We had a horrible scare three weeks ago. We found Gabby, one of our beautiful females and the matriarch of the herd, on the ground, very ill. We called the vet who told us she had less than a 10% chance of surviving, but he'd do what we could. The diagnosis was enterotoxaemia, which occurs when the transit of food through the animal's intestines is slowed down for some reason. Fermentation starts and it gets very nasty very quickly. It is usually fatal. After giving her injections, the vet left, and we kept our vigil, standing over her with parasols from the picnic tables as it was a scorching hot, sunny day. Several times I thought the end was imminent so I quickly sent daughter Caiti off errands as I knew it would be too upsetting for her. But amazingly Gabby kept going. We kept her mouth moistened and the flies off her. Then suddenly she tried to get up. Benj gave her a shove and we got her onto her knees. She was woozy but drank two whole buckets of water straight off and then staggered to her feet. Seeing her mum upright again, baby Lulin charged over for a drink of milk (llams suckle for 7 months). We kept her off as we were concerned that the drugs in Gabby's system might be bad for Lulin if they got to her through the milk. We checked with the vet and he said there was no problem there, so we let Lulin free. Just as well - she's a strong, strapping young llama now and she was very determined to get to her mum. I don't think we could have held her off much longer!
The vet came the day after her collapse to inject her with Cobactan, a job which we took over the day after. Gabby was weak and clearly not her usual self for about another week, but carried on looking after Lulin. It's been fantastic to see her recover fully. She's a very strong-willed but gentle llama, and we all adore her. I think her character helped her recover. We're hoping she's still pregnant - she was about a month along. But we can always try again later. We're just relieved she's still with us.
