I'm on Twitter (@ElizabethWoodky) and I follow (and am followed by) some alpaca farms. On Friday, one of my Twitter friends attending the AOBA National Conference in Ohio made the following tweet:
"ARI will be offering BVD testing by Geneseek. They will test from the bloodcard."
Although I did a quick (very brief) internet search for more info on Friday, I have not heard an official announcement from ARI (Alpaca Registry Inc.). I'm very excited about this because the BVD testing is an extra expense and trip to the vet for us with our crias.
I'll post a link if I hear more info on this topic. This will be great if we can have BVDV testing done at the same time we are registering our crias with ARI!!
On another topic, Rene' just purchased a microscope and fecal testing kit so we can start doing our own fecal tests on the farm! Way cool! First we'll have to read directions (ugh! how boring!) and then we'll figure out how to do the testing...I'll keep you posted on our new educational experience!
Showing posts with label BVDV testing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label BVDV testing. Show all posts
Saturday, June 6, 2009
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Preparing for the show
We've only got a week left for final preparations for next weekend's alpaca show. Since I did a poor job of blogging in March and April, I'll fill you in on the details of what we've been doing to prepare.
Recently, we had our vet take blood samples from our alpacas who will be attending the show. One of the show requirements includes testing your alpacas for the presence of an active BVDV (Bovine Viral Diarrhea Virus) infection. This is to prevent any Persistently Infected (PI) alpacas from entering the show facility. It's a good idea to have your animals tested whether you are attending a show or not. Thankfully, to date, our entire herd has all tested negative for BVDV so we are good to go.
We also had to have our vet examine our four alpacas and complete a Certificate of Veterinary Inspection within 30 days of the show. In addition, we have to pay close attention to them during this week to make sure they are still healthy. We'd never want to bring a sick animal to a show and we wouldn't want anyone else to expose a sick animal to ours. A veterinarian will be at the show during check-in to make sure all animals entering the show are healthy. Any sick alpacas won't be allowed in.
This past week, we ordered new stall mats for our show stalls and a couple of new halters so we're patiently awaiting our shipment to arrive.
The show also requires that we worm our animals seven days prior to the show so this weekend we wormed them with Ivermectin and Safeguard.
In addition, we double-checked everyone's microchip with our chip scanner. We had chipped Nuno over a year ago when he was just a cria and had noticed late last year his microchip didn't show up when we scanned him. We thoroughly scanned him today from head to toe and we still couldn't locate the chip. It may have fallen out sometime after inserting last year if we didn't push the needle in far enough. Today we inserted a new chip and I'm confident it will stay put.
During this week, we'll be fine tuning our halter training with the crias. We took Leroy and Lucas for a long walk on Saturday and I was amazed at the major improvement with Lucas. I have to do more work with Frances this week, but I know she'll be fine.
There's still more to do to prepare so I'll keep you posted during the week as our countdown to showtime continues...
Recently, we had our vet take blood samples from our alpacas who will be attending the show. One of the show requirements includes testing your alpacas for the presence of an active BVDV (Bovine Viral Diarrhea Virus) infection. This is to prevent any Persistently Infected (PI) alpacas from entering the show facility. It's a good idea to have your animals tested whether you are attending a show or not. Thankfully, to date, our entire herd has all tested negative for BVDV so we are good to go.
We also had to have our vet examine our four alpacas and complete a Certificate of Veterinary Inspection within 30 days of the show. In addition, we have to pay close attention to them during this week to make sure they are still healthy. We'd never want to bring a sick animal to a show and we wouldn't want anyone else to expose a sick animal to ours. A veterinarian will be at the show during check-in to make sure all animals entering the show are healthy. Any sick alpacas won't be allowed in.
This past week, we ordered new stall mats for our show stalls and a couple of new halters so we're patiently awaiting our shipment to arrive.
The show also requires that we worm our animals seven days prior to the show so this weekend we wormed them with Ivermectin and Safeguard.
In addition, we double-checked everyone's microchip with our chip scanner. We had chipped Nuno over a year ago when he was just a cria and had noticed late last year his microchip didn't show up when we scanned him. We thoroughly scanned him today from head to toe and we still couldn't locate the chip. It may have fallen out sometime after inserting last year if we didn't push the needle in far enough. Today we inserted a new chip and I'm confident it will stay put.
During this week, we'll be fine tuning our halter training with the crias. We took Leroy and Lucas for a long walk on Saturday and I was amazed at the major improvement with Lucas. I have to do more work with Frances this week, but I know she'll be fine.
There's still more to do to prepare so I'll keep you posted during the week as our countdown to showtime continues...
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