Last week we got a female alpaca in our practice with a cria of 1 day. The cria was very weak, wouldn't drink. So we gave him some tubefeeding. After three times his state of happiness wasn't any better. Still sleepy and very tired. Looked like if he had trouble with breathing.
Hmmm.... Futher clinical examination. --> Auscultation of the heart gave a big souffle - like a steammachine....
Something wrong with his heart / circulation. We decided (with the owner) that evening that we euthenase him. We did a pathology-investigation on him. What did we found?
A tetralogy of Fallot! Never heard of it in an alpaca. Wooooo ... Still learning.
The cria had an ventrikel septum defect, an extisting right aorta and the muscle of his right ventrikel were even bigger then of his left ventrikel.
Ok. We search on the internet. It was mentioned that they found some. No relation could be made to the stud or the female (mother).
A alpaca with this heartcondition has no chance of survival.
See you...,
Leo
Our SD-card of of Madrid crashed (o, no...). So we have no pictures left. Please send us some of your pictures (dear readers and Madrid congress visitors).
