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.

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.

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.

In Process, No Progress

Two days off -- on a weekend for a change -- and I feel like I still have nothing to write about. Everything I'm working on is still in progress and while the title says no progress, the truth is I've made a little progress.

A LITTLE progress. Yes, this entire post is devoted to the slight increase in the diameter of yarn on the bobbin! We're talking a quarter-inch of additional diameter at all of two hooks on the flyer.

I'm still spinning the same black suri from December and January. I'm still spinning very fine, so the thread accumulates slowly. I still haven't had the opportunity to re-card the fiber so it's still spinning very, very slowly. (Actually, I don't know how much faster I'd be spinning with a perfect fiber preparation, but that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.)

Like the rest of my life at the moment, my fiber world is in process -- and I don't feel like I'm making any progress.