Читать книгу Medicine and Surgery of Camelids - Группа авторов - Страница 54

1 Start with a halter that is properly proportioned and has the option to adjust the size of the noseband. Open up the noseband to one of the two largest holes.

2 Put the halter on.

3 Tighten the crown piece as much as you can.

4 Put your fingers on each side of the noseband and tug forward. If you can pull the noseband to the very edge or off the nasal bone, you must tighten up the crown piece or get a smaller halter.

5 Check to make sure that the halter throat piece is not pushing against the trachea or esophagus. If it is, this indicates the halter is too big.

6 After the crown piece adjustment, you may tighten the noseband. The noseband should never more than just gently touch all the way around the nose without pressing or restricting the animal's ability to move his mouth and jaw. Provided the crown piece holds the halter in place well up on the nasal bone, the adjustment of the noseband is less crucial for purposes of handling.

7 Check the crown piece about 10 minutes after you put the halter on or just before attaching a lead rope and leaving the catch pen. Nylon stretches by approximately 33%. As the nylon stretches and the fiber compresses, you could end up with a dangerous amount of slack in the crown piece.

Figure 2.48 This halter fits properly; the nose band is adequately sized to fit well up on the nose band and still provides room for the animal to open its mouth.

Figure 2.49 This alpaca is wearing a halter that is too far forward on the nose. In addition, there is not enough room in the nose band to allow it to sit further back and it is restricting movement of the jaw.

Figure 2.50 This llama is wearing a halter that looks like it fits but, in fact, it is sitting just at the edge of the nose bone and the crown piece is not snug enough to keep it from slipping forward and off the bone. Additionally, the nose band is too small to allow for chewing.