A lot has happened since the last message...

A flashback..., no not the alpacastud Flashback!

A few good cria were born last month. No problems what so-ever...

Yesterday we had our first show. We had never shown our animals because we thought we only wanted to show winning material.

And so we did. CME Lysander ET became Grand Champion Beige / Fawn at the Germany West-show in Krefeld. And his halfsister became first in her class.

The competion was hard in every class. Almost all alpacas had extreme quality. If you see the progress which has been made in the last three years at shows in the Benelux and Germany...! It is unbelieveble - lots of excellent imports were done... Now we will have to breed the same quality ourselves (that will be more difficult than buying a excellent animal).

Of the six classes in Krefeld - three were won by the Dutch (that does say something about the progress there's made in the last year). 1 class was won by a college (DVM) from Belgium and two classes (and the Supreme Champion) were won by one and the same farm from Germany.

We were totally happy - 2 alpacas - 2 first in class and 1 Grand Champion. What better start with our showteam could we wish......

THEN CAME THIS HORRIBLE MORNING! Arunvale Wasaki. One of our best females was down in the field. She couldn't get on her feet. Her colour was pale. She had lost a lot of blood or was getting into a shock. Immediate action was taken. In 10 minutes we had a bag of blood from one of the donors (by Marieke and Gemma). In the meantime Mandy and me (Leo) were getting Wasaki on a car/tractor out of the field. We tried to gave her the bloodtransfusion and something against the anafylactic shock which sometimes occur.

After half an hour she gave up. Leaving us devestated (with a half empty bag of blood) behind. What happened here??? Saterday she looked a little bit slower, but she ate very well. She had a good weight (67 kg) last week. She was treated against coccidia with Vecoxan and furthermore she got panacur-pills (fenbendazole) and Levamisole (injections) against worminfections over the last few weeks...

No price at a show makes this lost ok!

Probably it was an aneurisma or another kind of bleeding in her belly. Ulcera? Torsi of the Uterus? We would like to get an object pathologic finding, so we brought her to dr. Dorresteijn which is known for his good diagnosis in alpacadeaths in The Netherlands and Belgium. We could have done it ourselves, but I was to emotional to do it right (and we are not specialized in pathology).

We hopefully hear something tomorrow of dr. Dorresteijn.

What a bloody shame and a f...... waste. Whithin 3 months after importing her to The Netherlands she died. She was the mother of Quickstep who won her class yesterday and she was carrying another Jaquinto cria. When shit happens, it happens very shit!!!

So this were the emotions of the last few days - from totally happy till broken down... Fortunatly we have other girls / boys for our 2010 showteam. WE WILL BE BACK! BETTER AND STRONGER!!!

Thanks for the lovely mails from our alpacafriends we already recieved. It is still a great happy (alpaca) family in The Netherland, Belgium, Germany and the UK. It seems to me that it is important to share information with our alpacafriends so we can all learn something from these sort of horrible deaths...

We will try to post a newsletter on a veterinary topic (of alpacas) every week from now.

Wishing you and your alpacas good health...,

Leo van Merwijk (DVM)

Alpacas of the Lowlands

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New born female cria

AOL Avalon


Her mother is AOL Eline and her father is CD (Alpaca-farm Carpe Diem)-U2

Notice the floppy ear. See earlier articles






Have a nice weekend,
Leo




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Lysander - second place at fleece show

Last weekend CME Lysander ET fleece became second in Burgstädt (Germany). Promising a good future for him because his actual fleece is much better then last year.... Tim Hey (Inca Alpaca) was the judge.

See 3th Ost show of Germany
http://www.alpaka-show.de/

and the weblog of this show
http://alpaka-show.spaces.live.com/

Another good result on his (Lysanders) record. Up to Krefeld (in November).

Good weekend,
Leo

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Three pregnant ladies?

At the right of this photo our first female (she is dead) with two of her sons. She was peruvian, and did have a really nice fleece.

















At the moment we have three pregnant ladies who should / could "collaps" every minute. Maybe the most difficult for us with a very busy life (as a vet) to keep an eye on these girls.

The little boy with the FTT is a little better after 2 iron injections and every day injection with an NSAID (Non steroid Anti Inflammentory Drug). This is also against the pain. We saw him standing / scraping his teeth.... - an indication of pain. I (Leo) suspect him also that he has developed some stomach-ulcers... I didn't treat him for it. First see what the other injections will do.

Had some serious questions about buying alpacas last few days... We did mention some farms, but I get the notice that my advice is doing nothing, ha, ha... We have no interess in selling our own animals at this moment (or you must be interested in some Coburger Fuchs sheep, ha, ha...).
So again: Our advice is freely and independent! We don't get any money from any alpacafarm. We don't have any benifit from our advice. We like to help people to get a really "good start" with their new herd. You can ask us for free for advice (for us it is just a hobby with an huge H - an expression of Marieke). But certainly it is your decision from who you will buy the alpacas. I hope you don't make the same mistakes as we did when we started... It is remarkeble to see that so many people in Holland wants to buy quality alpacas.

Makes it more difficult for us to win some prices in the future, ha, ha....!

We sent Lysanders (our "super" future stud) fleece to germany for a show. We will see. I'll keep you informed.

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Immunoproblems in alpacas

....................... and bloodsamples

Photo: Bloodsamples taken of an alpaca suspected of FTT Bata4en - Vet - Lab. (micr. 10 x 40)

As a mentioned before: There are a lot of immunoproblems in alpacas. You can categorise them in three groups:

1. IDS / Immunodeficiency syndrome
2. FPT / Failure of Passive Transfer (see article IgG)
3. FTT / Failure to Thrive

The last; FTT was new for me. But now I have such an animal in my own herd.

The symptoms. The cria is growing normally til the moment of weaning. After that period the cria will loose weight. Most owners think it is because of the weaning. IgG-levels are mostly in a normal range (above 800 mg/dl). Futher studies on bloodlevels give a very low rate of iron and an anemic animal (very low RBC / red blood cel count). When the IgG level is low the prognosis is almost infaust - or at least very bad...

Most of them (but not all) will have very low thyroxine levels in their blood.

It is often first noticed at an age of 6 months. The alpaca is staying behind in growth. It is recommended that a treatment is started immidiatly after diagnosed.

Treatment:

Ironinjections / every 7 - 10 days.

T4 - supplement (orally) hormons

Hyperimmuneplasma should be administred

Multivitamins and selenium in feeding

-----------------

Prognose 30 - 40% of the animals will die. It seems to be NON - hereditary! Females who will recover have normal crias.

We can test your animals within several minutes for their IgG Hematocriet and T4 levels. Let us know when you expect such a problem... You can also ask your vet to contact us.

Many greetings and a nice day to you,

Leo

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Hip problems

Last week I saw a patiënt with a locomotionproblem. It looks like it has a hipproblem (dysplasia). He walks the same like a dog with HD. We did some research in our literature, but their is nothing documented on this subject in alpacas.

So if anybody have any information on this subject, please e-mail... info@bata4en.nl

Photo: Heupdysplasia in a dog / source: www.bata4en.blogspot.com

Thanks,

Leo

P.S. "Yes we will take some X-ray, but probably the cria is too young at the moment".

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Today we picked up three girls. They were at alpaca farm Carpe Diem for matings.... Yvonne and Jan showed us some sons of Chieftain (a australian stud which is own by a former Dutchman Michiel de Reeper). One of them was really great. Only 3 months old and standing as a real CHIEF.

I hope the girls are pregnant! One of the litte cria is becoming really great... Her father is Classical Ikon. Personally I wasn't charmed by this stud, but Marieke made a good desission with Ikon.

Yvonne and Jan - thank you for taking good care of our girls.

On the photo: Last cria born (with floppy ears). It is sign of "early birth". Plasma should be used - Ask for the newsletter for more information.

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Twitter

http://twitter.com/leovanmerwijk

Also on twitter....

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IgG and alpacas

Immuno globulin G

IgG is one of the antibodies which have all living animals / humans... Antibodies are trying to keep you from sickness. Alpacas are born with very low levels of IgG. They will get their IgG by colostrum... It is therefore important when the mare has no milk or the cria won't suckle IgG is given to the cria.

IgG can easy be won by plasma (blood without cells) from an alpaca of your herd.

It is possible that we measure the IgG level of your alpaca. When the IgG level is low or stays low it can be necessary to give your alpaca some plasma. Sometimes that means months after the cria is born. Otherwise your alpaca will have healthproblems at the first year of age.

You can contact us for measuring your alpaca/cria bloodsample for IgG-level.

Or just mail us for our first newsletter (nr. 1) which is about ALPACA / CRIA / PLASMA

info@bata4en.nl

Greetings, Leo

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New corrals from the US

We bought two corrals from the United States. They are very light and easy to transport.

The two little females from England were in today. Nice at the gras of the garden to our house (sight from our kitchen).

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