A close call

This fall we had a close call with one of our girls, "Kiana".

We had flights booked to visit family in Alberta for a Thursday morning in late November.

While doing morning chores on the Wednesday morning, I noticed Kiana had a bit of a cough. It didn't seem bad, so I didn't think much about it.

We arrived home late that evening from the city (10:30 pm is late for us) and while doing the chores noticed that Kiana's condition had worsened. She was drooling, coughing, foaming at the mouth and appeared to be choking. Not at all in a good way.

What to do??? It's now 11 pm and too late to call another breeder in our area, so we called the breeder whom we purchased her from in Alberta. With the time difference in the west it was early enough there.

They had not had experience with alpacas choking, however had known someone who had in the past, but the outcome was not good. This was not encouraging news, and he offered to call his vet for a solution.

In the meantime, Kiana and baby had left the confines of the barn and had trudged through about a foot of wet snow in the black of night to the far side of the 5 acre pasture. Now, alpacas have very strong attachments to the herd, and when one goes off along it can mean bad things.

While I am conferring on the phone, Rob is busy trying to get Kiana on her feet and back to the barn. No go, she is not having any part of this idea.

At about midnight, I place a call to the vet, whom it turns out I have woken up. He had returned from a call about an hour previously, and had just fallen asleep. I apologize profusely and he agrees to come out.

On the news that the vet would soon arrive, I went to assist Rob with Kiana who is still not willing to move. We get the tractor and with the snow blower, clear a path across the pasture. It takes the two of us to lift Kiana onto a small utility trailer and transport her unceremoniously back to the barn, with baby walking behind and humming all the way.

The vet arrived during the parade to the barn and helped us get her out of the trailer.

Step one was to give her a sedative, after which she stopped breathing altogether. We moved her around a bit, and the breath came back.

Step two was to gently insert a tube down the throat all the way to the stomach, a long way in an alpaca.

Step three was to run some water down the throat to try to clear any blockage, remove the tube and see what happens.

It wasn't too long before Kiana came around enough that we were able to get her into a stall and resting comfortably for the night.

Timeline: 1:00 am. We decide we have done all we can for the night, thanked the vet and returned to the house. We now realize we have some additional chores to do before our morning departure.

We collapse into bed at about 2 am, knowing that we must rise at 5 to get to the airport on time. Five came around very quickly, and on my way to the barn for morning chores I steeled myself for the possibility of a dead alpaca. Fortunately all was fine, Kiana was tired but resting well.

Over to the boy's side, only to find Pirelli was missing! After a few minutes I found him on the back side of the fence, (he had gone under it) wondering how to get back. I had to detach the fence and open it up for him to return to the barn.

Whew! chores are complete.

I return to the house at about the time we should be in the car and leaving for the airport. A quick check on the flight revealed that it will be about 20 minutes late departing. Thankfully time for a fast shower.

We did make the flight on time, and Kiana has fully recovered from her adventure.