Llama with Tick Paralysis!

Post date: Oct 20, 2010 12:39:45 PM

Sweet Dreams’ Saga: August 16-27, 2010

(or the Llama Drama at the UTCVM)

August 16, 2010: Monday morning when we went out to feed the llamas, Sweety wouldn't get up. So we tried to get him up and he can't move. Call vet and she's on vacation. Call University of Tennessee College of Veterinary Medicine and they say bring him in..sounds like Meningeal worm (a worm that attaches to the spinal chord and can cause paralysis and normally death.)

We stuff a tarp under him and the boys lift, haul, stop, drag, lift and get him into the trailer for transport to the UT School of Veterinary Medicine Hospital for Large Animals. Red Baron goes along, because they need that companionship. Especially if one is sick.

Monday they give him an IV in his neck and rehydrated him with fluids. They said he was severely dehydrated. Evidently he became paralyzed earlier in the day on Sunday and hadn’t had anything to drink in a long while. He goes into shock and they have to administer anti-shock fluids through his IV. They took many blood samples. They start the treatment for meningeal worm just in case. The only way to see if he has that disease is with a spinal fluid sample, of which they tried and couldn't get any fluid. He’s very, very sick, they say.

August 17, 2010: Tuesday, still not up. Eating well. Acting sickly though. The blood tests all came back negative for any other disease they could think of. But he still can't get up. So they float him in a tank of water and he can move his legs if there's no weight on them. Not very well, but he can. There is a treadmill on the bottom of said 'float tank' and they make him walk a bit every day (physical therapy for llamas). The UT Vet hospital is amazing. So many LARGE animals (steer, horses, pigs, goats, llamas) all being treated for varies maladies.

August 18, 2010: Wednesday, still not up. Not eating. The vet (Dr. Gomez) says llamas don't have any desire to live if they're sick and usually die within 72 hours. I go in on Wednesday afternoon and bring his own food and snacks from home. He eats right out of my hand. They've shaved him because they don't want his wet fiber to keep him too cool after his float tank therapy. Oh, and to get him to therapy they have to haul his 185 pound lameness to a large yard cart and wheel him down to therapy at the other end of the hospital. He loves it. He loves seeing all the other animals and all the people that go "aww...look at that!"

August 19, 2010: Thursday, still not up. But eating well. Prognosis very grim. Vet thinks he's need to be put down. We said no. They did finally get spinal fluid out and that test came back negative too. So they took an ex-ray of his neck for injuries and it came back negative too! They are at a complete loss and the Dr. tells me we need to euthanize him since he can't walk. We're like, “but just because he can't walk, doesn't mean he shouldn't live! It's not a life threatening illness!" She disagrees. But she also thinks that he would have given up by now if he were really sick.

Thursday afternoon they put him in a different pool to assess his limbs better after having all those negative tests. Even the Dr. wants to know what's wrong even though she thinks he's better off dead. FINALLY, during his swim test they notice a TICK on him. Now, mind you, llamas don't get ticks. We've all been told this. Even the Dr. said that when she was telling me she found a tick on him, "llamas don't get ticks, you know". But she researched that after finding a tick on him and lo-and-behold, there is a little known record of a llama getting 'temporary paralysis' from ticks. The treatment? "Remove the tick" she says, "and he should be able to stand in a couple hours to a couple days". SWEET! And she wanted to put him down!

August 20, 2010: Friday, I spend the day with Sweet Dreams and Red. I took Red out for a walk and he whined at first, because he missed Sweety. But he walked around for a while and then ate some grass and was happy. When I took him back inside, Sweety whined at him like “where were you?”.

Sweety tries to get up. He can get his back legs up about ½ the way, but his front won’t work that well yet. So he falls back down. He’ll try that a couple times and quit. He did knock himself over on his side and lay there a while stretching out his legs and bending them back and forth.

He’s acting normal. He tries to spit at Red if Red leans over into Sweety’s side of the stall. He eats out of my hand and generally fights the attendant giving his medicine. All those are things he wasn’t doing earlier in the week.

The student Dr. today said she found another case of two llamas having ‘tick paralysis’ in a medical journal. One llama was completely better in 9 days and the other one only took 6 days to recover. We have high hopes for Sweet Dreams.

(Sweet Dreams at UTCVM - August 20, 2010)

August 21, 2010: Saturday, student Dr. called at 8:30 am because she was so excited. She said the student workers last night got Sweet Dreams up with the aid of belts and he stood on his own for a while! She tried that herself when she got in for rounds in the morning and he stood for awhile and even took a couple of steps! She is very hopeful of a complete recovery now.

We went to visit Sweet Dreams for a while today and took Red Baron for a walk. Red was glad to walk. We got Sweety up and he tried to walk out the gate too! But his front legs collapsed and he sat back down.

August 22, 2010: Sunday they said Sweety is getting more feisty and not liking it when they clean his catheter or do his physical therapy. We went to see him and saw him trying to get up. He really wants to go, but his legs still aren’t cooperating well yet. We took Red for a walk, but he didn’t stay out long; he wanted to get back to SD. I hope they get to come home soon.

August 23, 2010: Monday, the student Dr. calls and says with just a little help he gets up and tries to walk around (get away from them, really). She sees daily improvement in him.

August 24, 2010: Tuesday, the student Dr. calls and said they got Sweety up and had him walking all the way to the outside fenced in area for grazing!! She was so happy. So we stopped by the UT Vet Hospital to see him and both Sweet Dreams and Red Baron were outside happily munching fresh grass in an outside enclosure. When we approached, Sweety stood up ALL ON HIS OWN! And took several steps and even starting munching more grass while standing up. Then he sat down and ate some more. A few minutes later he got up again and walked to the other end of the enclosure. He’s really wobbly, like a cria. We went in to talk to the Dr. and when we came back out Red was trying to do his ‘manly thing’ on poor kushed Sweety. That’s wasn’t good since Sweety’s so fragile. So we got Red off of him and got him back up and he’s fine. When we get them home, we’re going to have to keep them separated until Sweet Dreams regains all his strength and can fight Red off when he gets ‘amorous’ with him. They expect another couple of days before they will let them come home.

August 25, 2010: Wednesday, I called to get an update on the boys. The student Dr. (Joci) said that Sweety jumps right up when you approach his pen, just like a perfectly healthy llama. We’ve asked the Drs. to castrate Red Baron while he’s there since he’s the proper age for that now and perhaps that will help him from wanting to ‘mate’ with Sweet Dreams when Sweety’s kushed.

August 26, 2010: Thursday, I call to see how Red’s doing and they inform me that he’s just returned from his castration surgery and is recovering well. No complications. Sweet Dreams really wants to go home. She said they can come home tomorrow! We plan on picking them up at 8:00 am. tomorrow.

August 27, 2010: Friday, everyone comes home happy and healthy. What llama drama!

Sweety with his shave, home from the hospital