

He gave him a shot of thiamine, I have to inject him again at 10pm, 10am tomorrow and 10pm tomorrow. 

He also took bloods so that if I'm not seeing improvement he can run some other tests.


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## ksalvagno (Oct 6, 2009)

I hope he does ok for you. Good luck!


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## katiescarlett (May 20, 2013)

He's regained some eyesight (as far as I can tell) and he's walking about a bit. Fingers crossed!!!


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## animalcowgirl (May 28, 2013)

Good luck!


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## Trickyroo (Sep 26, 2012)

Wow , good luck with him !

Keep us posted.


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## katiescarlett (May 20, 2013)

Hi All,

I have some sad news. On the third day of treatment Hoppy appeared to improve, he was standing and I felt as though he had _some _vision. Later that day he was back in a cush and didn't respond to anything visual. He started to have diarrhea as well.

The vet prescribed a second round of treatment, some antibiotics and scourban, but unfortunately Hoppy passed away last night/this morning :tear:


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## TwirlAndTweak (May 1, 2013)

I'm so sorry!  What a handsome boy he was.


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## Amyhis (May 4, 2013)

Sorry to hear about your alpaca....


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## Trickyroo (Sep 26, 2012)

Im very sorry :hug:


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## MrsCountryChick (Dec 27, 2010)

Awe SOOO Sorry to hear!  I lost my Big Guy last week.....My Llama Pasquale. :mecry: We got him as an adult so by our "guess" he was atleast 10yrs old. I trained him to do Sooooo many commands, I'm already missing him Happily greeting me at the fence line daily! He used to give kisses, I taught him the command "gimme kiss"...he'd wiggle his lips on my cheek, then I'd say "gimme another kiss" & he'd wriggle his lips on my other cheek! We all LOVED him DEARLY!!! Sad to loose such a Wonderful animal that was Well Loved!....I feel your pain.  :hug:


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