In December 2019, a corneal ulcer was discovered on Albert's right eye while we were away. We believe that the ulcer was caused by a rose thorn catching his eye whilst he was eating. Our eldest sister, Charlotte Wood, is an emergency vet nurse and took Albert to the vet immediately where drops were prescribed including chloramphenicol drops and plasma drops as well as meloxicam for pain and inflammation relief. 

Despite treatment, over the next couple of days, Albert’s eye began to cloud and turn blue in colour. As a precaution, we took Albert to Station Street Vet Clinic in Koo Wee Rup on 9 December 2019 where it was noted that the ulcer had expanded to 3mm high and had formed an unnatural elliptical shape appearance. The vet decided to prescribe oxcuflox drops six times a day in addition to the other drops. 

In order to protect Albert’s injured eye from the Australian summer sun, we were lucky (and very thankful) to be able to borrow an Alpaca fly mask from Auravale Alpacas whilst we waited for ours to arrive. Wearing the fly mask prevented Albert’s eye from further bacteria and too much sunlight. The fly mask, however, had to be removed at night to enable him to sufficiently see.  

Three days later, the eye’s corneal oedema/opacity had increased significantly with the eye appearing grossly white-blue. On the other hand, the stain showed the size of the ulcer had reduced to 2x2ml in size. 

A further two days later, we revisited the vet where they debrided the surface epithelium which had become detached and the fluorescein stain showed a deeper diffused appearance. Additional medication was prescribed. A cytology slide was also prepared and sent off to determine whether there was a fungal infection in the eye as well. 

At this stage, we began to discuss whether to opt for surgery to remove the eye. The advise we had received was that the eye may not heal and that they were unsure how successful the medication would be.  There was also risks with putting Albert under an anaesthetic and an unknown recovery period after the surgery. 

We opted to not remove the eye and proceeded for an additional month to medicate Albert’s eye. 

The cytology results came back showing:

• Moderate cell recovery with a good state of cellular preservation 

• Low numbers of bacteria 

• No evidence of fungal hyphae. 

Our daily medication routine was as follows: 

• Chloramphenicol every 4 hours;

• Plasma serum eye drops every 4 hours;

• Ocuflox every 4 hours; and

• Oral meloxicam every 3 days.

As not all the drops could be administered at once, this often meant giving drops every two hours.  

And many sleepless hours for us!

On 24 December 2019, on the advice of animal eye specialist Anu O'Reilly and another eye specialist, we learnt that the eye could take up to 8 weeks to heal but surgery could still be required. We were further advised to add Atropine drops (once daily) into the mix as well.  

We continued to give Albert eye drops throughout January and into February. In January we stopped giving the Plasma serum eye drops and then slowly we also dropped off the other drops until we were just giving Ocuflox and Atropine before we stopped altogether. 

By 2021, Albert’s eye had healed to a single blue scar line and had otherwise fully healed. We are very thankful and lucky that his eye healed, as well as the advice we received to give the eye drops a good chance to work. 

Albert continues to thrive in our herd and is gentle companion to all our male weanlings. 

What we learnt: The eyes of Alpacas are like other ruminants (goats and cows) and their eyes have a good healing capacity unlike other livestock and animals. With the right treatment and immediate action, you can save yourself hundreds of dollars and prevent surgical intervention. 

All medical issues should be treated in consultation with a practising vet. Disclaimer: we are not vets and are just sharing our own experiences.