How long do alpacas live?

Joy Whitehead shows how the right management can help them to live longer

- Joy Whitehead

Alpacas can suffer from all sorts of health problems, just like humans or any other animals. Just as you wouldn't jump into deep water if you couldn't swim, many problems with alpacas can be avoided. So it's important to understand how to care for them in regard to diet, grazing, fencing, shelter and transport. On the other hand a local farmer, when he heard I was starting out with alpacas, said 'when you have livestock you will have dead stock', which is a truism we just have to deal with when it happens, but meanwhile taking the best care we possibly can of these wonderful creatures.

To get the worst over with first: if one of your alpacas dies, and the cause it not obvious, it may be necessary to have a post mortem examination done by a vet. This is the best way to protect the rest of your herd, as preventative treatment can be started right away, e.g. in the case of an undiagnosed parasite problem, or animals can be separated in the case of contagious disease.

We have had just a couple of cancer cases over our 33 years of breeding alpacas but, considering we are a large farm, that doesn't seem too bad! Birth defects have also been few and far between. If an alpaca needs to be euthanised for any reason your vet can do this by introducing a drug into the bloodstream and the animal just goes quietly to sleep. Then, as with all animal deaths, both pets and farm animals, it is illegal to bury a carcass. Your vet would normally dispose of smaller animals. However, larger animals need to be collected by a knacker man - your vet would know one. In either case the animals would be cremated.

AN UNEXPECTED PROBLEM