Turning grief into action
How we manage alpaca health in a traditional agriculture system and our dreams of a regenerative future
A shocking loss
May is such a busy month on the farm. Suddenly all of our events start booking up like crazy, the enquiries come in thick and fast, there are all of the preparations to be done ready to open for our glamping and camping season later this month (Amy and Emily’s domain!), we’ve vaccinated the whole herd, all of the usual jobs still need to be done which are a full-time occupation for about eight people as it is and to top it all off it’s peak parasite season which means we have to do a lot to try to keep our herd happy and healthy. On top of all of that I’ve been learning to spin and had planned to write about that today but sadly we’ve had a loss and there’s nothing else in my heart.
I knew when that taking on the responsibility for a herd of animals that loss was an inevitable part of that but I had really hoped it would be natural deaths from old age. Unavoidable deaths. Not a death that we could have prevented. Nothing sits more heavily than that.
Alpacas are incredibly stoic creatures, part of their survival strategy is to hide any signs of illness for as long as they possibly can. A sick animal is easy pickings for predators. Of course we have no predators here but they still retain this instinct. What this means is that by the time we notice that something is off, they are already incredibly ill.
Alpaca care
To manage this we have a whole array of tools at our disposal as alpaca shepherds.
Daily observations - knowing our animals incredibly well means that we can hopefully spot changes in their behaviour which is often the first indicator. The changes can be incredibly subtle so a deep and intimate knowledge is essential.
Monthly herd health checks - if we spot something off we check that animal over as soon as possible and then every single month we herd them all in and do a comprehensive check over which includes…
Body condition scoring - thick fleeces make it hard to see the condition of the animal so we use a system called ‘body condition scoring’ to get our hands onto the alpacas and mark down their score using a numerical system. The numbers are recorded which then highlights any weight loss which is an important indicator of illness/parasites. It also helps us to manage food allocations when we notice weight gain. Obesity in alpacas is a big problem in the UK and causes a whole other set of problems.
Mucous membrane checks - alpacas can carry a worm called a Haemonchus, also known as the Barber's pole worm, which feeds on blood and causes anaemia. Checking their mucous membranes by pulling down on their bottom eyelid allows us to keep a check on this. We’re hoping for a rosy pink or slightly red colour. Light, pale or white are an indication of anaemia.
Jaw checks - keeping an eye to ensure the bottom teeth are not overly long and are nicely meeting the soft palate at the top. We’re also checking for the eruption of fighting teeth in the males (and sometimes females) which we then arrange to be filed. And finally we’re checking along the jawline to make sure the jaw is healthy without any abscesses which can lead to issues with eating.
Toenail checks - keeping an eye on toenails and clipping or making a plan to clip once they start to grow beyond being level with the ground.
General check over - getting close up the alpacas and interacting with them is another way to notice if an animal’s behaviour has changed, to see if there are any issues with the skin in terms of mites, to keep an eye out for fly strike and to just generally make sure they’re doing ok.
Faecal sampling - faecal sampling allows us to check on the parasite count of an alpaca if there are any concerns. We choose not to blanket worm our herd as it’s not recommended. Blanket worming creates resistant strains of worms and also because wormers are not great for their guts or the ground (it kills off dung beetles and other helpful insect life in the soil). So as and when we’re worried and then twice a year around peak parasite season we have ‘poo sample day’ where we sample a section of our herd (choosing ones we’re worried about, the young and the old) and then selectively treat where needed.
We also believe in being as preventative as we can afford to be (farming is not cheap and it’s not a way to make your millions. Far from it). So there are a number of things we do to preventatively support the health of our herd.
Daily poo picking - if we get all of the poo off of the paddocks every one to two days we break the cycle of parasites hatching and prevent outbreaks. This is not easy with thirty five (thirty four 🥺) alpacas in three separate paddocks across twenty eight acres of land and a very, very small ‘team’ of people.
Paddock rotation - we have rotational grazing paddocks for each of our three mini herds (our herd is separated into boys, mums without babies and mums and babies) and we move them every six to eight weeks to ensure a good amount of grazing and to help reduce parasite burden.
Diatomaceous earth - a natural mite treatment which we tip onto their roll spots fortnightly to interrupt the mite breeding cycle. It’s one of their favourite times in the month and they all go crazy for it. We also top dress their feed with it five days out of seven for internal parasite support and to help with skin issues. In a dream world we’d put it on all of the poo piles too but we can’t afford this at the moment. Our yearly supply is very costly but the alternative is a nasty chemical which isn’t any good for us and I’m sure it’s not good for them.
Apple cider vinegar - we add it to their water and sometimes apply to the skin. It’s a health tonic which helps keep a more alkaline state in which diseases and illnesses cannot proliferate. It is healing, cleansing and has natural antibiotic & antiseptic qualities. It has internal and external benefits for fleas, ticks, skin conditions, arthritis and mastitis and many more ailments.
Willow - feeding willow to livestock can help control intestinal worms naturally while supporting overall health. Also a natural antiseptic and pain relief.
Probiotics - we use a natural herbal product called Verm-x as a natural probiotic and internal parasite support for the alpacas once a month for seven consecutive days in their feed.
Vitamin support - over the autumn and winter we offer a monthly vitamin drench to support the alpacas through the darker half of the year.
Mineral support - as well as their main diet of hay and grass we offer a specially designed camelid feed which offers to fill the gap of nutrients between their native highland Andes grazing and what UK pasture has to offer.
Yearly shearing - alpacas have been domesticate for 6,000 years and in that time humans have continually selected for thicker fleece. The result is an animal that must be shorn each order to avoid overheating. The ideal time is around mid to end of May but alpaca shearers are much in demand and we don’t usually manage to get our fleeces off until the beginning of July. This makes it much harder to see their condition and also means we have to give them paddling pools and regular leg and belly showers on humid hot days.
Biosecurity measures - we always ask farm visitors to clean their boots or wear shoe covers if they are coming from other farms or have walked through farms. We also operate a closed herd (our animals don’t travel and we don’t allow other animals onto our farm without quarantine).
(Huge love to Ian, Amy, Steve from The Alpaca Tribe podcast, Fostings Alpacas, Cranley Barn Farms, Inca Alpacas, Abbots View Alpacas, Victoria from Simply Alpaca and so many more for your time, knowledge, wisdom, informative websites, ebooks and more. I am a beginner here and I couldn’t be doing it without you!).
So this is everything we do to ensure our alpacas stay healthy and yet yesterday we had to have one of our gentlest, loveliest boys put to sleep because we’d missed the fact that he was incredibly unwell.
It is made so much worse by the fact that we spent the day before his decline with him and didn’t notice a change.
How did this happen?
Cowboy has always been our sickly one. He was born big and strong but he’s got a slightly deformed spine which makes body condition scoring a bit tricky and he has always been slow, laid back and not particularly animated. We’re always worried about Cowboy. We always faecal sample him because he always just seems a little bit off. We sampled him last month and it was clear. We did his health checks and vaccinations three and a half weeks ago and he was doing ok.
Then bang. Amy went to do her afternoon checks and he was on the ground and wouldn’t get up. When the vet arrived we discovered that he’d managed to decline from slightly overweight to emaciated in 3.5 weeks and because of his thick summer fleece we didn’t notice until it was too late. He also had an extremely high worm burden despite being completely clear at our last sample a month ago.
Both Amy and I noticed that he didn’t look quite right during our alpaca yoga class but we couldn’t put our finger on it. He was grazing, with the herd, curious, inquisitive. He sat down for a while on his own but they all do that sometimes, especially when they feel safe and especially on a hot day. We’re still in shock. We’re still blaming ourselves for all of the things we could have or should have done.
But in reality. We did everything we could. The first time either of us had any concerns about him was the strange feeling that he just wasn’t quiet right but that was the morning before he collapsed. What fighters these animals are. If it had been two days later I would have had my hands on him for his monthly checks and I would have known something was off. The timings of it all.
The vet discovered a heart murmur when she checked him over and whilst that could have been something caused by the parasites, she said that she thought it was possibly something he’d always had. All of a sudden his laid back attitude made a lot more sense.
His last couple of days were spent with Amy by his side most of the time, bless her soul, so dedicated. Staying up until the early hours of the morning and setting alarms for daybreak. The day before he died Amy, Emily and I sat with him encouraging him to eat and drink. In my quiet moments with him I just prayed and asked what he wanted us to do. I sang him songs and saw his ears perk up and his eyes widen to look at me. I massaged his ears and stroked his neck every now and then, just to let him know I was there. We were all there for him. His herd came and checked on him every now and then but they too are primal beings and for them a sick alpaca is a risk and so they mostly left him to be.
Each time the vet came he leapt up pretending to be ok but if it was any of his human family he stayed on the ground. How beautiful to know that he felt safe to be himself with us. Safe to rest as he so desperately needed to.
Cowboy was a favourite of so many of our visitors. A favourite of mine. He was so wonderful with children, the only one I’d let Dolores walk by herself. He was so calm, so gentle, so steady. A rock. I will miss him dearly. We all will.
And so what do I learn from this…
To always follow every hunch even if you have no idea why you’re having it. Even if all seems ok on the surface.
To always do our best and to give ourselves grace when there are failings as there will inevitably be. We are human and there are limits to what we can do.
We have now tested the rest of our boys as we had a couple of them on our watch list anyway due to subtle changes in appearance and behaviour. They too have a burden which we have now treated. To our surprise one of our biggest, healthiest looking boys has a particular pathogenic type without any outward displays of behavioural or appearance change at all. This is very likely what got Cowboy and why we were so shocked by his loss.
We couldn’t understand where all of these parasites were coming from but after a lengthy conversation with our faecal sampling lady, Sue at Lyme Alpacas, she explained that as we are situated right next to a sheep field, in some cases almost sharing a fence line, that it is likely to be the birds and rabbits transporting the parasites from the sheep into our paddocks. It is reassuring and incredibly frustrating that there is little to nothing we can do about this. Sheep can carry a much higher burden than alpacas without being affected.
On a practical level there are things we’d like to do and some learnings we’ll be taking forward but we’re also having to accept that parasites are simply a part of this agricultural model and we can only test our animals so often. It would be financially prohibitive to test our whole herd every month.
Our nomadic pastoralist past
Parasites are a part of life but the over exposure that many animals get to their parasites is an issue of the traditional agricultural models many of us find ourselves stuck within. We have nomadically herded our livestock since time immemorial and yet today due to financial, time and a lack of access to passages and common grazing we find ourselves grazing our animals in paddocks. This means our animals are eating where they poo. We’re lucky with alpacas that they are very clean and only poo in dung piles but it’s still an issue. It also means that we aren’t shepherd(ess)ing our animals full-time. Our lives are not set up to spend our days roaming with our animals keeping them safe and getting to know their every movement. This is my ultimate dream in this life and something Amy and I speak of often and always have.
When we were nomadic pastoralists roaming the countryside and grazing the commons we didn’t have the kinds of issues we have with disease and parasites now. Of course there are still diseases and illnesses and parasites but not in the same way. Nomadic herding is almost as old as we are. It supports the biodiversity of earth, it makes food and fabric out of sun, water and grazing, it contributes to meaningful work, it naturally fertilises the soil, it produces healthier, stronger and more resilient animals (and humans!) and deepens our connection to them. It supports the health of the animals, the earth and the humans who herd them.
A regenerative dream
The closest we can get to this here in the UK right now is regenerative farming and there are some amazing people doing some amazing things. Unfortunately it’s not easy to use this model with alpacas as we can’t use moveable electric fences with them and the sound/tag models are not (yet!) approved for use with camelids.
This means that there are not currently (that we know of!) any herders regeneratively farming their alpacas but Amy and I have a vision. We know that it is what we are here to trail blaze and Cowboy’s death has only spurred us in our mission. Without the capacity to use electric fences we know we are going to be challenged but I trust that we will find our way. We have a dream and we will fight for it in the name of Cowboy.
Carly x
www.carlychandermorris.com
www.hideawaywood.co.uk