Re: [AlpacaTalk] 1st cria
Thank you very much for your kind words and sharing your knowledge/experience. I did know that the mom doesn't tend to her newborn as dogs will. As you stated, that was an eye opener to how different things would be with the birth of an Alpaca. Even though it is different than delivery of pups....I still feel having the knowledge of puppy delivery is beneficial in some ways. I did check this girls mouth and there wasn't anything on her nose or in her mouth but knowing what you had happen will certainly be something to know can happen. In preparation of our first cria birth I did a search online and came across someone's website that had a video of a cria birth. I wanted to be prepared. My partner doesn't have internet so anything I learned from looking online was shared with her. The animals will remain at my partners farm; I don't have a farm myself. We both plan on doing a lot more research and reading up on this for the future.
We both would love to go to a seminar on breeding/delivery/newborn care but so far I haven't heard of any in our area and we are unable to go to ones that are far away. We are in Michigan
Marsha
From: Valerie A. Witscher <Vawitscher@alluringalpacas.com>
To: AlpacaTalk@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Fri, August 19, 2011 8:24:13 AM
Subject: RE: [AlpacaTalk] 1st cria
Hey there Marsha,
It's never easy losing a cria but the first loss is the hardest and when it's your first cria, heartbreaking.
I also breed Yorkshire Terriers and at the time of my first cria birth in 2002 had 7 yrs of dog breeding experience. I was surprised to see that the dam of the cria does not actually attend to the cria, clean them off, or take care of the cord. Most will walk around eating grass, even with a cria hanging out, and after the cria get on the ground their will be an occasional clucking and nosing the cria as the placenta works it's way out. Many won't let their cria nurse until the placenta has passed. It's been my experience that the sack they were in is still on them although as they were flopping around on the ground sometimes it comes off some of their body. But, the blue lips I've seen have had some of the sack in their mouth. One boy I couldn't figure out and in desperation I checked his mouth and there was a large piece of the sack that had been around his nose on the way out but must have inhaled it and caused a partial blockage. Soon after that was cleared, his nostril flaring and blue color cleared up. That's not saying your cria didn't have something wrong with her. You just need to be aware for your next alpaca delivery that the dam won't do the cleaning and if there is anything covering the nose, mouth area it must be cleared and the navel dipped with antiseptic. I use Povidone iodine I get at Walmart in the Pharmacy. Others may use a different antiseptic.
If you get a chance, go to youtube and look for alpaca delivery and I bet someone will have posted a delivery you can see. I remember Rick Horn took video of some of his deliveries. Not sure if they are on Youtube or not. Anyway, the learning curve is steep and unfortunately this isn't as much like dog breeding as you and I both thought. I'm sorry you have another year to wait for your next experience. Will the alpacas with you by then or are they going to stay at the partners?
Sincerely,
Valerie Witscher
Alluring Alpacas
Temple, GA
770-562-9469
One other thing, I'm not sure where you live but my fear of summer births here in GA is if they are born in front of the fan they will get hypothermic very fast. Need to get the temp up, we use our puppy heat mat and blow dryer, before they are fed because the stomach doesn't work right with the lower temp. Most of our deliveries are in Nov / Dec so it's pretty chilly here and that's how we dry our cria.
From: AlpacaTalk@yahoogroups.com [mailto:AlpacaTalk@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of hanabi62@yahoo.com
Sent: Tuesday, July 26, 2011 11:33 AM
To: AlpacaTalk@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [AlpacaTalk] 1st cria
After 3 long years, we had our first cria born yesterday. Unfortunately, instead of it being a happy time (as it should be) it is a time of sadness for us as she only lived a couple hours. The Alpacas are kept at my partners farm which happens to be an hour away from me. My partner had been out to the barn and checked on everyone, all was fine (mom was a week past her due date); 30 mins later she went out to the barn to feed and saw that the cria had been born. Mom had attended to her, cleaned her off and cord was taken care of by mom. The cria was very weak and not able to stand so my partner assisted her to be on her feet and tried to help her so she could nurse, she even milked mom a little and used a syringe to give the baby some milk. She covered the cria with a blanket to keep her warm. I got the call that the cria had been born but wasn't doing good. By the time I got there the cria's lips/tongue were cold and she was very listless. I'm new to breeding Alpacas but have many years breeding dogs and know from that experience that the cold tongue/lips isn't good and in most cases they don't make it once that has happened. We continued to try to keep this precious girl alive and improving but it was to no avail. The cria looked fine physically; I can only figure that she took some fluid in during the delivery. Also, by the time I got there mom was still showing some interest in the cria but nervous which I think was due to the human nervousness about the situation. It's always so sad when such a young healthy "looking" baby doesn't make it. Oh, the after birth/placenta all looked fine. Very discouraging for us after waiting so long for our first cria. Thanks for listening, lets hope next year brings us much better luck with our beloved Alpacas.
Marsha
posted by Chaddo at 7:14 AM
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