Our cria at 4 weeks, 8 weeks and 16 weeks get a Hideject AD&E Vitamin Injection in doses of (1/2ml) (3/4ml) (1ml) respectively.

During the winter months all alpacas will get 1ml of AD&E. We generally only seem to need one injection during winter, (although two is ideal) and one year had to give another in December as it had been so miserable with rain day after day. The younger animals need it more, and darker alpacas more so than the light coloured ones. Many breeders in Otago and Southland will give three shots two months apart during Autumn and Winter. The main ingredient is the Vitamin D3, which alpacas usually soak up from the sun, it keeps their bones strong and healthy. If their Vitamin D levels drop they have difficulty, can get sway/curved backs and their usually straight legs will start to bend.

Another winter job apart from feeding out the supplementary food is to BSC (Body Condition Score each and every alpaca and Llama. It takes next to no time to check their back line to see that they aren't losing weight which is hidden by their fleece growth.

Then our cria at 8 weeks get their first Injection also of 5 in 1 (guarding against Pulpy Kidney and Black Leg, Tetanus etc) which is a sensitiser shot and the booster is given 4 weeks later. The initial sensitiser won't work without the booster.

We also have two pet sheep & four Angora Goats on our property so if the alpacas are in the same paddock as them we give Dectomax, (using the pig rate of 1ml per 33kgs) again in an injection under the skin. Generally only twice a year. But the pregnant females I generally only dose once a year as they are never with our sheep or goats. Again different breeders use different products, it's an individual choice. FEC's (Faecal Egg Counts) are another great way to keep track of your alpacas worm burden.

Every six months (once at shearing time) we give our Alpacas a 5 in 1 injection. This is given under the skin. We work our cria slowly into the same injection cycle as the our older alpacas to make life nice and simple.

We also at shearing time trim toe nails and check teeth. We find that sometimes we have to trim nails three times in the year. This is easily done with two people as long as your alpaca feels safe and in balance. Our alpacas mostly have dark nails, the lighter coloured nails seem to grow much more quickly.