Message from the President,March proved to not be a very productive month for the board. Conflicting schedules, me out of town half the month and everyone preparing for the Virginia Classic got in the way. The board will get back to business in April. Discussion topic for April will be llama AMLA registration fees for non-AMLA members. We will be discussing the feasibility of charging non-members a slightly higher registration fee than members. If you have an opinion we would love to hear your thoughts. Our Annual Meeting is just around the corner. Where: AmericInn, Webster City, When: Friday April 29, 2011 (night before Heartland show starts) We only have one meeting a year so if at all possible please try and attend even if you are not planning on showing at the Heartland show. If you are not able to attend please forward any ideas, comments, concerns etc that you would like addressed at the meeting to any board member. (Email links to all board members are to the right.) Remember, anyone may attend the meeting but only members may speak and vote so if your 2011 dues are not yet paid please do so right away. Annual Meeting agenda will be included in the April newsletter. News FlashLlamas coming into the state of Virginia no longer need TB test or blood work! Normal health certificate is all you will need for any show in the state. This includes next years Virginia Classic. Newsletter and Web SiteOver the course of the year send cria pictures and we will include them in the newsletter as space is available. Don't forget. AMLA newsletter advertising is free!! Send Pam a copy of your farm business card and we will include it in our next issue as well as all future issues. Our Web Site has become very stagnate. It is time for some NEW content. If you have any information, pictures or even a funny show story I would love to add it to our web site. Please forward anything you would like added to our web site to Pam. Virginia Classic show results will be posted soon. Sincerely, Upcoming Shows that include MinisHeartland Classic Llama & Alpaca Show Health regulations for the Heartland show - a regular health certificate, no TB test or blood work. Ozark Classic Llama & Alpaca Show Indy 400 and Indy 500 Llama Show If you know of any other shows please forward information to Pam to be included in our next issue. Virginia ClassicThe seventeenth annual Virginia Classic was held on March 12th & 13th. The weather was beautiful. There were several different events being held and turnout was good size. At the llama show the buzz word was “Toy llama” and who was the owner? At 29” small Ukulele made her show debut, throughout the weekend people stopped Gladys Moritz to admire her llama and get photos with the tiny “Toy”. Even in the show ring the judge couldn’t help but comment “This llama is as cute as a bug, it makes me want to have a miniature llama”!
Full show results is now on our web site.
What Every Llama Owner Needs To Know About Hair Balls!By Chela Grey, Stillpointe Sanctuary First of all, YES, llamas can get hair balls. These hair balls can be lethal. Last August we lost our lovely boy of 14 months, Royal, to what amounted to a giant hair ball. As llamas will do, he showed no real signs of anything being wrong until about two weeks before we took him to Pilchuck Veterinary Hospital in Snohomish, WAS, to find out why “all of a sudden” he was showing a lot of interest in food, but seemed not to be eating much. He would run for the hay and pellets, but lose interest after one or two swallows. He was also spending a lot of time at the poo pile with very scanty results. When this gentle soul, who had never spit (that I knew of) and was very mannerly around people, spit right in my face with no provocation whatsoever, I knew something was very wrong. Our vet a Pilchuck noticed immediately that Royal’s midsection seemed bloated – isn’t it amazing how we can miss such obvious things when we are around our llamas almost all the time – and asked the usual questions about eating and drinking and pooing habits. I filled her in on all I could and decided on a blood draw first. There was nothing out of the ordinary. Next came an ultrasound, which revealed a mass in the upper intestine right next to the third stomach compartment. Then an x-ray, which confirmed a solid appearing mass. By this time (two days into his hospital stay), Royal was in obvious discomfort. He tried several times to poo, and at best, could only product two or three “beans”. We had brought a buddy for him the second day to see if smelling another poo pile would help him and to give him a familiar face to keep him company. He did indeed “assume the position” when his buddy made the pile, but to no avail. It was quite obvious that Royal was very frustrated and more and more uncomfortable. The vet had been consulting on a daily basis with the doctors at the veterinary hospital at Washington State University. They reached a consensus and it was not good. With Royal’s behavior – he was now kicking at his tummy and humming a lot – the x-ray, ultrasound and hands-on exams, the logical next step would be abdominal surgery to attempt to remove the blockage. However, the prognosis for such a step was that it was almost certainly a futile attempt. The mass was so close to the third stomach chamber that to bring the intestine out to remove it would be next to impossible. If they were to attempt to remove the blockage within the abdominal cavity, it was 090.0% certain that bacteria would be released, resulting in peritonitis. Taking him home and attempting to break this blockage loose with the use of enemas, special liquid feeding (tubing) several times a day or leaving him in the hospital while the vets did all that was not only probably futile, but also a painful and difficult experience for Royal. And then of course there is always the cost. Even if we had unlimited funds, it was my opinion that putting the little guy through all that was terribly unkind. And so we opted to let him go over the Rainbow Bridge. We had a necropsy performed, and it was indeed an almost solid mass of llama hair interspersed with a very few hay seeds and strands. Of course, I kept asking what we could have done to detect this coming on, and the answer kept being “nothing that we know of ”. We were also told that this problem has begun to show up in young llamas more and more. No one is addressing it much because no one knows what to do about it, if anything. We were told not to blame ourselves. There was nothing we did or did not do that made any difference. Llamas, especially youngsters, love to run and chase and play with others. They like to nip at the other butts and chests practicing for being big guys fighting. Also, it may start with nursing. If the mom is not short-wooled or is not shorn in the spots where the cria goes after the milk, they can ingest hair that way. I know for certain, whenever I see hair in a llama’s mouth, I remove it! I also know that from now on, when one of our llamas is pregnant, we will shear her at least in the “armpits” so the baby won’t have to go through a “forest” to get to the milk bar. I also know I will never forgive myself for not being able to do something for that beloved, beautiful boy. Originally printed in LANA News, Autumn 2010.
|
Contact Us:*|HTML:LIST_ADDRESS_HTML|*
Lavinia & Alan Stevens
AMLA's Newsletter editor and Web Master is Pam Fink.
|
||||
|
view email in browser | unsubscribe | update your profile | forward to a friend |
|||||
Connect with us:
AMLA web site