The predominent theory on what happened with Remington came from the previous owners in discussion with the vet who did the necropsy at Michigan State. The theory is that Remington at one point had an open wound on him. This is a likely senario given he had just been moved to a different farm, and being the new male he was low man in the pecking order. Males do fight and he could have gotten a wound. If he then rolled in infected feces, then the coccidia could have gotten into the wound, entered the blood stream and then the abdominal cavity. While this is not a common thing to happen (open wound and infected feces and happen to roll in it) it is plausible.
However it came about I can only imagine how painful it must have been for him to be so infected. It points to how stoic these animals really are and how important it is know your alpacas and to watch for any unusual behavior. Since he was not on our farm yet I cannot look back and try to pick out unusual behavior. I do not know if in retrospect there were signs. It is scary how this could happen and makes me more cautious with watching the behaviors of the ones on our farm.
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