Our clinic at Camelid Veterinary Services was built entirely with camelids in mind and our facilities include custom-built equipment especially for working on camelid cases. Biosecurity is foremost in our minds as we realise that this is a priority for our clients. With that in mind, our clinical facilities have fully non-porous floor and wall surfaces so that they can be thoroughly (and properly!) cleaned and disinfected between patients.
Patient Reception | Theatre | Laboratory | Owner Reception & Teaching Facilities
Patient Reception
Our patient reception includes
- Fenced unloading area with concrete surface for unloading animals that are not trained to walk on a halter. Adjacent to this is a grassed pen for animals to relax on arrival while owners take care of paperwork formalities and enjoy a tea or coffee after a long journey!
- A large and quiet open indoor space for examining alpacas and llamas.
- Padded mats are available to improve patient comfort for those that require sedation for procedures.
- An examination table for working on crias.
- A custom-built alpaca chute. This is used for working on reproduction cases primarily although we sometimes use it for other procedures where restraint is required. The chute is elevated off the floor in order to permit evaluation of the reproductive tract and facilitate any treatments required: surprisingly few alpacas have any problem negotiating the step up! In addition, having the alpaca contained within the chute often makes them quieter without the need for any sedation. The chute does work for llamas too but is a little on the short side for the longer llamas!
- Weigh scales.
- 3 indoor stalls, one of which has the facility for lifting a recumbent patient and maintain them in a sling.
- The whole area is temperature controlled and ventilated. We generally keep this area at a lower temperature than the rest of the building in order to improve the comfort of our patients. However, we have heating in this area and inside the stalls should this be necessary for caring for sick patients.
Theatre
We have a large operating theatre designed for Camelid species. Standard veterinary surgery tables are either too short to accommodate camelids, or too large to be able to reach them! Therefore we commissioned a custom-built hydraulics-operated surgery table that is sized correctly in order to take both alpacas and llamas without their heads and necks falling off the table!
We have anaesthesia equipment and a team of board-certified veterinary anaesthetists available to us when required for elective surgeries. This ensures that your animals will receive the best of care if travelling to us to undergo any surgical procedures.
Laboratory
Camelid Veterinary Services is proud to be able to offer a species-specific laboratory service for camelids. This allows us to focus on the testing that is important to our clients and includes faecal testing using the Modified Stolls faecal test, the test most recommended by Camelid vets internationally, IgG testing for crias and plasma processing. We are the only commercial laboratory in the UK that offers IgG testing for crias. For more information about this and our other lab tests, please visit the Laboratory pages.
Owner Reception & Teaching Facilities
Our main reception area is a beautifully welcoming and spacious room with exposed oak beams in the manner of a traditional timber frame barn. This space doubles as our teaching area and the log-burning stove in the corner makes a comfortable space for learning in the winter time! In summer time, our exceptional insulation makes it a cool space to be so it’s comfortable at all times!
We use a 70-inch interactive HD screen for our teaching presentations that offers a bright and crisp display that doesn’t suffer from issues of reflection unlike a projector screen and enhances the learner’s visual experience.
Our teaching facilities are not limited to the classroom. Outside, we have handling pens that enable us to teach handling and practical skills onsite using animals from a local alpaca farm.