I should make it clear that the hernia kit is for alpacas and has nothing to do with me getting a hernia as I dispose of the poop

The excellent news is that a farm less than 1/2 a mile away has started to create a large organic garden and so want all the alpaca poop we can spare, in return for fresh produce next year. Which is just pretty amazing is so many ways. I was starting to wonder what we were going to do with the ever growing pile and I had concluded that spreading it onto the hay field was my best option...but I hadn't quite worked out how I was going to do that.
This solution is truly heaven sent.

October is in theory burn season before the winter ban on burning to protect air quality. But the summer has been so long and hot that I can't see there being any burning until next spring now.

The official alpaca hernia repair kit has arrived and we will be putting it to good use over the weekend.



Essentially what you get is a roll of Vet Wrap and a roll of Elsatikon, and if you read the Blog entry for yesterday you will discover which to use. Together with two hernia supports.

These are hard to describe but this picture of a support in profile, next to a water bottle to give some idea of size will help explain.



Essentially you use the bump to hold in the bits that are coming out and tape it into place on the cria. The reason you have two is so that you can wash one while using the other. They can get a bit dirty especially on boys who sometimes urinate onto the bandage. But in any case as you are taping up near to the umbilical cord which is an open door for infection its good to be as clean as possible.

Adrian Stewart