Rafa's x ray

This month seems to have flown by.  We have spent a huge amount of time either working or at the vets. The month began with a trip to Cordoba vetinary hospital with Rafa the alpaca. After the tragedies that Nigel and Ginny Cobb have faced, we all felt it would be in a good idea to have an x ray done on Rafa before he left Ronda, to come up to us. When this was done there were a few little marks on his lungs, that the vet was a little unsure of. Therefore when he came up to us he was on a course of antibiotics and after the futurity we arranged a follow up x ray as a precaution.

We began preparing him, by halter training him, this was the best thing we could have done. After just a week of putting the halter on him for about 10 minutes a day, he was walking comfortably outside of the paddock without a care in the world. Cassandra his mum however, was much more concerned and watched him intently from over the fence. When the day arrived Alan managed to scoop him up, and get him into the back of the car. He did not particularly like the journey and hummed rather loudly the whole way. We found the hospital, parked up, and got Rafa out. As we walked down the road, with Rafa on his halter and lead, to the entrance. He was really causing quite a stir. As Alan and I stood outside talking, Alan told me to look at the entrance there were about eight people all standing outside the doors, some in vets 'greens' looking at us, with our dear little alpaca. Everyone was smiling, alpacas seem to encourage people to smile!

All ready to go

We were welcomed by the vet who doubled up as radiographer, and we made our way to the x ray department. In and out of doors, and up and down corridors, Rafa was a star! At one time I looked around the x ray room and I counted 12 people, all in there with us, many taking Rafa’s photograph and asking if they could touch him. As you can imagine Rafa started to get a little nervous and so the vet suggested Alan and I both put on the protective wear to help hold him, whilst he stood on the platform by the machine. That was fine by us, as long as it helped Rafa become less stressed. After the x ray was finished we all waited in the room with the computer and we were explained every nook, cranny, and any other bits too!

The x ray department

We waited outside in the sunshine with Rafa ,whilst the x ray’s were then put onto a cd for us, again Rafa caused quite a stir. Lots of people were coming up and asking to take his photograph. Many of the people there were vets in training, that would never have seen an alpaca before. There are only approximately 350 in the whole of Spain, so there are a rare sight here. We were asked if we could provide the hospital with the original x ray that was taken, so the vet could compare it. When he saw the x ray he said there was no change so that was the way his lung should look. We all breathed a huge sigh of relief!

Waiting for the cd