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A Tale of Two Handlers

A Tale of Two Handlers – A case study in Containment not Restraint! By Julie Taylor-Browne

On Camelidynamics Courses we teach how to handle alpacas and llamas in such a way that they stand still for us. We do this by making them feel safe and a key element in this is by not restraining them but containing them. That means working in a small area where they are free to move if they need to, but not so much that it is makes our job too hard. We aim to keep them in balance, because a camelid out of balance is a worried - and therefore more difficult to handle- camelid. When they are restrained in the usual arm wrapped round the neck ‘hold’, we invariably throw them (and ourselves) out of balance and end up doing what I call – ‘alpaca wrestling’. I have noticed a tendency amongst people whose animals do not behave in the way they would like to use adjectives such as ‘wilful’ and ‘stubborn’. Yet the more I work with animals, particularly camelids I have come to appreciate that prey animals such as camelids react in ways we don’t want, simply because of fear, pain or fear of pain and that it is our job as owners to reduce these in any way we are able. One such ‘difficult’ alpaca was Murphy……

Murphy is a fully grown, gelded male, owned by very nice, caring alpaca owner and was bred by a well known and well respected breeder. I had met this male on a previous occasion because he was very resistant to having his legs picked up to have his toenails trimmed and would struggle and leap about. In the words of his owner – ‘when restrained he just goes ballistic!’ His owner and her husband are retired, and frankly, this boy was too strong for them and he knew it. I had shown them how to balance Murphy in a Camelidynamics technique known as the Bracelet and had trimmed Murphy’s toenails whilst they were on the ground, an approach that was much safer for all concerned. The Bracelet is not a hold or grip, simply a balance and when combined with a ratchet signal, a way of helping the alpaca stay still.

The owner had called out the vet to examine Murphy who had a jaw abscess, a common enough occurrence in animals of this age. The owner held him quietly in the Bracelet and he stood nicely waiting for the vet to examine him. Unfortunately when the vet took over she handled him in a way which threw him off balance and she then restrained him tightly to examine and then inject him. The alpaca struggled and she called for backup in the form of the owner’s husband. At this point in the drama Murphy managed to rear and throw the husband onto the ground, he also cracked the back of his head on an upright post and was lucky not to sustain a worse injury. The vet managed to inject him anyway and left muttering that she had never encountered such a strong wilful alpaca and that huge bulls were easier to handle. Her recommendation was to build a crush or chute in which to handle him.

The owner contacted me to get my comments on some plans she had seen on the internet for handling chutes that could be made at home. However, the plans offered no advice on how to entice the animal into it and how to stop it struggling once in there. The proposed chute looked dangerous to me – with plenty of opportunities for the animal to catch its leg and break it. Equally, I have heard of similar wooden chutes being destroyed in a matter of seconds by scared camelids!

In the meantime matters had gone from bad to worse, the first vet went on holiday and another vet arrived. 6’2” and a rugby player he felt confident that Murphy wouldn’t be a problem unfortunately Murphy, who conveniently has his centre of gravity a lot lower than a tall vet, struggled and resisted and was generally very difficult. This vet advised the owner that a) the abscess could be very bad and therefore very expensive possibly necessitating a visit to the surgery and then possibly to the veterinary school (with added sedation costs, of course) and then b) that Murphy was such a dangerous animal euthanasia should be considered. Fortunately the caring owner wanted time to think and didn’t let the vet do the deed there and then. I spoke to her the morning of Murphy’s fatal appointment.

I take animals for retraining when they are too difficult for the owners to handle. Rearing is, to an alpaca, a successful way to stop their handler doing something they are frightened of or which hurts. A rearing alpaca is a scary thing as they are taller than us and are better able to knock us off our balance. In at least two cases I know of, the owners have found them too difficult and before remedial help came in the form of Camelidynamics, the alpacas also faced an uncertain future.

I told the owner to hold off the execution and that we would sort something out. Since Marty McGee ran her first Advanced Clinic in the UK last September we now have a number of skilled and talented Camelidynamics Handlers in the UK. I was very grateful to be offered help immediately by both Helen MacDonald and Jay Holland who were both within an hour’s travelling time. Jay, who has the Handler Seal, was able to drive over to Murphy, halter, load and resettle him on his farm almost immediately. Twenty four hours later, Murphy was being handled safely and successfully and his abscess was being treated. The first photo shows Murphy being contained calmly and effectively whilst being injected.

I use the bracelet for nearly all routine husbandry tasks in my herd, including injecting, drawing blood, scanning and I recently used it to hold a 4 year old male during a 20 minute operation on his eye. No sedation was needed, although the vet and I were prepared to do this if needed. Where animals are too frightened to have this much contact with handlers, we have a number of other ‘tools’ we can use. All of these follow the principles of keeping the animal in balance, containing them and not restraining them.

The second photo shows another method for toenail trimming and injecting. We have simply made a small catch pen under which you can reach to trim nails on the ground. A client of mine has taken this concept even further and has taken out the bottom bar to make access easier and has put down paving slabs to make a solid surface. I tempt my animals into the normal sized catch pen where I feed them everyday and then simply introduce another hurdle once they are in to make it smaller. I can also inject in the same configuration. To help alpacas feel safe there are also other alpacas around them and next to them in catch pens. I would never separate a single alpaca off to do any routine husbandry task. I hope that this article has helped to show that camelids don’t need to be restrained – and that handling them with respect and understanding by learning a few new skills can make your life and theirs much easier, more pleasant – and in some cases, perhaps even longer….

If you would like to find out more about Camelidynamics, including courses, training, equipment and Handlers, please go to www.carthveanalpacas.com or e-mail Julie at taylor.browne@clara.net