Ipo Nani's Boot Part Two: Bending the Gates
I was not present for many of the events in this portion of the tale, so I relate them as they have been told to me. Even when I was present, the day was, for obvious reasons, a bit of a blur.
It is the morning after the infamous incident in the shed and I am at work with knots in my stomach. I check my watch wondering if Pam has called the vet yet.
5:45 AM. Hopefully Pam is still in bed and sound asleep. I return to setting up the garden center for a day of sales. When I'm sure an hour or so has passed, I check, my watch again.
5:50 AM.
My morning continued in a similar fashion. It's a wonder I survived, much less accomplished anything.
Eventually, the clock ticked it's slow and painful way around to 8:00 AM when the vet's office would answer calls. Then it's 8:15, then 8:30. I don't recall if Pam called me or if I called her.
The vet didn't have time to see Ipo until late in the day. I wanted to scream.
It was a tough day at work, trying to focus on my job instead of worrying about Ipo.
When I arrived home, I got the following report. And here I must digress because if I'd started work as early as memory serves, I'd have been home for a late afternoon appointment. However, I recall arriving home after dark and well after the vet had left which means I must have started my shift somewhat later than 5:00 AM. However, the hours certainly make, for a good tale.
I found out essentially what I already knew. Ipo had a very deep cut to the pad of her foot -- essentially she had sliced much of the pad off her foot and sliced down into the fatty layer beneath the pad. The vet bandaged Ipo's foot and gave us some antibiotics. The events leading to the bandaging of the foot are a different story.
When the vet arrived, Pam brought Ipo into the catch pen and held Ipo so the vet could look at her foot. Pam was probably holding Ipo around the neck and probably had worked her up against one wall of the catch pen. When the vet attempted to pick up Ipo's foot, Ipo panicked and lunged against Pam. Pam was forced backward into a corner of the catch pen with her back against a gate. Ipo then lunged against Pam again, smashing into Pam so hard that the gate latch behind Pam bent and gave way.
Yes, Pam's shoulder was between that panicked alpaca and the gate.
At this point, the vet decided it would be wise to sedate Ipo Nani prior to looking at her foot. This time, Pam held Ipo from the side while the vet held her around the neck attempting to inject the sedative into a vein in Ipo's neck. Again, Ipo panicked and lunged toward a gate. This time it was the vet who was backed against the gate so hard the gate latch bent and gave way.
Our catch pen consists of four gates. Two of them now have bent latches.
Eventually, the sedative was injected and rest of the treatment was relatively uneventful. The foot was bandaged, the bandage was wrapped in vet wrap, the vet wrap was wrapped in two layers of duct tape and the whole thing secured by more white tape.
"Keep it dry", the vet told Pam, "You might be able to order a boot that will help."
I might add that this is Western Oregon in January, two days following one of the wettest forty-eight hour periods on record. There is no "dry" in our pastures. The shed floor may be "less wet", but there is no dry.
Pam set out on the internet to find Ipo Nani a boot.
It is the morning after the infamous incident in the shed and I am at work with knots in my stomach. I check my watch wondering if Pam has called the vet yet.
5:45 AM. Hopefully Pam is still in bed and sound asleep. I return to setting up the garden center for a day of sales. When I'm sure an hour or so has passed, I check, my watch again.
5:50 AM.
My morning continued in a similar fashion. It's a wonder I survived, much less accomplished anything.
Eventually, the clock ticked it's slow and painful way around to 8:00 AM when the vet's office would answer calls. Then it's 8:15, then 8:30. I don't recall if Pam called me or if I called her.
The vet didn't have time to see Ipo until late in the day. I wanted to scream.
It was a tough day at work, trying to focus on my job instead of worrying about Ipo.
When I arrived home, I got the following report. And here I must digress because if I'd started work as early as memory serves, I'd have been home for a late afternoon appointment. However, I recall arriving home after dark and well after the vet had left which means I must have started my shift somewhat later than 5:00 AM. However, the hours certainly make, for a good tale.
I found out essentially what I already knew. Ipo had a very deep cut to the pad of her foot -- essentially she had sliced much of the pad off her foot and sliced down into the fatty layer beneath the pad. The vet bandaged Ipo's foot and gave us some antibiotics. The events leading to the bandaging of the foot are a different story.
When the vet arrived, Pam brought Ipo into the catch pen and held Ipo so the vet could look at her foot. Pam was probably holding Ipo around the neck and probably had worked her up against one wall of the catch pen. When the vet attempted to pick up Ipo's foot, Ipo panicked and lunged against Pam. Pam was forced backward into a corner of the catch pen with her back against a gate. Ipo then lunged against Pam again, smashing into Pam so hard that the gate latch behind Pam bent and gave way.
Yes, Pam's shoulder was between that panicked alpaca and the gate.
At this point, the vet decided it would be wise to sedate Ipo Nani prior to looking at her foot. This time, Pam held Ipo from the side while the vet held her around the neck attempting to inject the sedative into a vein in Ipo's neck. Again, Ipo panicked and lunged toward a gate. This time it was the vet who was backed against the gate so hard the gate latch bent and gave way.
Our catch pen consists of four gates. Two of them now have bent latches.
Eventually, the sedative was injected and rest of the treatment was relatively uneventful. The foot was bandaged, the bandage was wrapped in vet wrap, the vet wrap was wrapped in two layers of duct tape and the whole thing secured by more white tape.
"Keep it dry", the vet told Pam, "You might be able to order a boot that will help."
I might add that this is Western Oregon in January, two days following one of the wettest forty-eight hour periods on record. There is no "dry" in our pastures. The shed floor may be "less wet", but there is no dry.
Pam set out on the internet to find Ipo Nani a boot.
posted by Upper Alpacas | 6:40 PM
3 Comments:
I hope Ipo's foot heals properly. The poor girl. Please keep us updated on her progress. We had our first scary event Sunday when one of our girls choked while eating feed. She was fine after about 10 minutes but it took me much longer to recover.
Choke is a scary one! They love those pellets and they try so hard to eat all the pellets they can before anybody else can get them.
Our first choke incident turned out to be a rock half the size of my fist. How Jubilee got it half-swallowed in the first place, I'll never know. She managed to cough it out which is a good thing because we were so new to alpacas at that point we wouldn't have had a clue what to do.
ouch....
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