After two days of bottle feeding him and milking mum, on the third day we eventually managed to get him to understand where mummy's milk bar was.
His first two days were quite hairy!! He took the bottle well, but was not standing and moving around very much, so I needed to go out every hour to remind him to get up and move around. He was extremely down on his pasterns and it made him look like he was walking with great big hob nail boots on.
We had given him plasma and colosturum on his first day so we new he was covered from infection, but his temperature seemed to be going up and down, so after collecting anti-biotics from the vet he seemed to stabalise, unfortunately he then got diarrhea! now this could have been due to getting too much milk (as he did seem to take his bottle very well) or due to the antibiotics upsetting his natural bacteria within his gut, as anti-biotics kills good bacteria aswell as the bad ones!
So another visit to the vets to collect some Pro-Kolin + and some Lactosym Natural Live Symbiotic, both were to help settle everything down in the gut and help stop the trots the poor chap was suffering from.
We had kept him and mum in a pen in the field as mum was not easy to catch hold off when we needed to. On the third day he much stronger so I took the decision to stop bottle feeding him and see if we could encourage him to seek milk from mum, as I had been going out and feeding him every two hours he really didnt feel hungry and feel the need to seek milk from mum. (this was not an easy decision as I felt extremely mean doing it, but was ready to step in and feed him if he started to fade in anyway.)
We went out on the hour to milk mum a little into a bottle, we wiped milk around her teats so he would be able to smell it and then we gave him the bottle with mums milk, once he had the taste we then stood him in the right position.
After a couple of hours of doing this he was getting the idea and had started to seek out the milk bar, by lunch time he was feeding, but we still needed to go out and remind him to get up and move around.
By late afternoon he was feeding very well so I let them out into the field with the rest of the herd, this seem to encourage him to start moving a lot more, and by the evening he had start to have a little run around.
So here is our little Dexter. (sorry the photo quality is not too good)
Whitney and Vanilla Ice saying hello to Dexter.
He is a lovely chap and we can only hope he will carrying on get stronger and stronger.
Just one more baby due and that will be it for this year, which is alway sad, but will be a relief we know all the babies have arrived and are safe and thriving.
Ginnie
5 comments:
Little Dexter looks gorgeous! - - and very alert!
Well done, sounds like a real marathon!
I know that feeling only one birth to go and a nearly a year to wait, however it will be a relief to hopefully have the last one safely here!
Great to hear Dexter is doing well....I have been wondering how things were going....lets hope he goes from strength to strenght after his difficult start !........Jayne
So glad to hear that the little chap is moving forward. It's so worrying when they don't thrive but seeing them charging around the field makes it all worth while!
Our new little girl, also on antibiotics, is having probiotic yogart with the drench gun and loves it! I know the antibiotics are necessary but they just kill everything in their tummies!
Ginnie, I just wanted to Thank you again for our visit to your farm today. We had a fantastic time looking at your beautiful Alpaca. You were so kind and taught us a great deal. We are also delighted with our fleece. It was lovely to see the adorable Dexter and all the others, looking so well and happy. I hope to see you again soon. :) I have written a Blog Post about our visit here: http://inthesky1.blogspot.com/2011/08/real-alpaca-adventure.html
Post a Comment