Gracie

On July 3rd, I got a call from a fellow Camelid Rescuer (The Camelidae Family consists of Llama, Alpacas and Camels) that he had a miniature female Alpaca that had been rescued from a man in Page by a woman who rescued the dogs at his house.

Eric didn’t tell me the condition of this Alpaca he just asked if I could take her since I had females and he has males.

I said yes, I’ll be right over. I hitched up the horse trailer to our beat up red Ram truck and drove 15 minutes to Eric’s. When I pulled in his driveway, what I saw was not a miniature alpaca, but an alpaca so severely emaciated that she looked like a skeleton with brown curly wool covering it.

I was concerned as in 16 days I was leaving for two weeks. I wondered if I could get her in good enough shape so she could be in the pasture with my other girls.

When we went to halter her we found she was still in a fighting mood. This was good.

Eric and I practice a way of dealing with Camelids that’s unusual. We give them space. We don’t force them. And we have learned to speak their body language. (Thanks to Marty at CamelidDynamics)

This means when we lead a Camelid with a halter and rope we don’t tug at them and force them to follow. You apply a little pressure and as soon as they take a step you release the pressure, positively reinforcing the step they took.

Gracie obviously had not been handled much, so this forward progress was very slow. Once I got her in the trailer I wondered if she’d survive the very bumpy ride home.

She did. She was even still standing up.

I put the other girls out to pasture with water and shed and closed the gate to the barn yard.

It took me 30 minutes in the hot sun to get Gracie to go 20 feet.

She didn’t know me, or the surroundings. Just the day before she’d been lying prostrate in a field in Page with her 7 month old boy.

My Llama Trinity sounded the alarm (yelps) she didn’t even recognize her own species. Once I got Gracie in the barn yard, I gave her hay and some llama pellets.  Then I stood in the Turkey barn where I could see her but she couldn’t see me.

She went in to the barn and layed down.

Two hours later I checked on her and she had eaten all the pellets and some hay. So I gave her more pellets. they were full of vitamins, mineral s and calories, unlike hay.

This routine of going to check on her every 2-3 hours continued for six days. On the 7th day  the bet came and drew her blood. I asked hi and some other Camelid owners what they thought of putting her in with the others girls, as camelids are pack animals. But they all felt she was too fragile.

The blood test was to tell us if she had anything incurable like kidney failure. So I anxiously awaited the results.

The next day the vet called saying she had nothing immediately deadly but she did have high white blood cell counts, which could be luekemia. I was relieved. Each day she was putting on weight and eating and drinking well.

I had to wait until Thursday for the results of the Valley fever test, but felt positive and excited that I was going to this girl in good shape again.

Thursday came with the report that she didn’t have valley fever. Yay!

I was told equine senior feed had been recommended by alpaca consultants for emaciated alpacas.

So I got her some of that which she loved. Friday night after her 7p feeding, I was feeling excited. She was doing so well, that I was going to open the gate between her and the other girls the next day and see what happened.

But Saturday morning, brought other ideas. Gracie had had diarrhea in the night. I cleaned it and gave her fresh food and water ever hopeful. But at subsequent check-in the diarrhea was getting worse and the vet was off for the weekend.

I stopped feeding her the equine food as that was the only change I’d made. I gave her electrolytes and psyllium in her food.

But the diarrhea kept getting worse and she stopped getting up when Jim and I would treat her face for flies.

Monday I called the vet and took him a stool sample. Coccidia, a cruel intestinal parasite that flares up when the animal gets stressed.

Why now? I wondered when she was doing so well? Was it the food, the flies, not letting her in with the girls?

The vet prescribed some medicine in her water which she drank.

The next day she was and about and eating pretty well. That was Tuesday, four days since the diarrhea began.

Then Wednesday, I had to put water in her mouth and she wouldn’t eat at all. I left her Wednesday night hopeful. She was taking her medicine and if she could make it until Saturday when the 5 days of medicine treatment would be complete, I knew she would be ok.

For Gracie, Saturday never came.

The next morning she was lying outside the bard, her long, thin neck curled behind her, and her diarrhea stained tail full of flies and her legs kicking the air.

Gracie didn’t like the sun, so she had probably been out there since the night. I knew once an animal lies down prone and can’t get up, it’s time to put them down.

But Gracie didn’t wait for the vet.

Twenty minutes later Gracie died in the shade of the barn, where my neighbor had helped me move her onto a pile of soft hay.

Gracie isn’t the first animal I’ve lost. As a wildlife rehabilitator I’ve seen more die than survive. And every time I ask myself why do I do this? Do I want to keep doing this?

The answer is always yes.

Yes, because I did my best for her.

Yes, because I gave her a loving place her last few days.

Yes, because every one of the animals that comes through my door, whether they make it or not, teaches me something.

They teach me about love and presence and so much more.

They teach me about perseverance and forgiveness. No matter the extent of cruelty humans place on animals, they never hold a grudge.

I think I endured a lot as a child, but it was nothing compared to what some humans have done to animals I’ve rescued. And they hang on. I never understand why, but they teach me to hang on during my darkest days.

Animals show me the universal force of love and well being that I can’t always see or feel when I spend too much time around people. But I always feel it around animals and the woods.

So maybe the reason I keep rescuing animals are selfish ones. But I like to believe the animals are getting something out of it too.