Ipo Nani's Boot

Ipo Nani's Boot Part One: Loss of Sleep

This story starts in the middle of the night in early January. I think it was around midnight on the 4th.

Klunk-Klunk-Klunk-Klunk. There's a loud metallic sound emanating from one of the alpaca sheds.

Suddenly, I'm very awake. That's the unmistakable sound of a trapped alpaca trying to get free. My immediate assumption is that one of the boys has slipped off their precarious ramp and gotten all tangled up in the fence.

Klunk-Klunk-Klunk-Klunk

Pam and I are both bolting up out of bed at this point. Pam jumps into her clothes. I grab my robe, step into my barn boots, and grab a flashlight. We race out to the sheds expecting to find one of the boys trapped in the fence and injured. However, all four boys are up and about near the girls' shed and they don't appear to be limping. I wait outside the pasture while Pam herds the boys into the catch pen and starts checking on them.

We can't find injury.

Thinking the boys are unhurt, I turn my flashlight to the girls pasture.

There is blood on the ground.

Lots of blood.

I mention the blood to Pam and she unceremoniously ushers the boys from the catch pen.

I notice Ipo Nani is limping. Looks like the right rear leg.

Then I notice there is blood on the ground every time she moves that foot.

We herd Ipo Nani into the catch pen and try to look at the foot. Of course, she's in pain and terrified and we can't see much in the cold and dark.

Did I mention the rain and mud?

At this point, we decided to put Ipo in the chute in an effort to get a better look at the injury. While Pam went for a halter, I ran inside to get dressed and grab medical supplies -- gauze, betadine, bandages, hot water, etc.

Examination of Ipo's foot revealed a deep cut in the pad, with much of the pad apparently sliced away. Application of hot water and betadine to the foot caused Ipo to leap, the chute to sway, and all involved to fear injury despite the restraints of the chute. Three things, however, were immediately apparent. First, Ipo wasn't going to bleed to death before daylight. Second, this wound would require scrubbing and a vet. Third, there wasn't much we could do with the panicked alpaca and the current situation. We put Ipo back in the pasture and went to bed.

Neither of us slept very well.

Naturally, I had an early shift, so at 5:00 AM, I left for work on very limited sleep. Pam would have to deal with the alpaca and the vet in daylight -- without my help. And that, is a story for a different day.