I think my camel is dying....

[Donna]

Ok, here's the situation. I have 6 breeder Dromedaries, one male and 5 female. One of my females had her calf 3 and a half weeks ago and though it was fully developed it was stillborn. I had the vet do a necropsy and the results came back with everything ok except he tested positive for Blue tongue. The mother was going down hill so the vet gave her some B vitamin shots and also a Liquimiacin (sp) shot. He did a fecal and she had worms, so I dewormed her real well. All this time she has had diarrhea. She is off her feed and will hardly even eat her favorites like apples and carrots. I believe she also must have Blue tongue after much internet research of my own. But I can't find anything to help me with getting her better since she won't eat much. For the last 2 days I can't make her stand up, and I know this is very bad. I've been having to hand feed her and put her water bucket under her nose just to get her to drink the tiny amounts that she wants. I have her in a large stall with the door open so she could go out in the sun and graze in her knee high grass, but she just lays there.

Is there any ideas that any of you may have to help my precious "Mirage"? I have been raising these wonderful creatures for over 15 years and I have never had anything like this happen.:(

[camel4ever]

Try to drench her with several liters of fresh ruminal fluid of another ruminant (you can get it at your local slughter house: just get the rumen content, pour water, mix up vigorously and then roughly filter). Use animals from your area and that are feeding on the same diet. To stimulate the appetite provide some common livestock salt in granular format. Camel love very much salt. You may have to hand feed her teh salt a few time if she is not used. Try to raise her to standing even if you have to pull her up. Let me know how is going (camel4ever@fastemail.us)

[Donna]

I have only been moved to this area since May, so I will have to ask my new vet where the local slaughter house is, and cows would be the only ruminant they would have, but is this treatment you're advising me of, one that you know about from camels that sound like they have the same symptoms as my camel? And yes, I always keep loose mineral salt for all my camels, and I try to get her to take some from my hands each day. She is just so bad off. I will go and call my vet now, thank you so much. I will check back in here in a couple of hours.

[Cameleer]

If I remember right and if your vet thinks this procedure is needed, what they do is pump some stomach fluid out of one camel and then pump it into the sick camel.

[camel4ever]

I have only been moved to this area since May, so I will have to ask my new vet where the local slaughter house is, and cows would be the only ruminant they would have, but is this treatment you're advising me of, one that you know about from camels that sound like they have the same symptoms as my camel? And yes, I always keep loose mineral salt for all my camels, and I try to get her to take some from my hands each day. She is just so bad off. I will go and call my vet now, thank you so much. I will check back in here in a couple of hours.
As a general rule Blue tongue is not deadly to camels. If I understand correctly your vet has rule out serious general conditions and he has already treated witha broad spectrum antibiotic. The reason to drench the sick camel with ruminal fluid is somehow to "kick start" his ruminal activity with all the beneficial consequences. Is simpler to use fresh ruminal fluyid from slaughtered animal since the long neck of camel will make the process of collecting fluid from a healthy camel time consuming. Ideally you should use goat ruminal fluid but of course if they are not around you can use the one of cattle. Salt should be made available in granular form since camel prefer it in this form