Day 5

7-21-10

First thing this morning, we had to catch all the llamas to vaccinate, draw blood, and collect fecal samples. For the most part, they were fairly easy to handle and three out of four are already somewhat halter-broke. We corralled the last one, and the three of us managed to get the halter on him with no problem. Dr. Guthrie vaccinated each llama, but decided not to draw blood because it was not a necessity and it is very difficult to find a vein on a llama that is bouncing around. I collected fecal samples from the enclosure, and we headed back to the clinic to begin setting up shop for the ring-tailed lemur visits.

The lemurs were fairly easy to capture, with minimal stress to them and us. After corralling each one into a holding pen, Corinne (Dr. Guthrie’s assistant) caught each one in a towel to allow Dr. Guthrie to administer an injection of Telazol to make them go to sleep. At the clinic, we used gas anesthesia to keep them asleep long enough for us to examine each one, administer tuberculin in their right eyelids for a TB test, vaccinate for rabies, draw blood, obtain a rectal swab, and record their microchip numbers.

On the two females, we palpated their scapular areas to locate their birth control implants. We were planning to remove the old implants; however we could not locate them. Dr. Guthrie even shaved their backs to try to visualize an incision scar, but found nothing. Therefore, after performing full physical exams on each, and administering their vaccines, etc., we placed them back in their respective crates and returned them to their keeper.