Bella - Recovery Success

Bella has had a pretty rough ride through the summer and at one point it seemed she might not pull through. She became too sick to make the long journey to the vet clinic. Her knee swelled to the size of her head and numerous abscesses broke out around the entire joint. We suspected deep wound infection as she was not exhibiting signs of sepsis. A single dose of penicillin helped to bring her temperature down, but further doses of the same led to distressing reactions and we stopped treatment.

We turned instead to our normal bag of herbal and homeopathic medication and over a period of weeks she has made great progress.

The entire knee was covered in a hot comfrey poultice and changed morning and evening for 3 weeks. This treatment brought out a huge amount of pus from dozens of locations and a gradual reduction in the swelling.

Homeopathic Lachesis was also given and this improved her countenance and she has become much more mobile that enabled her to join the rest of the herd.

Homeopathic Hep sulph was given to try to clear up the remaining infection after the bulk of the abscesses healed. We have stopped the poultices except when a new raw bump appears and needs to be drawn out.

Bella walks well, allowing a little weight onto her bad leg at times and sharing her weight whilst standing. Cushing is no longer a problem, although standing up has become a more awkward process and she often has trouble rising from her front knees (her back end rises without trouble). Assuming this to be additional strain or weakness in the front legs we are giving her a daily dose of homeopathic Ruta.

She is still in pain at times and draws her knee into her flank for comfort. I can apply pressure on and around the knee with no reaction, but gentle touch is sometimes unbearable for her (a key homeopathic state).

We do not foresee any problems arising from the added strain on her other hind leg and her muscle is building once more on her bad leg. She can even run away from us when she feels like it! She still remains the sweetest natured and easiest Llama to handle from our entire herd. We have a couple of animals that I most certainly would not want to treat, as we have Bella!

Given personal experience with muscular injury, we understand the repair may take a year or more to take effect.

The knee is still grossly swollen though and until this reduces the orthotic brace cannot be fitted. In fact it is unlikely to be used as Bella does not try to rest on the sore leg when cushed.

Finally, it appears that the cold wind on her leg is causing her great pain (probably the metal work inside). We are making her a long legging from her own wool to keep her warm in the winter!:)

That’s it

A big thank you to all concerned for making this recovery possible – for the advice and concern over Bella.