After a difficult birth, it’s always best to have the dam examined before she is rebred. In this case, it turned out to be a wise move. First time mom, Aria, had an incredibly horrific delivery as described in Exhaustion Redux, though all turned out well in the end. Aria, who had a retained placenta, was taken the next day to Elizabeth Animal Hospital to have it removed manually by the wonderful Dr. Leon Anderson, who cares for many of the alpacas in the Elizabeth, Colorado area. After removing the placenta, Dr. Anderson flushed her uterus with a gentomycin solution and Aria was set to go.
Ecoli (Photo Credit: Rocky Mountain Laboratories)
One month later prior to rebreeding, I had a culture done by my mobile camelid vet, the incredibly able Dr. Kim Gardner-Graff out of Monument, Colorado. The results revealed e-coli. E-coli (escherichia coli) is a bacterium that is found normally in the lower intestine of many animals. Although some breeders regularly treat newborns for e-coli , it’s not usually a concern here in Colorado. So what did e-coli in the uterus mean?
Per Dr. Kim, it was not affecting Aria in any way – poop, appetite, weight were all normal. However, if I were to breed her, it creates an unhealthy environment for the fetus that would cause abortion after a couple of weeks. Dr. Kim prescribed a five day treatment of uterine flushes and antibiotics combined with probiotics. I nodded – I had done vaginal flushes before. But I was in for a education.
First, Dr. Kim inserted a catheter into the uterus. The soft pliable tubing extended out of Aria and she quickly sutured it with two stitches to keep it in place. Then the tubing was curled around to Aria’s side and duct taped to keep it lying flat and away from curious cria lips. Then the flush procedure:
1. 50 cc betadine solution syringed into the tube
2. Wait five minutes
3. 50 cc saline solution syringed into the tube
4. Wait five minutes
5. 50 cc gentomycin solution syringed into the tube
6. Keep the tube capped in between administration of solutions
During the five minute waits, antibiotics (Excenel or Naxcel) were administered, along with probiotics. In this case, I was using Nature’s Way MSE paste. So Aria was getting antibiotics two ways, with the MSE to keep her digestive system humming along.
After the last solution, one more piece of duct tape was placed to cover the tube end cap. This treatment was to be repeated daily for a total of five treatments. On the last day, which is today, I’m to remove the sutures and the catheter and a re-culture will be done seven days after the last treatment.
As you can imagine, Aria has little patience for these proceedings. After her delivery and subsequent oxytocin and penicillin shots, she’s grown hypersensitive about any human fiddling around back there at her butt. So I tell her it’s for her own good, to buck up and bear it, and that it’s the price to pay to get time with a stud.
And one more note: duct tape really can be used for almost anything.
Female has retained placenta, vet said to wait till Monday(4th day) and contact again. She’s carting around 19 inch dried up placental remains. Gave oxytocin X5 doses and on antibiotics, paca lying down alot but eating. Regular vet is at alpaca show this weekend. I’m not comfortable waiting 4 days. Oh cria died was 1 month early (if other farms breeding dates were correct.) Baby was preemie looking, DOA
Think I should take to hospital? Thanks LIsa
Just got back from a show myself so I apologize. It’s usually ok for a few days to leave the placenta if you are encouraging it to eject itself – that’s the preferred solution. However, if you’ve done the oxytocin and there’s nothing currently helping the placenta to come out (weight, nursing baby etc), then there’s no point in leaving it in as a risk of infection. Your regular vet will be back Monday, I assume, and can remove it for you. The antibiotics are a good preventive and you’ll probably have to do some lavages. Let me know what happens – I’m so sorry for your loss of the cria. That is heartbreak that we all come against sooner or later, unfortunately.
Morning, It’s nice to stumble upon a good website like this one. Do you mind if I used some of the info here, and I’ll leave a link back to your site?
Please do. I hope to get back to blogging soon!