This was a bad day

I went out to the barn this morning to do chores. Everything was fine on the girls side (Hula, Sabetha, Caroline, and Patty the dog). However, in the boys' pen, there were drops of blood all over the floor. Huh. This is not good.

I put some feed in their bins. Usually, Titanium and Bam Bam are fighting each other to get to the feed. (We call them "The Clowns" - they fight just like brothers, but they also stick up for each other too. It's pretty neat to watch them.)

Anyway, only Titanium comes in to eat. No Bam Bam. I went to look for him with a sick feeling in my stomach. Found him in the dark, standing up, but limping. I'd been to an alpaca meeting a few days earlier, and they said that alpacas are very stoic animals, and rarely display symptoms of injury / illness. So, I knew this was a bad sign.

Bam Bam had a cut on the back of his left hind leg, just above the knee. My husband and I tried to bandage it, but it was very deep. We were thinking stitches. Because he was upright, and not spurting blood, we waited a few hours until the vet clinic opened at 7 a.m. (Yup, this was all happening at 5 in the morning).

Our vet, Dr. Mike Etter from Lodi Vet Hospital came in the afternoon. My poor Bam Bam has a ruptured Achilles Tendon and went back to the clinic so Dr. Mike could work on him. I just feel sick. Bam Bam got his leg stuck under one of our new steel barn doors, and it sliced right through his tendon. Fortunately, Bam Bam is not a horse, so he can survive with a gimpy leg. If all goes well at the clinic, Bam Bam will have to spend some time confined to his pen in the barn, but will be able to live a near normal life, palling around with his clown friend, Titanium.

I'll breathe much easier when he's home. I know you're not supposed to have favorites, but Bam Bam is such a beautiful boy, and he's got great fiber. He's also got a lot of personality, and is the perfect size to hug. It was really tough this morning seeing him in pain.