Feed and Vet 10 Emaciated Alpacas!

Hello!

My name is Betzy, aka, the Fidgety Farm Girl.

TLDR: We picked up a small herd of 10 emaciated alpacas this week, and they desperately need food, supplies, and veterinary care!

On Monday, I got a call from a friend who shows and breeds beautiful alpacas, asking me if I knew of anyone in my 4-H program who might be able to take some male or female alpacas. She said she was contacted by some people who were looking to liquidate their herd due to some personal health concerns, but when she went to look at them, they were all underweight, and there were two very skinny moms with babies that needed urgent attention. She was thinking she would immediately take the one mama that looked the worst, but wanted to see if we could help find the rest of the alpacas homes as soon as possible.

When she sent me photos, my heart melted and also broke. Alpacas are hardcore herd animals and they get very stressed if they aren't with their herd. I thought about my empty front pasture, discussed it with the husband, and we offered to take BOTH mamas and tiny babies in hopes that keeping them together would decrease the major stress a big move would incur, especially since they would need a quarantine period and were so underweight.

I also called another friend, who is a board member for a local alpaca program, to put out feelers and find the rest of the herd a temporary or even permanent home. There were some male alpacas on the farm, but I don't keep male alpacas. She said she might actually know someone who could take them.

A friend of hers, Seth, stepped up and offered to take all of the males! He didn’t really have the correct set up ready to go, but he hustled and got a pasture set up and ready to take the boys!

Finding homes for alpacas isn't always easy, especially when they are not registered, and have unknown problems that need to be addressed. We have no idea how old most of them are.

We were able to do the impossible and found them all placement within 48 hours.

We pulled up with 3 trucks and 2 trailers to whisk these sweet babies off to their new homes. There were 5 male alpacas and 5 females. The nursing mamas are very emaciated, and completely just skin and bones from having to nurse their babies and their 3-4 month old babies are the size of most newborn alpacas. I ended up taking one more alpaca than I had expected who is the older daughter of the grey mama; the more the merrier, right?

So I now have 5 more VERY hungry mouths to feed, and another young family has a brand new herd of 5 sweet alpaca boys to rehabilitate! I have everything I need for my own girls, but I don't have a lot of extra supplies, and the young family who took the boys is starting from scratch. They have never had alpacas before, and, out of the kindness of their hearts, they agreed to take on 5 underweight boys who need a lot of TLC.

I set up an Amazon wish list for some of the supplies I need, but ALL of the alpacas will need to be fully vetted, lots of extra high-quality hay, supplements, minerals, and so much more to get them back to a reasonable weight and get them healthy again.

The funds raised with this campaign will go directly to pay our specialty camelid vet for BOTH herds, and any additional funds will go to purchase high-quality alfalfa hay, grain, minerals, and other supplies to keep these sweet babies as healthy as possible as we go into the Colorado winter season.