Message from the President,Can you believe it, summer is half over!! So far it has been great for me, hope the same for you both personally and professionally. It seems like every spare minute has been spent in either the barns or the pastures cleaning, repairing, painting ect. It is so hot and dry here in the north Georgia mountains my pastures are sad. The girls (not so much the boys) poo in the barns all day long. No way they are going out in this heat just to poop and pee so guess what I am doing every evening! Oh well, enough complaining, life would be empty indeed without the llamas. The Board has taken most of the summer off preferring to do outdoor physical work instead of indoor paperwork. By fall we should be back to work. Sincerely, Heartland Show 2011By Darlene Awarski AMLA members traveled from many states to attend the annual AMLA meeting and to show their llamas. Georgia, Virginia, Kentucky, Illinois, Minnesota and Iowa were just some of the states represented. For the people that had been to this show before it was as they remembered, great people, good food and a friendly atmosphere. The overwhelming camaraderie is one of the finer elements of the show. After check-in, happy greetings, and hugs on Friday, the members gathered for the annual AMLA meeting. Dinner was hosted by Merle and Tami Mann which was a great time for members to meet and talk. The mini’s kicked of the show on Saturday. JNR Scarlet took grand champion female owned by Luminary Minis, and Little Sterling Silver took grand champion male, owned by Ken Awarski. The rest of the day was spent watching the show and socializing. Even though our president Pam Fink came without llamas, Mindy Jorpeland set her up with a loaner llama. Pam couldn’t resist joining in on the fun and participated in the jackpot. The day ended with a dinner and an auction. Thanks to everyone involved in such a well planned event.
The Gathering 2011By Phyllis Wilkerson The weekend of June 17th to June 19th was the 1st Annual International Gathering of Friends and Champions. 15 states were represented by the members of ILR, Colorado, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Texas, Washington and Wisconsin. 300 llamas were in the show ring and out of the 300 llamas 16 were mini's. 9 mini's were registered with AMLA and the AMLA members that were present were Merle Mann, Raven Dilley, Laura Harrawood, Shelle Johnson and Phyllis Wilkerson. After all the classes were completed on Saturday, the ILR-SD Committee had a free meal for all and dessert was S'mores! The Gathering will again be in Des Moines, Iowa on Father's Day week-end of next year so hope to see everyone at the next "Gathering"! Upcoming ShowsNorth Carolina Mountain State Fair Llama Show 2011 Pack Llama Festival
My Experience With a Heat Stressed Llama!By Phyllis Wilkerson One Friday morning, at 7:00 a.m. I went out to my llamas to do the usual chores and making sure everyone was comfortable for the days heat wave. Our heat wave in Southern Illinois was 95+ degrees with a heat index of anywhere between 105 and 110 for over 3 weeks. I made sure my girls in one barn had electrolytes, fans going, minerals and their area watered down. In my other barn I did the same for the boys. The boys barn is always cooler than the girls so I usually don't have to worry too much about them keeping cool. I had several things that needed to be done that day and finally had them completed by 6:30 in the evening. I went out to check on everyone and saw my one boys laying in the dust bowl. He didn't move and I knew something was wrong. I ran over to him, called his name and he tried picking up his head. I knew right then he had to be heat stressed. I rushed and got the water hose and ran water all over his body for over 30 minutes. I took his temperature and it was 107.5! I kept on watering him down hoping his temp would go down some, which it did not. I gave him a shot of Banamine, drenched him with electrolytes and a few minutes later drenched him with cool water. I also gave him a shot of B-Complex. At that moment it didn't really matter, but I figured what the heck. After about an hour I decided it was time to take him inside his stall since it was getting dark and a thunder storm was close. This male llama is 3 years old and weighs 200 lbs. I had to call my neighbors to help me get him in. The only thing I had to help get him inside was a sheet that I had in the barn. With 2 men on each side of my male, holding the sheet, another person holding his head and me at the rear we finally got him in the stall. We put him in the cushed position and he stayed that way. I drenched him with more electrolytes and fresh water. After the 2nd hour he was alert and seemed to be doing much better than he had been an hour before. After taking his temp for the 6th time it finally had gone down to 100.1. Ok, on the road to recovery......maybe! Just for the heck of it I put some minerals in my hand and he took it all. I kept on giving him the minerals until he decided he didn't want anymore. By midnight his temp had gone down to 95.8 and all I could think of was pneumonia setting in. Great! The next morning I went out to check on him and he was still alert, drank almost half of his water that I had sitting in front of him, but his temp was 96.4! I called the Vet Hospital and spoke to the Vet that was in charge. Explained to her everything that was going on and she said I did good. Then she asked me what antibiotics I had. All I had was LA-200. She was hoping I had something different but LA-200 was good enough. She told me to give him 9cc's every 3rd day, keep a water bucket in front of him, along with hay, minerals and electrolytes, turn the fan off while his temp is so low and also work with his legs. She said it may take him several days for him to get up but we would take each day as it comes. After the 6th day of him not getting up my husband put up pulleys so I could hoist him up to keep him clean and to work with his legs, hoping he would try to move on his own. The first time he was hoisted he did try to stand up. On the 8th day his temperature had fluctuated anywhere between 101 and 106. Now on the 9th day his temperature has stayed between 102 and 103. He stills drink quite a bit of water, eats his hay, takes his minerals, pees and poops like he should and I drench him with Gatorade. He's still not getting up on his own but I keep working on it. I've asked the Vet when will it be time to make that terrible decision to finally give up. I'm not going to give up until the Vet says it's time. I'm calling the Vet in the morning to give her an update and I'll see what her decision is. Hopefully the next time I write an update it will be good news!
Allowing Llamas to be LlamasBy Carol Reigh When I first got llamas, 15 years ago, I was coming from a horse background. I loved horses my entire life and even grew up with a horse. When we moved to the farm, the first thing I bought was a horse. However, the fields and land were too much for a single horse to maintain. We were mowing 8-10 hours a week. After volunteering to help my good friend and teaching colleague, Dale Goodyear, at a llama educational festival; I learned all about llamas. Hmm, they were cheap to maintain, neat, clean and would help mow the fields. We started out with 4 llamas. I had great difficulty, at first, allowing the llamas to be themselves. I kept expecting them to act like a horse – nuzzling me, coming over for a treat or rub on the nose. Everything changed when I finally wrapped my head around the notion that they, indeed, were llamas and had their very own sense of being and relating to the world around them. I needed to allow them to be aloof and eventually on their own time table they came around to trust me. Do they come over for some loving or attention? Some do but that is rare. Instead, they will allow me to walk past them either kushed down or standing, and steal a pat or rub without bolting out the door. They trust me and permit me to handle them. This should not be confused with young animals that have been bottle fed and improperly handled at a young age. Often these animals think that the human is another llama. The animal that follows you around like a dog, will have problems later in life. Trust is a huge factor in interacting with your llamas. They might not come over to be haltered like a horse, but they will accept the halter and readily go for a walk or into the chute. In fact, using clicker training with them a breeze and a ton of fun. It took me a little bit of time to also realize that they really should not be fed as much as a horse. With the little that they require in food (1.5% of their body weight), I was thinking I was starving them to death. It is important to keep in mind where they are originally from and the sparse pickings they have for food. I have heard it stated that “llamas sleep for 8 hours, chew their cud for 8 hours, and graze for 8 hours.” BUT here in the US where the fields are lush compared to South America, Dr. David Anderson once stated at a GALA conference that the llama only needs 1 hour of grazing in the US to achieve their nutritional requirements. Keeping that in mind,I found managing my animals weight to be a lot easier and guilt free on my part. Oh, yeah, that doesn’t stop them from always acting like they are starving to death. The key is to weigh them often or body score them regularly to know how well you are meeting their eating needs. Another, and perhaps the most important difference is their vetting needs. With a horse, I would often let a quirky limp or eating habit go for a day or two to see if it would straighten itself out. With llamas, since they are so stoic, if one is showing signs of not being normal, I act immediately and examine him or call the vet. They are incredible reserved when it comes to pain so if an animal is showing signs of being “off.” acting on it right away could save his/her life. So next time you expect your llama, husband, wife, child or friend to be something they are not, remember to accept them the way God created them and you both will be happy! |
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Lavinia & Alan Stevens
AMLA's Newsletter editor and Web Master is Pam Fink.
Toby is a proven male. He has many Grand & Reserve Champion Trophy's and has great cria's all have fine or silky fleeces. Toby has cria's that place in Reserve Champion, 1st and 2nd place. Cria's like The Chief, Fantasy, and Dustie Rose. If you want to see some of his fiber or Fantas's fiber let Bill Fisher know & he will send you some. Asking $1,000.00 but will take $750.00 right now. |
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The Gathering was located at the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines and what a nice facility! Large and spacious for the llamas and for their humans! Old friends were reacquainted and new friends were made! 
Troy and his first llama
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