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

This was a weekend of timely events.

Friday Dave (our builder) had two extra fellows how up, and with a surge of work the six of us managed to get the steel roof on the conservatory. Some bits will need to be redone today so we can fit the skylights, but the work made it basically weather-proof.

Saturday the rains came! Finally! And luckily, they started off very slow and gentle, so the ground had a chance to soak it up. We got about 60mm of rain on Saturday, and more on Sunday. The stream rose a little, but not too much, which means it was mostly soaking in. This is just in time, as it means we now can get some good autumn growth before winter sets in.

Sunday afternoon A1 decided that the time was right (the rain stopped for a few hours), and she dropped a little baby girl! She was pretty clearly offended and horrified by the whole birthing process (this was her first), and we ended up giving a little tug to help the baby out. At 8.8kg it was a quite a big first baby. They spent the night in the shed as more rain was predicted, and seem to be doing well. The crias hind legs have a bit of asymetry (the right leg sticks out a bit, so she leans left)- I am hoping that is just tight/loose tendons, and that she will straighten out in the next few days.

Quite a weekend! Now if only it had been restful…

So I took some more pics. And I had to post the one on the left, because the cute level is unusually high. The one on the right is just an interesting composition — Nazani and her half-brother Brocket — with the nice afternoon light we get this time of year.

And this is Pebbles, whom we are looking after until she has her cria. She’s an appaloosa. Did you know alpacas come in appaloosa ? I think she looks like a giraffe.

For those that are curious, the herd at present:

Boy Herd 1 (8): Fred, Heir, Hankyo, Hyouki, Oak, Pointer, Zahir, Zafar

Boy Herd 2 (2): Rikaku, Pinnochio

Girl Herd (32+1): Joy + Opinicus, Jasmine + Basilisk, Cindy + Manticore, Concetta +Alphyn, Saffron + Mora, Latte + Enfield, Jodie + Bagwyn, Tessa + Chupacabra, Galadriel + Zamba Zaraa, Minty + Brocket, A1 (pregnant), Caraboo (pregnent), Blaze (pregnant?), Victoria, Holly, Persil, Topsy, Miniya, Isra, Nazani, Wally, Jasper (+ Pebbles who arrived last night for a few days of mommy-watching)
Bruce’s Herd (8): Zeus, Sugar + cria, Carmen + cria, Cotton (pregnant), Tiffany (pregnant), California Girl (pregnant)

Minty’s little boy:

The name that my brain wants to stick on is “Brocket”. Technically, a brocket is a young stag, which suggests leaping and bounding. When I got home and went out to look at him, he was running and running and running and running around. Like “OMG-I-have-LEGS-and-they-just-wanna-GO!!” Too cute. “Brocket the Rocket” sez my brain.

…come the ups. We want to take a moment out of our shell-shockedness here to bless Galadriel for the completely trouble-free birth of an adorable brown girl, who was up and feeding on her own within an hour of birth, and is already gamboling around the paddock, the absolute picture of health (touch wood).

Once again, Galadriel waited until after dark to deliver another little girl who heard owls in her first hour of life and got her first drink by moonlight — but at least this time she dropped the baby at 9pm instead of 11:45, so we got a wee bit more sleep.

I just laid Floppete out with her mother, Vic.

I had rushed her to Julia again today, as she was going downhill fast – flat with labored breathing. X-rays showed Septicemia. Bad. We were not even sure if she would live for the 2 hour drive to Massey, and the Massey vet figured her chances were “very slim” even if we did get there.

So I brought her home, and put her down next to her mother, and walked away. I don’t know how long she has, but at least her mum is there fussing over her.
This has not been my best day ever.

She’s going downhill again today. Stephen is waiting for our vet to coordinate with Massey, the nearest vet school/hospital, two hours away. It’s taking for ever, and it’s not looking good for the cria. Yesterday started so bad and ended so well, and now today is the reverse.

When I woke up yesterday I was pretty sure Floppete was done for. The trip to the vet really helped. Now she is up to the status of “normal premature baby”, which menas all we need to worry about is the normal problems- infection, constipation, scours, body temperature, etc. So, not out of the woods, but progress.

Too add to the drama of esterday (as if we needed more!) Galadriel went into labor late in the afternoon, and at 8:45PM dropped a little brown baby girl! (normally late-day labors are a “call the vet”, but she did this last year too)

What a day!

As in that is where we are. Not out of them yet, and alll that.

Floppy II (aka Flopette) is doing better now. She is about back to where she was at birth, not really standing but with a suck reflex. That is critical.

I took her into Lakeside Vets this morning and spent 2 hours carefully supporting her head while IV fluids were pumped in. This gave some energy and nutriets, but also helped to resotre blood volume and hydration after the bleeding. Over the two hours she perked up considerably. We gave her a bottle of goats milk at the clinic, and she devoured it. I just gave her another bottle here at home, and she devoured it too (well, as much as I wanted to feed her- many small feeds are now the order of the day).

I leanred something from Jeanette, too (who called before I went to the vet). The power of the Humm. She told me of an amazing case she had with a clinets very premature (6 week) cria that kept dying. They had CPRed it back to life 3 times, and had decided to let it go. It had stopped breathing, was blue, and the heart had nearly stopped. The mother sniffed it, and hummed. Suddenly the cria took a gasping breathe, and came back to life, and went on to survive.
So on the drive over, I was humming at little Floppete. After some time she stirred (she was basically flat and nonresponsive at this point), and hummed back once or twice. I hummed all while the IV was in (well, when I was not talking to Julia). On the drive home I was humming, and she started humming back occasionally. Eventually she wriggled around in her towel-filled basket until I could not see her (she had curled up to sleep), but every time I hummed I could hear a little humm in return.

So as Stephen says, she was very limp and weak this morning. When she was limp overnight, we were hoping that she was just very very sleepy/exhausted (I’m exhausted after yesterday, and I’m an adult with all my blood), but she was still so scarily… well, floppy this morning… Anyway, I’ve just had a phone call from Stephen at the vet. She’s been on an IV for the last hour or so, to get fluids back into her, and Stephen tells me they’ve given her a feed of goat’s milk, and that her suck reflex is back to as strong as it was before she lost all the blood. He actually had to hang up because she was “getting stroppy”. So. Not out of the woods by any means, but things are looking a bit better.