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.

Bella's Recovery Continues

Just a very short update on Bella’s situation.

After several weeks of twice daily comfrey poultice applications and administering colloidal/ionic silver she has been making a slow, but steady recovery.

One of the key indicators of improvement in this case is the length of time Bella spends either cushed or standing. Excluding the hours of darkness, she has reduced the time spent in one position to about 3 hours, indicating that the process of getting up and down is more bearable now. This is a vast improvement over the 48 hours she had spent either flat out or standing up. For the past six days she has also been receiving homeopathic Lachesis, which brought on a day of fever within the knee and the opening of the worst abscess of all on the front of the knee. The heat has gone, the lumpy swellings have diminished considerably and there are only two large suppurating abscesses remaining.

The pain level seems to have increased and Bella holds her knee hard against her flank at times. However, her mobility has also increased and she frequently uses the bad leg to scratch at her fore legs. The thigh muscle has also re-developed and appears less wasted than even a week ago.

Our main concerns now are completing the abscess draining before the cold winter sets in, reducing the hard swelling that surrounds the entire knee and getting Bella to transfer more weight onto the bad leg.

She appears to be having some trouble with standing up these days though. The advice we were given implied that if Bella didn’t start sharing the weight on her bad leg that she could end up with a breakdown of her other hind leg. A llama’s center of gravity is just behind the fore legs and very little weight is actually carried by the back legs. The problem as far as Bella is concerned is not that she cannot get her back end off the ground, but that she has to use a more dynamic thrusting motion with her front legs. She often ends up with her back end up, but still resting on her front ‘elbows’.

With the onset of frosty nights, we are only applying the comfrey poultice during the daytime. The effect that the poultice has is even more noticeable now, as the abscesses scab over during the night, sealing in the gunge that needs to come out. The poultice softens the scabs and the abscesses pour forth their excrescence.

The body doesn’t necessarily take the shortest or most direct route to healing, but we are confident that with the right stimuli, it takes the most appropriate route….if we allow it.

Manna From Heaven

There’s no getting away from it – we all turn a bit mushy when a new baby arrives on the scene and this is as true when a llama baby arrives as with the ugly human variety.

A couple of weeks ago Snowball produced yet another. For the first time we able to watch the entire performance or rather the lack of it. To Snowball, having a baby appears to be a mild interruption in the day’s eating schedule. From the waters breaking to depositing the soggy jumble of bones and wool in the dust took around twenty minutes and not a sound to be heard.

Snowball is pretty experienced at the baby game and this, her seventh offspring, was delivered with apparent ease.

She was attempting to urinate when the water sac appeared and the waters broke within a minute. Less than a minute after that two small feet appeared at the window and Snowball ambled around for a few minutes seeking the most appropriate place and position to finish the job.

Within five minutes a head had popped out and the legs had stretched to about 18inches long.

The advice is always DO NOT GET INVOLVED except in an emergency. It’s really easy for medically brainwashed humans to believe that something might go wrong, but those instances are extremely few and far between. The baby thrashes its head and legs, struggling to free itself from the vice like grip of the pelvic muscles, but every now and again it sags and hangs limply from the back end of the mother. This isn’t a problem, the poor little creature is utterly exhausted and is just resting for the next Herculean attempt at escape.

Snowball stands up and sits down every couple of minutes as the pressure and pain increase, but once the baby’s shoulders are through, she’s up on her feet enabling gravity to drag it free.

The baby made little use of the ‘air time’ before hitting the dust nose first. Welcome to the Big Bad World baby! Of course, what should be a beautiful moment is rather ruined by the image of a bundle of soggy white dirt and slime covered pipe-cleaners, flopping around in the llama’s favourite dust bath.

I understand that llamas give birth according to the weather. They need to ensure the baby is dry and mobile before the afternoon rains fall in their natural, South American, habitat. Snowball waits for the warmest day of September to give birth and always in the morning, although we aren’t usually bothered by afternoon rains in Central BC, but the cold can be quite dramatic.

Snowball turns and casually sniffs the writhing bundle before turning her attention to the afterbirth – apparently a more difficult operation for her with much straining involved as the afterbirth is somewhat less cooperative than a squirming baby, gagging for air and desperate for a drink.



Once again, the mother stands and lets gravity take over, slowly drawing the massive placenta and associated pipework out of the body. I haven’t heard of llamas eating the afterbirth, being strict vegans and the mother’s instinct is to get herself and the baby as far away from this bloody beacon for predators as possible. To avoid attracting the coyotes, wolves, ravens and other predators we promptly dug a hole in the field and buried the placenta.

Usually, the baby is up on its feet within five or ten minutes and this new born bundle of fluff was no exception. A few shaky starts and a few nose dives, then bingo! She’s mobile. It took me more than a year to learn to do that and I only had two legs to coordinate!

Of course, the arrival of a baby is cause for the entire herd to gather and pay homage. The poor little thing has a llama blowing in every orifice for the first 30 minutes of its life and as the mother leads the baby away from the birth site and possible danger, she has an entire llama entourage as company.


Manna (as the new baby has been named) eventually found the right place to suckle after about two and a half hours. They should, according to the professionals, be suckling within four hours, otherwise directions should be given. However, the baby is usually desperately tired after the effort of re-entry into the atmosphere and just wants to sleep for while – so let it.

The flies move in to clean up the remnants of membrane and mucus and actually perform an essential task in cleaning the nose, ears and eyes, so don’t be tempted to chase them away!

Less than one day old and she was rolling in the dust with the rest of the herd and within 2 days she was lining up to use the bean piles and testing her speed and acceleration. At five days old she was grazing and chewing the cud. Simply amazing!

Deep Wound Infection & Abscesses

Bella’s saga continues with gruesome abscesses breaking out all around her knee.

The swelling around the knee has subsided somewhat as multiple abscesses have burst, yielding huge quantities of thick, bloody, white puss. The pain that this poor llama must have endured from this infection whilst wearing a cast is unimaginable.

For a while the prospects have looked grim. Bella has laid flat out for up to 36 hours at a time and would only stand after encouragement using a supporting sling. Once on her feet now however, she moves around on her 3 good legs and occasionally rests her bad leg on the ground.

Following her last visit to NVAHS clinic to have the fiberglass cast and staples removed and the orthotic brace fitted, she became so ill that we thought she wasn’t going to pull through.

The veterinary advice was to return to the NVAHS clinic for biopsy and analysis. We doubted that she would survive the 8 hour round trip and turned our attention to other options.

Our immediate concern was the swelling which was becoming slightly lumpy. We decided to remove the brace which was certainly contributing to the pain and consider the herbal remedies that might help. The next day, Bella nibbled continually at the knee and eventually ruptured an abscess that had been forming. The volume of pus was astonishing and it was obvious that there was considerably more to come out, by the huge size of the knee joint and the numerous soft lumps adorning it.

Natural Healing

For nearly two decades we have lived according to the doctrine of natural healing. There is definitely a place for scientific medicine or allopathy, as it sometimes called by naturopaths, but having chosen surgery for Bella, we continued along the scientific route for the cure. Unfortunately, according to some research, approximately one in three hospitalizations result in infection and this appears to be Bella’s lot. She has exhibited adverse reactions to the penicillin and appears to have a deep wound infection, although this has not been proven by biopsy or laboratory analysis. With Bella in such a weak state, we must return to what we know and what has proven effective for centuries - the plants that surround us.

The first task was to gently deal with the infection with means other than drugs. Bella had shown marked side effects after several doses of penicillin, so we turned to some tried and trusted anti-microbial remedies.

Spruce Tea

Spruce is strongly antiseptic and camelids love eating spruce needles. Pine needles work too, but preference is usually given to the young shoots on the ends of spruce twigs.

Snip enough young shoots to fill a small pan to three-quarters full, add enough water to cover the shoots, place a lid on the pan and simmer for ten minutes. Strain and allow the tea to cool.

This is a POTENT brew and is best diluted about 1 part tea to 3 parts water. Try drinking some of the neat tea yourself – if you’re fond of paint thinners then you might even enjoy this! Diluted it becomes more palatable and to Llamas, the tea is just fine in its raw state….if they feel they need it.

Watching how animals graze can provide great insight into minerals and medicines that they need and can to a certain extent offer insight into their state of health. Bella drank deeply of the spruce tea on the first occasion, but since then only sips at it. Perhaps that one large draft was the best dose for her.

Echinacea

A well known immune system booster, the potent Echinacea tincture is made from the plant roots and a few drops in a glass of water is the usual dose for a human. Multiply that dose for a llama’s water bowl.

Ionic (Colloidal) Silver

One of most potent antibiotics known to man that purportedly kills 650 or more different types of bacteria. You can buy the ready made ionic silver water or you can buy the small machine that will make gallons of the stuff for all manner of household purposes. If you go this route, don’t just look for the cheapest one. There are many different types of ionic silver generator and recent new innovations have made them much more effective. We bought ours from http://www.silvergen.com

Silver is perfectly safe to use and as long as you don’t overdose (difficult), there are no side effects. Silver was the preferred metal for use for food storage and cutlery in days of yore because of its powerful antibacterial properties. In fact, in the days before hygiene was considered important, in order to avoid salmonella or other such beasties, royalty consumed so much silver from scraping silver knives on silver plates, that their blood developed a blue tinge and they became referred to as ‘blue bloods’. This habit of using silver for cutlery was also adopted by the ‘working classes’, but the silverware was only brought out on special occasions so as not to poison guests. Otherwise it was left in the cupboard to that it didn’t wear out. Good idea!?

Don’t expect your doctor to applaud your use of ionic silver though. You will find a great deal of resistance to this ‘quackery’ deeply embedded in places as popular as Ebay!

Killing bacteria doesn’t automatically make someone better though. The poison still has to be removed from the body and if the body has chosen to do this by abscess, then that process can be assisted by a poultice or cataplasm.

Comfrey is one of the greatest healers of body tissue and a comfrey cataplasm works extremely well in drawing out the pus and closing the wound cleanly and scar free afterwards. I hadn’t seen this demonstrated so effectively until we applied it to Bella’s knee. The process for making and applying a comfrey cataplasm requires a lot more space than I can provide here, so I will provide a special file that can be downloaded very soon.

Changing the cataplasm (poultice twice daily has drawn a huge quantity of gunge out of the knee and Bella is finally beginning to put weight on the bad leg. She is also getting a teensy bit fed up with the leg handling and tries to runaway when we approach. She has got the fight back in her and that is the best news that we could hope for at this time!

Bella - To Hell and Back

Bella has been through a really tough time recently. One of the most common problems associated with hospitalization is infection and it seems Bella picked up an infection in the clinic. Her temperature gave no indication of this so we dismissed this idea, but monitored her temperature daily.

Recap

We had assumed the reason she was in so much pain and not wanting to put any weight on the injured leg was cast sores, thus we rushed the manufacturer to complete the orthotic brace so the cast could be removed. When finally all the pieces came together, Bella was hauled the four hours to the vet and the cast and staples removed. The wound had healed nicely and surprisingly, the cast sores were minimal. The brace was fitted and we dragged the poor girl back home again.

The following day the knee was badly swollen and gradually the swelling spread down the leg into the toes. The next day the post surgery swelling was so severe that the brace had to be removed and the leg bound with bandages and duct tape to prevent flexion of the knee.

Stoicism

Llamas are incredibly stoic animals and it is sometimes said that the first appearance of illness in a llama is a dead body. Bella however, was flaked out on her side in the paddock and she groaned low and long at the slightest touch of her leg. Her temperature was up to 40 degrees, so without further delay we gave her a shot of penicillin and decided to spend the night under the stars with her. About ten hours after the injection, Bella struggled to her feet, at least for a few seconds, before tumbling down the hill and landing against a fence – I just managed to roll out of the way to avoid being squashed under 400lbs of woolly beast!

We have learned, the easiest way to get Bella back on her feet is to lay our special llama lifting sling against her back, then roll her right over so we can reach the handles on both sides of the sling and gently lift her back end. Once on her feet, Bella roamed off to find the bean pile and then started grazing at 3am! Her temperature was back to normal, even though the leg was severely distorted from the swelling.

Feeling pleased with ourselves at having dealt with this little crisis, continuing the programme of penicillin injections then caused extremely dry and irritable skin as well as constipation. At the risk of creating penicillin-resistant microbes, we stopped the injections and she was soon hopping around the paddock and grazing normally – happy to be part of the llama herd once more.

After a few days the swelling reduced sufficiently to remove the bandaging and refit the brace, but without the compression of bandaging the swelling resumed, although nowhere near the previous level. She still cannot bear weight on the leg and to top this episode off Bella has cystitis as a further side-effect of the antibiotic injections.

What Benefit?

We have to ask ourselves - the pain that we have put her through – was corrective surgery the right move? If her leg had been amputated, as was the alternative, she could well have been back to ‘normal’ by now. Decisions are hard enough to make concerning our own health, but deciding for others introduces so many more factors, responsibilities and emotions.

However, we always try to turn our focus to the positive end of the spectrum and there is every chance that these problems will dissipate and Bella will go on to lead a long life with four fully functional legs. She is such a calm animal that we would love for her to breed and carry this trait on in her offspring……but we will have to wait and see.

Bella - Removing the Leg Cast

At last, all the parts of the machine came together and Bella was unceremoniously shoved into the pick-up once more for the four hour journey to the clinic, this time to have the fiberglass cast removed from her hind leg and an orthotic brace fitted.

The poor girl was drenched by the time we arrived at the clinic. The heavens remained open for the entire day, offloading enough rain for the entire summer and the passing trucks ensured that Bella received a soaking through the side of the stock crate every few minutes.

There aren’t many vets around who have accrued more than a handlful of hours on camelids, especially those working on the fringes of society. The nearest clinic wouldn’t even look at a llama! Even so, Bella had the full attention of two terrific young ladies from NVAHS, which caters for large animals and were happy to tread this unknown territory. Despite the obvious pain and discomfort, Bella remained on her best behaviour throughout. I can think of one or two animals in our Llama herd that wouldn’t have been anywhere near as obliging and might have served up enough spit to put these people off camelids for life!

To get out of the rain, we parked under a barn and attached a hoist to a roof truss. Bella has been wearing a full body harness that we made a while ago to facilitate lifting her on the occasions that she cushed with her injured leg under her. She was lifted and secured in a standing position and apart from offering a few worried looks at the noisy machine that appeared to be amputating her heavy white leg, she didn’t flinch. Incidentally, she appeared to go into shock on the journey home and we feel that her ‘apparent’ leg amputation might have had something to do with it! I’ve never had need to wrap a llama in a blanket before, but together with a sprig of spruce, it stopped the severe shivering and settled her.

Some swelling around the knee was apparent. We had expected there to be some ugly cast sores given her unwillingness to cush or move around, but only a couple of small sore spots were evident. However, a lot of chafing had occurred on the back of her thigh, which obviously hurt like hell and a thick fleece pad was used to stop the brace from rubbing this spot further.

The surgery wound had healed neatly and the two dozen staples were deftly removed.

The fun part was unraveling the bundle of straps and pads that made up the orthotic brace, the cute little bone motifs indicating that the manufacturer (http://k-9orthotics.com) are more used to treating dogs! This was their first ever llama orthotic and a big thanks to them for taking the job on!

The luxating patella was caused by a rupture of the patella tendon, very close to the tibia. This presented very little muscle to tie back to at the tibia and it’s anticipated that the orthotic will be necessary for at least a couple of months to prevent extreme flexing of the tendon, possibly rupturing the repair.

The biggest concern for us at the moment is the extreme swelling of the knee that is now bulging out of the brace and spreading down the leg. The cast has prevented the swelling from occurring and now the fluid is collecting rapidly.

Homeopathically, we have treated her with Arnica 200 for the pain and bruising. This is a really important remedy to have to hand, especially after surgery. We also gave her several doses of Rhus Tox 30 for the swelling. Had the swelling been accompanied by heat and possibly by rapidly changing symptoms, then Belladonna would have been more appropriate. There has been no improvement in the leg swelling, so we shall have to find another remedy, since continuing to administer a remedy that isn’t working may eventually lead to ‘proving’.

I also raided the flower garden for a dozen marigold flowers. The petals were spread onto a small square of muslin cloth and rolled into a sausage. The sausage poultice was then dipped in warm water and strapped around the inflamed knee. Marigold is probably the best herbal remedy for skin problems and swelling. The poultice has to be kept moist, but only time will tell if this old magic still works!

A Hill of Beans

One thing that all living creatures have in common is the need to shit.

We can avoid the subject in conversation.
We can dress the subject in a fancy cloak of obscure words and phrases.
We can even pretend that the matter doesn’t exist.
…..but we cannot avoid the process itself.

Excrement, poop, manure, crap, scat, ‘number twos’, faeces call it what you will, it’s still shit. However, for the purposes of this article and to save the puckered lips of those more easily offended by this subject, I will use the simple word ‘dung’ to refer to the matter that is passed out of the bowel. Dung is a nice tuneful word that almost belies the nature of the product.

All Dung is Not Alike

Each animal has it’s particular dung format according to what it eats, plus a few other factors better reserved for medical journals. Some dung is wet when released, some is dry, some of it is almost odorless whilst another animal will have you retching your guts out at the first whiff.

Dogs, naturally, like to deposit theirs on pathways for passers-by to sniff, comment on and step in.

Horses will leave their huge buns anywhere they like.

Cows prefer to leave it somewhere that humans can’t avoid treading in it.

Goats like to do it all over their food.

Human babies love to play with it!

For the Llama though, dung is a community project. Like deer, moose and goats, Llamas dung is packaged in pellet form, neat little beans with very little odor to offend the dull human senses. Not only do llamas like to use the same places over and over again, but they will actually form an orderly queue to use the pile or if they cannot wait (having been stimulated by seeing another animal defecating) they will line up side by side to use the communal ‘washroom’. As a brief aside, the North American term ‘washroom’, had me both worried and perplexed when I first visited Canada. Having asked someone if there was a toilet nearby I could use, I was greeted with a furrowed brow and directed to a ‘washroom’ at the back of the store. I only hoped there would be a toilet in the washroom! – Did I offend the sensitivities of these people by openly talking of such a vulgar object? I have since heard this term bizarrely twisted into a reference of a ‘puppy going to the washroom on the floor’. Eh?

I digress.

Llamas do it in piles. Big piles. These piles are mostly distributed around the perimeter of their territory as markers and as mentioned previously, when one Llama in a herd goes, more are sure to follow since they ‘stimulate’ each other into marking. Llamas prefer not to crap in their own stalls or houses and can actually be trained where to make the piles! Simply take a bucket of beans and deposit a few scoops of beans around the edge of the field where you would prefer the piles to be. The herd will be sure to follow your example.

Occasionally, you might see some odd behaviour around the bean pile.
The Bean ‘Sniff’ – the llama takes a deep whiff of the beans and then throws its head up in the air with mouth open. This is assumed to be in response to a hormone deposited in the urine of one of the pile visitors.
The Bean ‘Snuff’ – the animal snorts a few crushed beans to stimulate a sneezing fit, presumably this is a deliberate attempt to clear their nasal passages.
The Bean ‘Chew’ – we have seen our llamas, on several occasions, actually chewing beans. We can only presume that this is required to stimulate bacterial growth in the digestive system or to ingest a particular mineral or other element not available elsewhere…..or maybe it just tastes good!

Low odor coupled with the ease of collection from the dung piles makes Llama manure an excellent choice for gardeners. The dung is not too ‘hot’ and won’t burn the plants if used in moderation. The beans remain whole for a long time when loosely scattered, yet release nutrients for the plants when the garden is watered.


Make The Worlds Ultimate Natural Fertilizer, Colloidal Humus, Without Bins, Turning Or Odor

Nutrient release can be speeded up by making a Llama bean ‘tea’. Simply put a scoop of beans into a bucket of water. Leave it to steep for an hour or more and then sieve into a watering can and serve as normal to the plants.

Like all manures, the beans will stimulate leaf growth, so care is required where leaf growth is not the desired result.

As a garden soil additive, compost the beans first for best results. They also make an excellent additive in a compost bin. Just throw in a bucket of beans every so often. Too much and your strawberries will be all leaf and no berry!

It’s a good idea to ‘harvest’ the beans regularly to prevent the piles getting too large and encouraging parasites. Harvesting a whole pile and placing some beans in a small pile nearby will allow the grass to return thick and lush to the old pile site.

The usual banal health warnings apply to llama beans:

Keep out of reach of small children with pea shooters - beans make first-rate ammunition!
Not suitable for casseroles.
If ingested, chew thoroughly to prevent choking!

All in all, llamas do amount to a hill of beans. (I’ve been trying to find a use for that phrase for weeks!)