| 5/9/2011 9:11:19 PM |
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wiarks
Posts 4
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We Love Alpaca Spit  .....Does anyone else??
Using Alpaca spit can be a very good technique, when you need transfaunation on your alpaca adult/cria, you may need new ruminal flora (microbes/bugs) to help digest hay/feed.
Good to know if you have a sick alpaca one that is not eating or "lost of cud' and is not ruminating" or one that has gone through long antibiotic treatments. (works very good for cria "opinion here"), "Rumen juice" is also said to work as an "appetite stimulator".
Some vets./farms use cow rumen, but it is best to use another alpacas/Llamas rumen juice if possible. You can use a female/male or a bred female you are behavior testing with a stud/male (use a sock on the bred female you are testing), that you have on your farm. Or get a bad-tempered, spitty alpaca (if you have one TAKE A 2-QUART PITCHER/OR A SOCK, AND MAKE EM SPIT INTO IT! Then collect the juice from the sock/pitcher (we add water 20 to 50% to get more juice out). Now tube or orally drench/syringe feed the Rumen juice slowly into their mouth.... feed this solution 2x a day for 2-4 weeks. We are not Veterinarians here, so (call your vet. first) this is just what we like to use on our farm.
I did talk with Dr. Norm Evans several years ago and he agrees that Alpaca rumen juice/spit is very good to use, it also works as an "appetite stimulator" "great for Cria's".....Smelly stuff but it may work for your alpaca, (needs to be fresh)
We have used a Llama with 4" window (rumen fistulae) placed in the side/stomach, so we could collect rumen easy/fresh. This is the best freshest rumen to collect over alpaca/Llama spit but only a few alpaca farms in the country do this. The University of Minnesota medically installed the widow for us, like they use in cows/cattle.
"Transfaunation" (Transfer of symbiotic fauna (usually mutualistic protozoa) from one host to another. The objective is to repopulate the alpacas rumen with viable, normal ruminal flora. Helps to get beneficial microbes into their digestive system. (Alpacas get their Nutritional value from microorganisms in their stomach not the hay/feed they eat).
Another definition..."This is the process of harvesting healthy stomach contents and transplanting them into the C1 of a sick animal. Where the fermentation process has been badly unbalanced by illness or poor nutrition or antibiotics that kill Flora (microorganisms), this can be a very useful rehabilitation aid. The classical method is to harvest fresh C1 or fresh rumen contents from a slaughterhouse, and administer them to the patient via stomach tube or drench. An old sock over the nose/mouth of your most bad-tempered, spitty Alpaca/Llama to get it to spit up some C1 contents which are then washed out of the sock and given by stomach tube or drench method."
(we prefer to orally drench/syringe feed the Rumen juice with 20-50% water added, slowly into their mouth).
(If the rumen is shut down a stethoscope is used to listen for stomach motility. larger amounts of rumen juice is tubed into the stomach when the rumen shuts down, CALL YOUR VET.)
Rumen shutdown can occur, In three to five days of not eating, the flora/microbes in your alpacas stomach will die. Your alpaca must have these microbes. For an alpaca to recover from an illness, they need to be getting good nourishment. If they're not eating/ruminating they can die. It's very important to keep the alpacas stomach ruminal flora/microbes/bugs working good!
*We will also use Pro-bios or Probiotic pastes but we belive that Alpaca spit/rumen juice may be the best...
**For other stomach problems we like to use Metamucil (Psyllium fiber) in them sometimes, It sooths the stomach and intestinal track as it goes through their system and may pull some sand or other irritants from the stomach walls out. It expands a lot/fast as mixed with water, so be careful to mix with adequate water so not to block esophagus causing choke..Metamucil one level (flat) tablespoon with 4-5oz. mix and Drench or tube it in fairly quick. We will also use Bismuth "pepto" and other antacids sometimes to aid with stomach issues.
Dr. Ruthanne, Do you use Rumen Juice/Recommend?
Thanks Mike
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