Ipo Nani's Boot Part Three: Conclusions

Two days after Ipo Nani's injury, events conspired to render me useless with respect to physically restraining a panicked alpaca. I was limited to very sedentary activities for ten days followed by several weeks of limited lifting. I couldn't hold Ipo to change her boot.

Pam tried valiantly to change Ipo's bandage and inject antibiotics on her own. She managed the antibiotics, but could not change the bandages. Giving an alpaca a shot is much easier than handling a hurting foot. Eventually, we ended up loading Ipo Nani into the van and hauling her to the vet's office to have the bandages changed.

But this story is about Ipo Nani's boot and at the conclusion of the last episode, Pam was searching the internet for an alpaca boot -- preferably a waterproof alpaca boot. One of the alpaca supply places was able to ship us a boot fairly quickly. Unfortunately, it wasn't waterproof like we thought it would be. Pam took the boot with her on the next trip to the vet to have Ipo's bandage changed, and the vet put the boot on Ipo's foot to cover the bandage.

Chloe chased Ipo across the pasture sniffing the boot on Ipo's return.

Ultimately, we decided the best course of action was to haul Ipo to the vet every week to have her bandage changed. I can't tell you whether Ipo or the humans dreaded these visits more.

Originally, I planned to stretch out this story with a blog entry for each trip -- and you would all have to visit my blog repeatedly to find out if Ipo is ok. However, I've decided to spare my readers several weeks and multiple trips to the vet's office -- they're all basically the same, anyhow. Suffice it to say these visits were punctuated by alpaca spit and generally followed by washing alpaca manure from the van.

After one visit in late January, the vet said "eight more weeks". I thought Pam was about to fall over.

The good news is that Ipo's foot healed much faster than expected. The bandage is off! New skin has grown over the pad to the point no bandage is required. Ipo will wear her boot for a couple more weeks while the new skin thickens and hardens. No further vet trips are required.


Maggie (left) and Ipo (right). I tried to take pictures of Ipo in her boot, but she was rather worried and refused to allow me to approach her right side.


I got close, briefly, but it isn't a great picture. The boot has velcro closures, but alpacas tend to tug at them, so first aid tape has been wrapped around the velcro to keep the boot on Ipo's foot.


Ipo again. She's a very feminine alpaca.


And still not about to let me get close to that foot. She's a little worried about what I am doing and taking great care to keep me away from that injured foot. Once the bandage is off, we'll probably have to work with Ipo to rebuild trust before we'll be able to trim her toenails.