Hey All from Australia, I have a 6 year old alpaca called Pablo. On December 31 last year, he went down and couldn’t get up. We got him to an emergency vet that day. They determined that he was low on vitamin D so they gave him a shot. By the end of the day he was up and about again. Then on March 8, he went down again. He has not stood up since. He has had 3 different vets look at him. One of them is considered one of the best alpaca vets in Australia, and another the head of the large animal vet at the Murdoch University. None of them can figure out what is wrong with him. The issue appears to be with his rear left leg, so we sent him for a CT scan of his pelvis and spine ($$$!!!). The CT scan showed nothing. We have also had a chiropractor look at him, and a physio visits him weekly. I am aware of muscle atrophy, so since he went down on March 8, I have been massaging his legs 4 times a day, along with leg stretches and several other physio exercises. I’ve been doing this for two months now. He has no sign of any muscle atrophy at all. We have now designed and built or own sling, and every day I lift him with a hoist in the sling and give him more physio daily, I also use a Tens machine on him. He can load bear his front legs and he moves them to turn himself around in the hoist. He can also move his back legs, but they are quite uncoordinated and he can’t put any weight on them. In the pictures of the sling it looks like the straps go under the back of the leg and the out the front of the leg. They don’t. The straps go under the back of the leg and then crosses over to the other side underneath him. The majority of his weight is taken by his sternum. The same applies at the rear. Once he is in the sling he is quite comfortable, and even eats out of our hand while suspended. He appears to be neurologically sound, as every now and again he tries to kick us. We have plans to put his sling on a track so he can attempt to walk a short distance, but this is a bit of a process and might not happen for a few weeks. All his bloods from last week have come back perfect. He is not in pain, bright, full of his usual spirit and he eats and drinks normally. My question is, do you have any idea what might have caused this? Our vet suspects some sort of blunt trauma to the spine. How do I get my boy to walk again? I’m not going to give up on him, and will do whatever I can to get him back on his feet. Any help or advice you could offer me would be greatly appreciated, I've attached his latest blood test results and some pictures of him. You can follow his progress on Instagram: pablo_alpaca_perth or Facebook: “Pablo Alpaca Perth” Thank you!
