Friday started off as any typical day, morning chores where done so we
decided with such beautiful weather we would take the boat out and do
some fishing. We had a great day on the ocean and returned home around
4:00pm.
As always when returning home from an outing the first
thing I do is a check on Mothers and new cria. Upon my entrance into
the barn I saw a newborn cria laying lifeless in the hay with membranes
still covering his face. Immediately my heart sunk and I flew over the
railing, when I touched him he was cool, not breathing and had no
pulse. Mom was a first time mom and she was very distraught.
I
was not hopeful at all but instincts kicked in and I cleared the
membranes off his face and then swung him upside down to clear any
fluid that might be in his lungs. I then began CPR and mouth to mouth.
After a couple of minutes he gasped his first breath. At first I
couldn't believe it but it was actually him coming to life. Not only
was mom standing over my shoulder watching me but twenty other alpacas
witnessed this miracle with me.
I continued working on him until
his breathing was at a regular rate, dried him up and put a coat on to
help get his temperature up. I put him in a stall and proceeded to
focus on mom and getting her in with her new son.
With my
adrenaline pumping from what just happened I looked at mom and realized
not only was the placenta hanging she had a prolapsed uterus. The
uterus was hanging about a foot out from her body. I got her into the
stall with her new son and then ran in to call the vet. I got my vets
voice mail and when he didn't call back in 10 minutes I knew I needed a
back up plan so I put a call out to my secondary vet.
Thankfully
I was on the phone with her in 10 minutes and she said she would come
but it would take her a while so in the mean time I was to keep the
uterus as clean as possible, rinse with clean water and coat it with
sugar. Sugar helps shrink the size making it easier to put back. While
waiting for the vet I worked at getting this new little miracle baby
nursing and was successful. I am still amazed when I think how quickly
he bounded back to life. Mom was very cooperative despite how
uncomfortable she was. She also let me milk her to get more milk for
the little guy.
When the vet arrived she too was amazed at the
cria and how he had rebounded. While mom was lying down she made her
first attempt at replacing the uterus without success. Mom was still
contracting and would put it out as the vet was trying to get it back
in. We decided to give mom a little sedation to help relax her and then
make another attempt in a standing position. If that was not going to
work then off to Tufts University we would have to go for surgery.
The
second miracle happened when she got the uterus in and it stayed. The
vet then sutured her vulva closed and she was started on antibiotics
and Banamine for pain and inflammation. The next 12-24 hours were
critical. I stayed in the barn for most of the night making sure the
cria was nursing and that mom was not trying to expel the uterus. I am
happy to say both mom and her son are doing wonderful, better than any
of us expected. Mom is not totally out of the woods yet but we are all
very optimistic. Her sutures will be removed tomorrow and the
antibiotics will continue for the rest of the week. Providing no
complications she'll be good as new. the jury is still out on the new
little guys name but I promise you it will be a special one. Here is a
picture of this bundle of joy.
It has been raining non stop for 3 weeks not but today in between the passing showers we managed to snap some quick photos of the Alpaca Girls out in the field enjoying some grass.
We also managed to capture our newest addition to the herd, a female cria! Name coming soon!
We have been tremendously busy this summer (if you can even refer to it as that) so you will have to excuse the lack of video posts. Although we haven't been posting we certainly have been capturing tons of great footage, it is just a matter of getting the time to sit down and edit them all together.
This video was taken yesterday and sums up what the first month of Summer felt like for us - Cold, Wet, and Busy just like the Hummingbirds themselves!
Recently the Herald News came out to our mill in Fall River to do a story on our Fiber Processing business, The New England Alpaca Fiber Pool (http://www.neafp.com). For those of you who do not know, along with running our Alpaca Farm, we also got involved in the commercial processing of Alpaca Fiber over 7 years ago. As new Alpaca Owners, one of the first questions we asked ourselves was "What can we do to utilize this fiber?" - We soon learned about NEAFP, which was conveniently located practically in our back yard and we became very involved in the day to day activities of commercially processing Alpaca in the United States into finished products for resale.
Since those early days we learned a tremendous amount about running a textile business in the United States, and eventually took over the company 5 years ago. Over the last 2 years we have seen tremendous growth in how much fiber we process each year, as well as how many products are being resold by Alpaca Farms to the general public.
Although the Economy is weak across the board right now, we couldn't be more excited about the future of our business and the U.S. Alpaca Fiber Industry as a whole. As more and more farms embrace the Fiber Side of their business, the animals and their fiber are being introduced to more and more people. Their charisma alone can win any cold heart over and we believe the entire industry is in for some amazing growth as more and more people embrace alternative investments and support local, sustainable businesses and agriculture in their communities.
When you have a free moment, be sure to head over and read the complete article
I was just going through our Vimeo account and it is hard to believe that we have uploaded 45 videos of our farm in the last year and a half. We have had such a tremendous response to them, and it really helps us showcase our farm to people across the globe. The best part about it is that it is a lot easier than you could ever imagine.
Believe me, I am not the most technically savy person in the house hold, yet capturing, editing, uploading, and sharing these videos is do-able by even me. I also have to give a lot of credit to Vimeo.com - their quality cannot be beat and the community is very helpful and friendly. YouTube.com might have a lot of eyeballs, but I have always believed in Quality over Quantity, and the immaturity that runs rampant through their comments are a huge turn off.
Below are all of our videos, catch up on all the ones you missed!
A few days ago the Chickens started hatching in the incubator and we now have 13 little chicks! There are some Silkies and the rest are Rhode Island Reds. We have had chickens for the last year and a half and absolutely love having Fresh Eggs each morning. Our neighbors, friends and family have also enjoyed the extras! You really can't beat the taste, I don't think we will ever go back to grocery store bought eggs.
As a small farm constantly looking for new ways to connect with our local communities through grass roots approaches, we found this video very inspiring. Most certainly worth the 15 minutes!
Breif Synopsis: Seth Godin argues the Internet has ended mass marketing and revived a human social unit from the distant past: tribes. Founded on shared ideas and values, tribes give ordinary people the power to lead and make big change. He urges us to do so.
We recently purchased some handheld hummingbird feeders from http://www.theplantwhisperer.com and we are excited to see if we can get our growing H.Bird population accostumed to them.
It will be amazing to capture some video of Hummers eating out our hands, especially for when people come to visit the farm.
While browsing Twilight Earth, I came across a post with clips from the documentary: "The World According to Monsanto" and I felt compelled to post them here. A side of the story we are rarely privy to in mainstream media. When you have some time, sit down and watch.
from Twilight Earth:"The World According to Monsanto is an in-depth Documentary
that looks at the domination of the agricultural industry from one of
the world’s most insidious and powerful companies.We are pleased to
bring you the full documentary in 10 parts."
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VkWUcAuFYto
We hope you all had a wonderful weekend and a great Mother's Day! It was nice to finally see the sun, for the last 6 days New England has been grey and dreary, very tough on the motivation.
The early arrival hummingbirds were happy to see the sun as well and were a bit more active on the feeders, last night after the family came over for MDay dinner we managed to capture some great footage. It is also nice to compare this time of year to later in August when the hummingbird population has quadrupled and there is a lot more competition around the feeders.
Here is a quick 3 min clip of some of the footage we got last night, enjoy the sneak peak!
NOTE: If you notice a stutter on playback, pause the video and let it buffer completely. If you have an older computer, it also helps to turn HD OFF in the top right corner.
Didn't get any Alpaca Socks for Mother's Day? Well remedy that - we are offering 20% all orders over $30 for the rest of the month of may. Use coupon code "motheralpaca" at checkout!
As you might have already known 2009 has been declared The International Year of Natural Fibers by the United Nations to help promote the production of textiles using Natural Fibers. They sent out an email blast this morning releasing all their marketing supplies ranging from the video embedded above to brochures and posters.
If you run a Natural Fiber business, farm, or run events these are great marketing collateral you can share with your community to help promote the International Year.
Last night while the sun was setting the Alpacas were relaxing after a long day and we got some amazing shots of them. We got some great shots of some of our newest Cria, they are just too cute and starting to love the camera! Enjoy!
Note: If you notice a stutter on playback - hit pause and the let the video fully buffer. If you have an older computer it might help to turn HD Off in the top right corner.
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