Don’t Panic!

As the UK camelid population grows, there is an increasing demand for large animal practitioners to tend to alpaca and llama patients. A lack of understanding of their physiology and clinical quirks due to (until recently) little undergraduate teaching on the subject, can render novel or emergency camelid calls stressful. But don’t panic – you have many skills that are easily transferrable to camelids, and coupled with a little bit of nuanced knowledge, they can help you triage and treat emergency cases.

Bridge Knowledge Gaps

Practices may be reluctant to take on a novel species, particularly one that can suffer from accelerated disease processes, carrying emotional and commercial value as both companions and commercial stock. In the author’s experience of working with camelids, it is evident that most owners wish to pursue diagnostics and embark upon schemes and practices that benefit their herd, which could be welcome news to vets already offering such services to different species. With insight from experienced production animal veterinarians, there is potential to reduce communicable disease transmission among other farmed species. It is therefore in all our interest that camelid owners are informed on matters of disease risk reduction and biosecurity – to do this, we must, as production vets, make efforts to extend clinical services in the hope of having these important discussions.

Session Outline

This session aims to arm cattle practitioners with the skills required to undertake clinical examination and determine differential diagnoses for common, emergent camelid presentations. Emphasis will be put on breaking down camelid triage, and giving you east steps to provide first opinion care. It will identify differential diagnoses for common emergency presentations (with indicators of urgency) as well as identification of treatment pathways that are directly comparable to the more familiar species. Avenues for diagnostics will be discussed (as certain laboratory tests for common diseases can differ), and a camelid calendar will outline key times of year for risk periods.

• •How to use your transferrable skills to care for camelids in emergency situations
• •Understanding common camelid emergencies
• •Triage with confidence
• •First aid and emergency supportive care
• •Interpreting first line diagnostics
• •Supporting referral decisions