Alpaca Farmgirl

 

It started out a glorious morning. My beloved herdsire Magnum was coming home from a long breeding engagement in Colorado. Another of our herdsires, Firecracker, was on trailer as well. IN addition there were three other alpacas who belonged to me but that I had never seen in person – Guardian Angel (our Archangel daughter) and her male cria by side, and Foxy Lady who we had gotten in exchange for several of Magnum’s breedings.

I was thrilled with the prospect of hugging Magnum’s neck again and greeting the new arrivals. The transporter was to be here at 8:30 AM. This was the kids’ first morning out of school for the break so we all lingered in bed a little longer than usual.

When I heard the buzzer indicating that the transport trailer had entered our front gate, I flew out the door. Running towards the trailer, I saw Magnum’s head in the back window. I almost wept with joy! I hurriedly greeted Capt. Dick Hegeman of Alpacas In The Forest, who was driving the rig. We exchanged pleasantries and got Magnum off the trailer. Poor alpaca had been traveling for 7 days!

As I walked Magnum into the barn something caught my eye in the first stall on the right. A lifeless brown lump and a placenta.

My heart sunk. Tapioka had had a stillborn. I felt an empty pang in the pit of my stomach. Disappointment flooded through me, “Oh no!” Dick and I both said at the same time. I quickly put Magnum in his pen and rushed to get back to the dismal scene. “It’s stomach looks like it moved a little,” Dick said.

“Really?” I asked disbelieving. I scurried into the pen and picked up the lifeless cria who hung like a limp dishrag in my arms. “She’s really cold,” Dick said. “Do you have a hot tub you can warm her in?” “No, but I have a bathtub,” I said, without thinking.

“Go ahead. I’m empty so I can wait while you see about the cria,” Dick said. “Let me know what I can do to help!”

“Okay!” I hollered over my shoulder as I ran to the house with my little dishrag.”

As I ran, I looked down at the cria. “It’s dead,” I thought. “It’s already dead.” Caught up in the drama I thought I’d try anyway. There was no life in the cria’s eyes. No spark to show me she was with us. I was going on a fool’s errand, but for some reason I was compelled to go...

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Farming is a metaphor for life. Everything that happens on a farm – birth, growth, harvest, successes, failures, and eventually death – happens in real life as well.

In most jobs, we expect to have things go well. And when they don’t – we have a bad day. We’re disappointed and hope the next day goes better. The same thing happens on a farm, but in more of a Man vs. Nature format. When things go bad on the farm – let’s face it – they can go really bad.

Mother Nature is the friend and the enemy of the Farmer. She’s like the little Girl with the Curl. When she is good, she is very, very good (Think adorable baby alpacas who come up to you for butterfly kisses). And when she is bad she is horrid (Think Hurricane Katrina).

I am the kind of girl who would rather be at a spa than a camp ground. I actually wish farming weren’t dirty. Yet I am inexorably drawn to the constant in-your-face struggle with nature. We usually win. Life on the farm is peaceful, beautiful, and serene. The joys and rewards that come with farming have no equal in my eyes. Yet there is the darker side. It’s a rollercoaster we must ride. In order to have the highs, we must endure the lows. Do you remember in the Ron Howard movie, Parenthood, when Granny tells them that she likes the rollercoaster?

Me too, Granny. Me too.

This morning, after a 2 hour nap rather than a full nights sleep, I sat, bleary-eyed, feeding our new premature cria, Pippi. Exhausted to the core, I looked outside the barn to see the alpaca herd grazing. Occasionally a cria would jump or run. A light fog was lifting. The grass was so green it jarred my sleep-filled eyes. The sounds of alpacas gently munching on the grass was a song in my heart.

I looked down at the tiny being in my arms, depending on me for everything – her very life. The thought she might not make it brought a tear to my eye. But that is okay. It is who I am. Farmer. Nurturer.

Walt Disney once said that for every laugh there should be a tear.

He would have been a good farmer.

This was originally posted on the Alpaca Farmgirl blog. If you liked this article, you might also like How Can You Eat At a Time Like This?

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was a day of easy births, it was a day of dystocias (difficult births), it was a season of tiny babies, it was a epoch for a rather large baby. One cria was up and running around, the other was weak and wouldn’t stop bleeding!

Saturday, May 30 was an eventful day on the farm! It began with a nice farm visit from our friends, Cheryl and Andy Bowen of Humming Star Alpacas. They came by to see their alpacas that are currently boarded here while they get their facility prepared. After enjoying their alpacas, we observed Poquita getting ready to have a cria. The Bowens had yet to see a cria born so this was the perfect opportunity for them to witness an alpaca birth first hand.

As the birth progressed, one leg of Poquita’s cria appeared to be stuck. I tried to get it out, but it was really stuck. The placenta was wrapped around it and wouldn’t let me get it out. So I had to break it. I had really been hoping that it was a membrane that I was popping, rather than the placenta because you are not supposed to break placentas. Unfortunately, it was the placenta. Fortunately, the cria did well from there, mostly coming on out on her own. I did help pull a bit when it was time for the chest cavity to come out. She was a big baby. Poquita was tired at this point, and I wanted that baby out ASAP since I had broken the placenta.

It all turned out beautifully! The cria just about hit the ground running. She was almost 23 lbs. and happy to join the world. By nightfall she was playing with the other cria, giving the older male cria a run for their money. We’ve been calling her Rachel Alexandra, in honor of the incredible filly who won the Preakness last month.

Just as Cheryl and Andy were packing up to go to a lunch date, I looked over at Sonyadore and said, “You know, we may be about to have another one.” Sure enough, about 30 minutes later, (just as I was sitting down to eat my lunch), the Artist calls to me, “She’s having a baby!!!”

I will admit that I did go ahead and eat a few bites of my lunch. It’s not like me to miss a meal. By the time I got out there, the baby was on the ground. Whoosh! Born. No problem being born, but once she was here, the difference between this cria and Rachel Alexandra, born an hour earlier, was staggering. In comparison, this cria was tiny! 12 lbs. and weak as a kitten. The little darling had no get up and go. She was born to a first time dam and just didn’t seem quite ready to be outside in the world.

Her umbilicus began to bleed. I called the vet who advised me to tie it off with waxed dental floss. (the wax would help keep out germs) I did this, not once but 4 or 5 times. And it kept bleeding. Lots. This little gal had me worried with so much blood. (This is the first and only time in 10 years of alpaca breeding that I have ever had to tie a cord. Go figure.) But it finally stopped bleeding. I treated her with an antibiotic and dipped the naval several extra times.

It has been two weeks since these cria were born. Their beginnings were very different. One with an easy trip, one with a leg hung up. One strong as an ox from birth, the other needing a little time to adjust to the world and catch up. Today, Rachel Alexandra is still running around, daring the boys to chase her. She’s big and strong with the ultra long legs of a colt.

I decided to name her counterpart Amity which means friendship. Amity is a social butterfly. She loves to play with other cria and she runs around like she’s at a sock hop! You would never know that she had a rough start if you saw her today. She’s Miss Personality, and her fleece is to die for!

The day they were born, Cheryl and Andy came back over to visit Amity. I loved being able to show them that cria can have very different beginnings, and that sometimes the weaker and/or premature cria just need a little extra time to get with the program. Now there’s no stopping either of these precious darlings!

 

The morning of Christmas Eve, Lily left us this adorable little Christmas gift running around by the barn. Thanks Lily. Merry Christmas, indeed.

We've decided to name her Merry. I have been supplementing her with a bottle so Merry and I have become friends.


For more blog posts like this, visit Alpaca Farmgirl.

 

No, I’m not breeding for blindness.  lol. However, I have three wonderful alpacas with eye problems. Read My Home for the Blind - Part I (SiSi)

Beloved

This story begins with a wonderful fawn herdsire named Tre. After we had been breeding alpacas for a few years, we realized that we needed to beef up the density of our herd. (this means we needed our alpacas to have more fiber) We searched for a male who could help us with this goal, and we found an incredible one named Tre.

Tre was gorgeous and very laid back. He went to lots of shows. He would lumber into the showring, half-asleep with an attitude reminiscent of Eeyore. “I’m here. Thanks for noticing.” Never the flashiest guy in his class, but judges usually remarked that Tre had the best fleece in the class.  He was often the bridesmaid with a multitude of 2nd place ribbons.

On the farm, Tre quickly became our favorite alpaca. He was so handsome, and so easy-going that my young children could walk him around and enjoy him. With his great personality and textbook perfect fleece, we expected to have Tre for years and years to come.

Then he injured his leg…We imagine that he was playing with the other boys when he tore his ACL. The injury seemed to bother him while breeding so we opted to have it surgically repaired. In hindsight, this may have been a mistake. Tre’s laid back personality lacked the fighting spirit he needed to overcome the complications that followed his surgery. Tre never recovered from the surgery, dying a few weeks later back at the farm.

Losing Tre at age 4 was heartbreaking. It was truly tough on everyone at the farm. His funeral was attended by our family and farm manager, Jeremy. The children made a cross on his grave with the petals from a nearby gardenia bush. We had worked hard to save him. We had loved him so dearly.  And we hadn’t bred him nearly enough.

When Tre died we had only 2 of his cria in utero. When the first one came due, we had a horrible situation where a veterinarian (not my usual one) and I disagreed on whether or not the female was in labor. In the end, it turned out the female had been in labor but she wasn’t progressing because the cria was breech. The cria died during the vet’s attempt to deliver the cria from a breech position a day later. (Note: Do not try to deliver an alpaca in the breech position. Experts recommend a c-section for a full breech.) The stillborn cria was a girl who looked just like Tre. The vet and Jeremy tried to revive her for 30 minutes. It felt like an episode of ER. Many tears were shed. The disappointment surrounded us and weighed us down. We cut a lock of her fleece, and buried her atop on her father’s grave.

When it came time for the last Tre cria to be born, I was more than excited and nervous. I dared to hope. My heart had been broken twice that year. I was ready for anything, but I was also hoping so hard for a beautiful fawn female who could carry on Tre’s bloodline. The dam carrying this last cria was Earth Angel, one of the best females we have ever had the pleasure of owning.

 

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Saturday morning, while I was at an alpaca show, Judy decided to have her cria. Early in the morning. When it was very cold. When our farm manager, Jeremy, arrived, he found this little guy with purple ears and his tongue lolling out of the side of his mouth. The baby was almost lifeless.

Jeremy is not the type of to allow a cria to die on his watch, so he blow dried him and got him warmed up. The baby began to show more life. As he warmed him, the cria would sometimes give in to his weakness and his head would droop. “HECK no.” Jeremy told him and brought him around again. The first day he was bottle fed goat colostrum (alpacas almost never have extra colostrum to freeze). This is his mom’s first experience with having a cria to nurse and she took some convincing.  But by Sunday afternoon, the little guy was up and nursing.

Born weighing only 9 and 1/2 pounds (12 lbs. and under is considered at risk), we really didn’t expect this cria to be doing so well. Today he is at 10 and 1/2 lbs, and he’s running around, healthy as can be! The kids and I have come up with some possible names for him. We have a poll on Alpaca Farmgirl where you can vote for which name you think we should choose. Vote here.