My Llama Won't Get Up

[possumom]

Sorry for the slow reply
My guy is an 8yr old who is for all intents and purposes fine except he can't get up. His symptoms are exactly like the first post in that he is eating very very well , drinking and his eyes are clear and shiny , temp is normal, he just can not stand up. I have been using the same hay for my horse, goats and llama all winter. My vet has not been able to get out to me or me to him but they think that it may be selenium deficiency even though i have got salt with sel out for them. He came to me in the fall and was very hard to get a hand on for a good part. He had very long coat which we were told to hold off until spring to shear him because -40 is not uncommon up here. But when we caught him he was very thin and infested with sucking lice. We wormed him and dusted really really well so we are also dealing with getting his weight up. One of the ranchers in the area said that we are really low in sel around here and he lost a number of calves to sel deficiency and now sprays his fields with micro/macro nutrients and minerals. He had a look at him and thinks that the sel is the problem too.
To top everything off i got the sel/E today and when i went to inject it the syringe seemed stuck and when i pushed a bit on it i lost some back out so now i don't know how much i lost and not sure how much more to give him arghhhh . I think i lost at least half of it. Not sure if i should give him another .25, I had 1/2cc in the syringe. I know sel is toxic so am afraid of doing more harm..
I have gone all over him trying to find any ticks and no success but i will look again because i know we do have them in the area. I am in northern BC and we still have snow on the ground and -10 overnight temps and the menningeal worm fits everything except for it still being sooo cold and no other animals have been affected.
Why we think it is the selenium though is i had a couple of kids born last month that had a bit of trouble getting to their feet but were fine by the next morning which could have been sel deficiency too.
I am truly stumped and only have cattle and horse , a few goat ppl around the area to consult
Thank you for any input
Barb

 

[Goatherd]

Since you only had 1/2 cc to begin with you can safely give him the additional dosage. Can I assume you are using Bo-Se? Keep in mind that if your llama is truly deficient, the fix that the injection will provide will only be temporary. For a longer, more beneficial effect consider loose minerals specifically designed for llama and alpaca.
Here is one good and reputable brand to consider: http://www.stillwaterminerals.com/

Providing salt with selenium is not a balanced mineral supplement. Are you referring to a selenium block?

I do hope you can speak with your vet as it's so hard to give sound advice on a forum without seeing the animal and knowing all the details.

Good luck.

 

[Penny]

The Safeguard for 7 days at 1cc per 7 lbs is if they actually have meningeal worm. It has been a long time since I heard the whole explanation but once meningeal worm has entered the body and is making their way up the spinal cord, Ivomec is no longer effective for it. Very high doses of Safeguard were found to be effective and I can speak for that because I have treated alpacas that did have meningeal worm but were caught in the early stages where only their hind end was showing signs. A spinal tap was done and confirmed meningeal. They weren't my alpacas but the people who owned them didn't have the space or time to keep them in their own stall and do what needed to be done to care for them. So I did it.

My llama is doing the same thing , is safeguard oral or injections