Bond’s story

Young Bond seems to be a regular visitor to this little blog. He got a photo and a mention when he was born a year ago and again when we started shearing. He’s never been quite good enough for the show team, but a photo of him has done well in a couple of competitions – he’s a natural crowd pleaser:

Anyway, the time came for Bond to move on, he was sold as a pet and delivered to his new home in early November. I have to admit that he was an animal that we were a little sorry to see go.

A few weeks later, it started to go wrong for his new owners. We’re still not sure what happened but it looks like he injured a knee and the injury became infected. A vet was called (not one that was very experienced with Alpacas) and prescribed antibiotics and regular dressings. There was no improvement and the vet, on a return visit, told the owners that he may have to be put down. We couldn’t let that happen and swapped him for another brown boy and brought him back to treat ourselves.

He was in a sorry state when we got to look at him, not the owners’ fault, his leg clearly needed quite a bit of TLC that they couldn’t really have been expected to provide.

Day One, after cleaning and flushing

Not a pretty sight, but much better than it was before cleaning.

We turned one end of our veranda into a sick bay and brought in another young boy as a companion.

The daily treatment session, with concerned audience

We changed the antibiotics (we have a great and very supportive vet) and worked on the knee, cleaning and debriding the wound twice each day. It wasn’t long before it started to pay off.

Day ten, almost healed

Bond has now made a full recovery and is back with the rest of the herd. We’re taking the hint though and he’s off the ‘for sale’ list. He’s a great character and is so good natured that we’ll use him for country shows and school visits.

I like this convalescence lark – bring me another daiquiri!