Bottle Jaw in alpacas?

Look who came to poke his head through the fence this afternoon to see if it was bottle time?!  Little Asher does think he's entitled to food whenever he sees somebody.  He's on four feeds a day at the minute and is growing nicely.  Thankfully he will take his feed from anyone too which is a real treat for visitors.

 

 

I actually went out with the camera to get some photo's of poor Azrael who seems to be showing signs of bottle jaw, a swelling to the lower jaw.  I've never seen this in alpacas before and I'm not entirely sure that is what this is, but the symptoms fit, it seems to flare up as the day goes on and is back to normal in the morning. 

 

Azrael has been recently wormed so shouldn't have a worm burden and isn't looking anaemic but by the end of the day he is salivating more than normal.  He is off to the vets tomorrow to get some bloods taken and see what he says.  Poor little Azrael, thankfully he is fine in himself and isn't letting the swelling interfere with grazing or his tea!

 

Loki, Azrael's dad was doing a bit of lady watching with Golden Guinea, these two are the best of friends and as usual this ended up in a bit of a skirmish as Loki went to pose on the ever so slightly higher mound!