What an end to our amazing Sunday

JandJ Belle

By the time I arrived home I had 2 new little cria to go & look at. Martin had been busy all day with the new arrivals & also been keeping a very close eye on Luminaria who had been coughing & salivating for part of the day. We decided to call the vet out as it looked like choke, something lodged in her throat which she could not clear. The vet came within an hour. 

While we were stood with Lumi waiting for him, we were watching Nell very closely, as she appeared to be in labour, she is a first timer but a birth after 4pm is a little late for a cria to be born. The vet came & sorted out Lumi's choke, while he was doing this I was concentrating on Nell who appeared to be struggling with the birth. There is a 20 minute rule with alpaca births, as long as there is a progression in 20 mins you do not intervene. Unfortunately, the little cria's head seemed to be stuck half way out, perfect timing for the vet to be there, he said that Nell's contractions seemed to have stopped. So with the help of some gel he eased the little cria out. This is the latest birth we have had at 5.15pm. 
Nell's nickname is Nellibell, so of course her little female cria is called Belle. Belle is tiny, the smallest cria we have had (we thought Sparkle was tiny last year) & we have had problems with her not gaining weight. We did think that the fault lay with her mum & her milk, but we are not sure about that at the moment. Belle is feeding off Nell & we are topping her up with bottles of goats milk. Unlike our lambs, when we feed Belle she does not come running for her bottle but tends to try & run in the opposite direction. She is the cutest little alpaca.