The Trouble with Crias

Yesterday afternoon I delivered one of our recently sold juvenile males to his new home. It's a great place and I was happy he was going to be with 2 other boys that had come from our farm, not with a bunch of "strangers". I was also happy he would be with a great couple just starting out with alpacas who fell in love with him the minute they saw him. All was fine when he was delivered. He found his friends and seemed content with them. He had 3 other alpacas, a goat and a dog to play with and lots of nice green pasture. I left after we had all decided he liked his new home.

9:30pm I got a frantic phone call from the lady. The little guy I had dropped off earlier had been attacked by the dog! He was bleeding all over and she didn't know what to do. Trying to remain calm, I asked if she had called the vet yet. She hadn't, so I told her to hang up, call the vet, and I would be there as fast as I could. I was just over an hour away so I packed up all of the first aid supplies I had and hit the road, trying not to speed.

By the time I reached her the vet had been there and left. The alpaca had puncture wounds all over his body and was (not surprisingly) very shaken up. I could see him sigh when he saw my familiar face and heard my voice. The vet had cleaned him up, given him a shot of antibiotics and steroids and given them directions to try to keep him calm as the stress could kill him but he didn't feel his wounds were life-threatening. The lady was very upset, feeling it was her fault. Her beautiful little boy was hurting and could die. As we sat in the barn trying to soothe our sweet baby a storm blew up outside. It seemed appropriate. When he seemed settled and began to eat a little I felt sure he would make it so I gave the lady a hug and headed home to a worrisome night of no sleep.



The next morning when I dragged myself outside to feed my alpacas I was still worrying about the young male. As I approached the girls pasture something yellow caught my eye laying out in the field. My bloodshot eyes couldn't ascertain what it could be until one of my juvenile girls came running up at top speed looking like this.....

Never in my life have I laughed so hard. That is giant fly paper that we use in our shelters. She had unraveled an entire roll and it was stuck to her fleece from head to toe. She had wrapped it around her mouth and couldn't eat. It covered one of her eyes and held down both of her ears.

While I was unsticking the fly paper I got a phone call saying our little boy had made it through the night and was well on his way to recovery.

That's the trouble with crias. They make you laugh, they make you cry and I wouldn't have it any other way.