Thorn

Our next birth was unexpected as well! We were at Newark showground on the Thursday before the show when we got an emergency phone call from Martin's mum to say she had found a cria in the paddock. She had run for towels & done everything right but the wind was icy cold. We dashed home put him & his mum Coco in the shed with the lamp, he didn't look good, prem but only 3 days before 11 months. Called the vet who said we had done everything we could & we just needed to get his temperature higher to give him a chance, so we fed him bottle colostrum, warmed him further & had to leave him 4 hours later in mum in laws care so we could go & finish the penning for the show! Fed him until midnight & really didn't think he would make it through the night but he's still going strong & is a real character as you can see from his photo.

Found him today in the paddock with the yearling boys, happily bouncing around, still not sure how he got there, he always sits the other side the gate to them & not with his mum!

My Beautiful Prem - Celeste

Celeste an hour ago
Celeste just after birth

It's been quite a while since I blogged, as the day after lambing for 3 weeks, 2 days at the Heart of England Fiesta & a day shearing 26 alpacas, we found ourselves the organisers of the National Show at Newark. But I think I need to blog in order so I will go back to 11th April when we had an unexpected arrival.

Celeste was a little too early & found herself being born in the wrong paddock. We had been meaning to move her mum Cosmic for a few days & she was definitely going to be moved that afternoon but Celeste decided to arrive in the morning at 319 days. We didn't see her for probably an hour & there was a very cold wind, so we had a cold but large cria & an upset mum. Cosmic did not settle when moved into the barn & we ended up with her in another barn with a lamp & fed Celeste from a bottle until midnight. Next morning all was well, Cosmic calm & Celeste feeding from her mum, a very happy ending.

Cosmic herself was a prem she was born at 307 days a very small cria but she had a strong will & was very clever. Martin milked her mum Plum & fed her every hour for the first 24 with a syringe. We fed her from the bottle pretending it was one of her mum's teats so she had to look for the milk in the right place & after 6 days she moved off the bottle on to her mum. Today she's a lovely big strong girl you'd never believe she was a prem.