MOORPARK : Funds Sought to Pay Llama’s Medical Bill

Moorpark College is holding a flea market today to raise money for the medical bills of one of its four-legged denizens.

Fernando Llama, a 10-year-old llama from South America, was on the sick list for about a month because of kidney failure.

“We nearly lost him. It was touch-and-go,” said Susan Cox, an instructor in the college’s Exotic Animal Training and Management Program.

The llama received round-the clock care from Moorpark students and had to be treated with antibiotics and intravenous tubes, Cox said.

But now Fern, as he is sometimes called, is doing just fine. He is back on his regular diet of fresh fruit, vegetables and alfalfa, and “he’s eating up a storm,” Cox said.

Fernando has been trained to jump and climb a barrel and wave in the college’s Sunday mini-circus. But he had to take a leave of absence during his illness and was sorely missed, Cox said. He has since returned.

Cox said the nearly $2,000 cost of treating Fernando almost depleted the facility’s budget.

The college’s 16-year-old exotic animal compound houses more than 200 animals, including baboons, lions, tigers and wolves. The animals moved into their new home in the northwest corner of the campus in May.

Officials are also trying to raise money to build a permanent hospital, staffed with a full-time veterinarian, Cox said. She said officials are counting on grants and fund-raisers to finance a new facility within the next two years.