You know, I can't believe this baby. Our vet said that while he was
clamping off the eye and blood supply, she was fidgetng a bit, even
under sedation. But then when he actually removed the eye, she
completely relaxed. No more pain and pressure. So he closed everything
up and stitched her eyelids closed... then she woke up before he could
clean her up completely! She was up and running around immediately
following surgery, and nursing, behaving completely normally. It never
ceases to amaze me how strong our furry and feathered (and scaled)
friends are compared to us. Sheesh, I'd be bedridden for at least a
week if I had an eye removed, probably longer.
We lost a dam with her first delivery. She had a caudal cranial
presentation (head first but upside down) which was a very difficult
vet-assisted delivery. And it turned out her uterus ruptured, the vet
didn't find it, and she died of peritonitis 4 days later. Our other vet
said that even if the delivering vet had found the rupture, even taking
her to OSU likely would not have saved her.
But the cria is doing very well. She gets all the bottles she wants and
she's gaining weight very well. And we are giving her loads of
attention. None of the alpacas will adopt her, and if no one loved her,
she'd be a very sad cria and would die from depression and loneliness.
So she knows we love her. We play with her and kiss her and run with
her. She is sad when we leave the pasture, but she's learning that it's
just the way it is. And she goes to sleep when we leave. She is
starting to make alpaca friends, slowly. She's not even two weeks old
yet, and "normal" crias don't venture away from mama much by this time
anyway. So as she grows, I'm confident that she'll reach out to her
pasturemates and make friends. I saw her kissing a yearling female this
evening, so she's doing well. And she's becoming interested in pellets
already, so we may not have to bottle feed for the whole 6 months! :)
We're also expecting 3 more this year. One of my mom's and 2 are of
girls born and bred here but are sold and still agist. One of the
agistors is overdue and bred to my maroon boy. I can't wait for this
cria!!!
Best of luck to us all!
Heather
Heather Zeleny
White Lotus Alpacas
(formerly West Wind Alpacas)
Creswell, OR
541.895.0964
Holistic Farm and Elite Fleece
http://www.whitelotusalpacas.com
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/AlpacaTalk/join
On Aug 27, 2008, at 7:24 PM, Wendy Edwards wrote:
> hi Heather - i'm so sorry about your little cria's eye - so young to
> go through such trauma - and such trauma for you too
>
> i have just received about 15 emails from various sources - it must
> have been my computer - my server - or the computer gremlins playing
> games.
>
> and yes, it has been a bad year for deaths - we've lost two, two
> island farmers lost crias and moms after c-sections - there just seems
> to have been a lot of sad moments throughout the alpaca farmers that i
> know
> I still have three to arrive - fingers are crossed that all goes well
> with them - and with everyone else too!
> Wendy
> DreamWeaver Alpacas
> BC
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