Today I’m at the farm with our almost two year old son, Henri, and eleven year old Gigi. This morning, like most mornings, Henri wanted to go outside. I planned to check on the alpacas, make sure they had enough hay and water, feed them pellets… routine morning things. It’s Sunday and David and I thoroughly cleaned the fields yesterday… which of course means there is still a lot more poop to scoop today, but nothing that couldn’t wait until Monday. Still, food and water is a daily thing.
I was filling water buckets and hay bins when I hear Gigi calling, “Mommy! Mommy, I think someone is having a baby!”
Mistique is a first time mom. She had been experiencing some pain and heavy breathing earlier this month. Banamine had been given. The farm owner had been concerned of a possible torsion. She examined her last week. All seemed okay. The owners are out of town this week, so we were on our own. We had three pregnant dams that could go any day. Today was Mistique’s day.
Probably only ten minutes passed between the time Gigi hollered for me to when I shouted, “It’s a girl!”
The cria birth was actually really simple. Our neighbors came over to help. I had called, mainly because I was there alone with my tween and the tot. I thought a little back up might be helpful! =)
They say most alpaca births require two things. A rope and a chair. You sit in the chair and tie your hands with the rope. Or at least that was what they told me when I started in this business. I’ve since been told that about twenty percent of alpaca births require intervention.
Mistique birthed like a pro. I checked her cria for teeth (no teeth is a sign that the baby is premature.). I dipped her little ambilicas. I dried our beautiful newly birthed cria. I watched our tween keep our tot out I’d the way. I was amazed
I checked the dam for milk. We strip the teets which basically means you take a waxy plug out of them. It is not necessary, a nursling will do it when they nurse, but it allows us to check the mom for milk. Mistique had thick white milk already, a truly wonderful sign. Cria need to get that first milk, called colostrum, within the first hours of life to absorb the antibodies it contains. This is a make it or break it moment for alpacas. Thankfully, Mistique seems to be full of colostrum, and babe started suckling within the first one and a half hours.
Wow. What an experience! We did it alone! Henri learned a few new words… Including ‘birthing placenta’. When David came home he got an earful!
I’m working on a video of the birth as told by Henri. 