Herd Health - winter edition

I regularly tell folks that alpacas are the perfect starter livestock because they require little in the way of hands-on care. This is because they are quite hearty and fairly self-sustaining animals. That said, there are a few things they need, but fortunately those tasks aren’t exceptionally difficult to perform. I’d say, especially for those new to livestock, the hardest part is getting up the gumption to do it.

Generally we perform a ‘herd health’ twice a year - in late spring and in early winter.

So what is a herd health check? Kind of just as it sounds. It’s a check-up. We get our hands on each member of the herd to truly assess their condition, similar to your own annual physical. It’s a form of preventive medicine.

The early winter check, normally done before the snow flies, is probably the most important. The alpacas are mostly in ‘full fleece’ meaning several inches of fiber have grown in since the spring shearing. While their fleece is the perfect winter coat, it is also an incredible mask for underlying health issues. And as prey animals, alpacas are naturally stoic - meaning they’ll hide any illness or weakness - to their own detriment. Visually, a member of the herd might look good up-close, but could be rail thin underneath all that fiber.

We perform a few other husbandry tasks in the winter check, and instead of trying to explain it all, I thought I’d show you with a quick video! We tried to record it in a variety of ways, this was the 5th take and probably one of the better ones! Please excuse our novice cinematography and the slightly uncooperative alpaca.