Llama with tick paralysis!

[brighthavenfarm]

Thank-you, thank-you, thank-you. My llama has been down off and on for 2 days, and then unable to get up yesterday. Eating and drinking well. I had feared it was meningeal worm, and thought there was no hope. However 3 days ago, I removed to ticks from her. Vet's coming tomorrow. It is still often below freezing at night here - should she still be shorn to get rid of all ticks do you think? I could blanket her with horse blankets... I so hope it is tick paralysis. Never thought I'd say that....

 

[ksalvagno]

Yes, I would go ahead and shear her. You can always warm them up. A horse blanket will work or a small horse coat or they even make llama coats. I sure hope it is just the ticks for you too. I have seen the devastation of M worm and it is bad.

 

[Whispering Winds]

I lost my gorgeous brown alpaca boy, Jude, to the tick. It was so far down in his ear we never even knew he had it. I found him dead in his stall one morning, and my dear good friend drove over an hour to get him and take his body to the U of I for me for a necropsy and he was perfect, the only thing they found was the tick. I think its spelled "spinose" but they are definitely fatal and it looked like he had a seizure or something, as he was half under the wood divider between the boy and girl areas. Broke my heart, he was such a sweetheart. He was grandson to Big Bad Leroy Brown, if anyone in the Alpaca world reads this. He was a famous southern Alpaca. He was the fine the night before, just hit him like a ton of bricks. For prevention, I use 1 cc of ivermectin in a bottle of mineral oil and put a small squirt in each ear every month when it warms up to protect them.