Plasma - $178.80

I've always considered Camelid plasma a nice to have item for the alpaca owner. I never needed it, but did sell the bag to nearby farms a couple of times when they had a cria that needed a transfusion. That all changed December 28, 2004. I now consider plasma to be a must have item. I've needed it twice now, June 28th, 2006, 18 months to the day from the first time. The first story is at http://aaalpacas.com/plasma.html
At 6:00 AM, Pati came in and told me we had a nose. "Cool! Who?" "Camel Sunday"
That's perfect, she's day 336, an easy birther with lots of milk just like her mom. I grabbed a cup of coffee and walked down. Yep, a non-event, birth was going great, and the cria was on the ground in a minute.
Problem, not breathing. I thumped on her chest, she took a breath, and I them picked her up to be sure the lungs were well drained, all seemed well.
She didn't flop around as much as I'm used to, but I didn't have any major concerns, until 30 minutes later, she had yet to try to cush. Placenta passed, and we took them to the nursery. I couldn't get the scale to zero, so I didn't get a weight. I guessed 15 lbs. I did try Karo syrup, and it did nothing. I put a call in to the vet.
The vet called right away, she had just returned from a long weekend and had a ton of emergencies, so it would be much later in the day before she could show up. I had a small amount of alpaca colostrum in the fridge, started thawing that and a bag of plasma. With Pati's help, we got a small amount of colostrum out of Carmel, but she's a strong girl, and didn't really appreciate the idea. Along with what I thawed, we only had 10cc. The cria really did not have much suckling abilities, so I used a dosing syringe, I got that, some karo, and pedialite in her. I did manage to get 1 0z of plasma in her at about 10:30, along with some pedialite and karo. I tried to get her to stand, she struggled, and ended up with an umbilical bleed. I stopped it with styptic.
At 10:50, I went to give her more plasma, and she had a grey in her eyes, I doubted she's last another hour, but actually said out loud "Not on my watch, you don’t." I was determined to give it my best shot. I got about 20cc's in her, and as I did, Carmel gave me kind of a nibble kiss on the cheek. I really felt that she knew I was trying to help. Because of that, I went inside and grabbed a container and decided to try again to milk her, with no assistance. Carmel not only stood there, she actually put her leg back and raised it to allow better access. Yep, she knew. I'm not great at milking, and only got 3cc's out of her, and into the cria it went.
At 11:20, more plasma, and I got her up on her feet. She needed steadying, and it was apparent that she was dysmature, as she was completely down on her pasterns. She only stayed up for a minute, but it was progress. I continued with plasma, colostrum, and pedialite about every 30 minutes, and got her to stand each time, and she did stand almost 3 minutes one time. At 2:45, she wouldn't get up at all, so I figured we were going downhill.
I kept at it, got her up from then on, and at 4:30, she actually got up by herself for the first time. I continued, adding goat milk into the equation at 6:30, and at about midnight, she got a large amount, and I figured we both needed some sleep.
I was thrilled to see her up and nursing at 5:00 the next morning, and she continued to do so every 30 minutes. Her weight was 15.2, she didn't have much in the way of energy, it seemed to hurt to walk, so she mostly stayed down. The vet was out to look at her, an IgG was done which came back good, and we decided to keep her in the small area until her legs tightened up.
Late in the day on the 30th, we decided to go ahead and name her. It's Vanilla Sundae.
On July 4th, she was looking great, so we opened up the nursery, and she now is terrorizing the rest of the animals.
Life IS good.
$178.80 for the plasma. Compared to vet costs and risks with transfusions, or the possibility of her not making it, I'd call that cheap.
The price of plasma went up on July 1st, so it'd be about $270 for the bag now. Still, well worth it.

Wobbly on the legs, down on the pasterns. The lower picture is first attempt to pee