BARBERS POLE WORM

The Barbers Pole worm is, from experience, a deadly worm. It lives in alpacas without any outward sign until its too late and the alpaca suddenly falls ill and is too far gone to save. This is one of the reasons it is important to inspect your alpacas on a daily basis. I do not mean you have to put them in a yard and do a hands on inspection; watch them and see if they are behaving "normally". Each alpaca has its own individual character - get to know your alpacas. It certainly helps if something is wrong.

These worms spread very quickly through your alpaca herd if you do not maintain clean paddocks. It is worthwhile cleaning up the dung piles twice a week to avoid the larvae spreading.

POISONING BY PLANTS

Recently one of my young males died after eating the growing tip of a wisteria plant. I am still awaiting the results of the autopsy however it appears his kidneys and liver stopped functioning properly. The DPI advised they had never had a reported animal poisoning from wisteria although there are reported instances of children being poisoned through putting the seed pods in their mouths. I have seen other alpaca eat the leaves of the wisteria with no ill effect but this little boy ate approximately 12cm of the growing tip and was sick within fifteen minutes. He showed the classic signs of poisoning - labored breathing, drooling, unable to stand, severe stomach pain. I managed to get him over the initial poisoning however it appears irreparable damage was done to his organs.

This prompted me to check on the web for what other plants in the garden were poisonous and boy was I in for a surprise. The amount of everyday common plants in EVERYONE'S garden that are poisonous is staggering. Bulbs are definitely up there as well as common hedging plants and other ornamental plants. Its worth checking out the web for a list of these plants (you will be surprised).

Information supplied by Cathy & Eric Tighe - www.healwithease.com

It is believed that the causes of pink eye in sheep and goats is different to that of cattle.  This may be the case, however the symptoms are very similar and in using homeopathic medicine we treat the onset of pink eye, eye abscess, cloudiness or opaqueness of the eyes with the same remedy.

Symptoms of Pink eye in stock animals

The infection begins when the invading organisms cause swelling and redness to the eyelid lining (conjunctiva) and surrounding tissues of one or both eyes. The eye is very sensitive to light and may have an excessive amount of tearing. These animals can have an increased temperature and often go off feed due to the pain associated with the infection. With time (2-6 days), the eye becomes cloudy and an ulcer may develop.

At the first signs of pink eye, even in the conjunctivitis stage stock animals can be treated with the Heal with Ease Abscess remedy.  The earlier it is treated the quicker the results, however full healing has been achieved in cattle that have had pink eye for several months.

Here on the farm we check the cattle and sheep when we bring them through the yards and treat any animal with cloudiness (pink eye) immediately with the Abscess remedy.  Just a drop on the nose is all that is required to achieve this healing.  In serious cases you may need to repeat treatment 2-3 times over a few weeks.