s e v e n i s a j o u r n e y

So, for better or worse, we got to put our alpaca birthing training to the test today.

About noon I went to check on the girls, as the rain had stopped an hour before and it was getting nicer. Cindy was in labor, presenting a cria that was not looking good. She was at least 2 weeks premature, based on her predicted due date. At first I thought it was a minor problem (both legs on one side of head), easily corrected. I could not catch her myself first try. I ruashed back to the house and called Tam (who was finishing her dance class) and Yvonne (who is only 5 minutes away) for help.

The cria was dead, and stuck. The cria had been dead for some time, as the eyes had totally filmed over. Cindy was exhausted. I don’t know how long she had been in labor, but I had not noticed anything when I checked at 9 AM. After talking to Nic (from the Neonatal course) he suggested that it may have been a head-down presentation, where in stead of coming nose-first the head pitches forward as it enters the birth canal. This pinches off the top of the neck, and the little cria died from a lack of blood to the brain as he was being born.

Yvonne was holding Cindy, and Tam managed to pull it free while I was back at the house calling vets and stuff. Cindy was so tired she was not longer really pushing, and was lying on her side. She was even letting out disturbing groans and lolling her head about, which was a sign of just how completely spent she was.

It would have been a cute little male cria, medium fawn in color, with little white tips on its ears. Birth weight 7.25 kg, so not too large, just really bad luck. The cria looked fully mature, so if not for the bad birth, it would have been fine. We gave Cindy a drench of electrolytes and some sugar to help get her going again. We left her with the dead cria for about 90 minutes, so that she could understand what happened.

Needless to say this has sucked the fun from the day. Now we have the girls in the yards, waiting for Cindy to pass the placenta. She knows she has a cria somewhere, and is very upset that she cannot find it. Her distress adds to the sadness of the whole situation.

I have placed the cria in the freezer. We will transfer it to Nic and Linda eventually, so it can be used in another neonatal course and help other people learn skills that might someday save another cria. Tomorrow I get antibiotics from the vets, as after a troubled birth like this infection is a definite risk.

We can console ourselves that we saved Cindy’s life. If I had gone to fight practice, and then we had gone over to Tracy’s directly afterwards (as we were invitied for afternoon “nibbles”), we would have come home to a dead mother, with a stuck dead cria. That would have been even worse. As I said at the start, for better or worse the neonatal training has already come in very handy.

UPDATE: It’s 7:30 and she’s passed the placenta, so that’s a good thing. We won’t need to call the vet out to give her an oxytocin injection. It was really sad, though, because she kept nuzzling it. We’ve let the girls into the glen paddock for the night & they’re all very happy to have grass instead of hay, and a new hill to run up and down. -T.