ALPACA SKIN PROBLEMS:

THE MYTH, THE MITES, AND THE MUNGE

By Mike Safley

I remember slowly bending over and grasping the front leg of a 6-month-old white alpaca: It was 1994 and I was trimming toenails. An immediate feeling of panic leapt into my chest as I discovered a bloody puss between her toes: Could this be foot and mouth disease, I naively wondered? I immediately called my vet, Dr Jerilynn Booher, and we pondered the problem. The female in question also had infected ears, hair loss, and small, puss-infused pimples on her nose. (It was not foot and mouth disease.)

I made a trip to Peru shortly after my discovery of the puss-infected toes and as I was browsing through the used book section in a small bookstore off the main square in Arequipa, I found a slim, dog-eared volume on Andean livestock husbandry: Instituto Veterinario de Investigaciones Tropicales Y De Altura (Ivita), edited by Dr. Manuel Moro S. and Dr. Saul Fernández Baca, and published in 1966.  I opened the book to a page that contained the photograph seen below (Ex. A), which pictured a more advanced condition of what I had discovered on my female.

 

 

Find out more about treatment for your alpacas with skin problems. This alpaca article is written by Mike Safley, the owner and Northwest Alpacas farm. Northwest Alpacas Ranch has been breeding elite alpacas for more than fifteen years. Our farm is home to more than three hundred suri and huacaya alpacas.

Knoebel-Esperanza

Congratulations to Dixie Knoebel.  Esperanza gave birth to a beautiful bay black male cria today, sired by El Toro.

05-08-06 Ultrasound Report

05-08-06Ultrasound.pdf (324.16 KB)
Naming Your Alpaca

Hi Again,

You can name the animal anything you want as long as the name is not used / reserved with the ARI.

For example: if you wanted to register an animal as Harry Potter you could as long as no one else has used that name. (Number one name last year!)

If NWA wanted a harry potter, we could register as NWA Harry Potter and someone else can register say: TPA Harry Potter etc.

If Harry Potter was never registered with the ARI, then you could have us register him as just Harry Potter and when you paid off the contract (100% ownership), you can re-register with your herd identifier ***As long as they have never had a cria***. The cost today is $100 for the name change, paid to the ARI.

For example our Studmaster male IMPACT was originally registered as ERSTWHILE (so you can see why we changed the name, not very studly). If he had cria on the ground we would not be able to do this.

I hope this helps explain how our registry works. If you have any other questions let me know.

Fred Kraft
Northwest Alpacas
503-628-3110
[email protected]

04-24-06 Ultrasound Report
04-24-06Ultrasound.pdf (298.82 KB)
05-01-06 Ultrasound Report

05-01-06Ultrasound.pdf (512.81 KB)