Question

Just a quick blog but its a question if anyone can help.

I have a female who gave birth 10 days ago, lovely strong female cria who is thriving.  Normal delivery and placenta came away in tack.

Now the question????  Could she still be pregnant?????

She still seemed quite big after having the cria, and her sides didn't suck in like they normally do, but I though she would slim down after a couple of days and become a more normal size.

But yesterday I was checking them all out and this girl looks pregnant, and looks like she has got bigger after giving birth, and actually looks bigger than when she had her cria!!  She is even walking like she is pregnant!  Her overall body score I would say is a 3 so I wouldn't class her as fat, just has a huge belly.

Even my husband though she was pregnant, he was very confused when he saw a cria feeding from her!  I had pointed out the two still due to deliver of which one is a Suri girl and the other a light fawn.  (This girl is a dark brown) so this confused him even more!

Have spoken to the Vet, he seems to thinks its highly unlikely she is pregnant, if she is it is unlikely it will alive and has said we will have to wait and see (he's not experienced alpaca vet, my normal vet is away until Friday)

Today my daughter came up and we caught hold of her to exam her, she got very upset and was screaming and spitting which is very unlike her.  We both felt we could something but unsure as she wouldn't stand still long enough, we also though we could see movement.  Also when she is sitting she is bulging out the back like they do when they are heavily pregnant.

She was mated three times as she sat after her first two matings, we took the last mating date for gauging the delivery date, and by this date the cria was born at 328 days which for this girl is early, she normally goes around 350.  If we used the first mating date the cria would have been born at 349 days more like her.

So is it possible she did catch first mating? and then again on the 2nd or 3rd mating, which in fact would now make her between 328 & 335 days!

Has anyone else heard of this happening?  Have found one which gave birth to a second cria 6 days after the first.

Rather confused and worried, I suppose only way of confirming is having her scanned.

Not three in a row!! so still waiting!

Well nobody obliged us with three in a row, but I am sure they will arrive when they are fully cooked!  All the girls seem to be enjoying the lovely weather, munching and lazing around.  They especially like the paddling pools to have a cool off in.  But some do hog it!!

Well just to bring everyone up to speed on what we have been doing, no we haven't been sat around with our feet up! We have indeed been very busy.

We now have a great team of show boys, who happily go out to fetes & fayre's etc meeting and greeting the public giving them chance to get up close and personal to these amazing animals, giving them a chance to walk an alpaca and have their photo taken, this certainly has gone down a really well, people love it.

SHOW TEAM - From left to right: Yanis our Suri boy (who will sadly be moving to Stafford sometime in September), Xavier (zavvy) in the middle who is next to his new Mummy and will be moving to France sometime next year and then there is Nemasis, he wont be going anywhere, his sire was a lovely Snowmass male and we have kept Nemmy back to start stud work this year (he did have a little taster back end of last year, so we are eagerly awaiting this arrival!)

 

 

They make a great team and people love to see the two different types and then look at the fleece which we have taken off them this year.

 

Then there is the "Walk with an Alpaca".  We now do this at shows as well as at home now, at it is going down a storm.

 

Here is one of our happy walkers, a little boy who came to a show and didn't expect to be walking with an alpaca, that's something to back to school and tell his mates.

 

 

Here's Cosmo going out for a walk down the lane with some more lovely farm visitors.

 

 

 

Our Adopt an Alpaca Scheme is also very popular, some people just adore alpacas and want to get close to them, and some have been given it as a surprise gift (including a wedding gift, a 10th birthday gift, a surprise birthday gift, a 60th birthday gift).  It lovely to see the person arrive with no idea why they have come and their face when they see the Alpacas (we quite often have tears of joy).

 

 

That was just a few more of our lovely visitors :) the Alpacas are always happy to make people welcome, especially if they bring treats :)

 

Along with the WI talks, fleece/spinning demonstrations, things have really taken off!!

 

Our Alpaca experience days are also becoming more popular we are happy to fit it to peoples needs, last week we had a lovely family come to visit, it was a surprise 60th birthday gift from the ladies daughters, they arranged for mum to come along to adopt an alpaca, have lunch sitting out in the field with the alpacas, they bought along a nice bottle of bubbly, then after lunch to finish the afternoon we looked at the fleece, and some of the products we have produced from our hand spun wool, we then went onto the process of getting the raw fleece to the yarn, from the fleece in the bag, the carding, the spinning, plying right up to the finished skein, followed by a taster spinning lesson for Mum.  Finished off with a nice cup of tea and cakes, before heading off home.  (I am awaiting photos, so will post them when they arrive)

 

We have also had a film crew in to film us, this film is about local small business's and will shown as a precursor to the main event at the Evesham Regal (all very exciting)

 

So that's what has happened, now to what is happening or about to happen - We are now in the process of arranging an open day (lots & lots of requests for this) and alpaca birthday parties.

 

Oh sales, can't miss this out!!! this is also going very well, having sold quite a few home bred boys and girls (some staying here on livery which is even better, I still get to see them every day - although some will sadly be moving on very soon!!  but they are going with some lovely people) we have met some lovely people and now have some lovely new friends as a bonus, we are still getting enquiries so the sales side really is going in the right direction.

 

I always saw the main stay of my business to be breeding of these gorgeous creatures, never consider how popular they would be to other people, so the business is blooming into something more, bigger than I could have imagined and I have got to say I am really enjoying sharing the amazing animals with other people.

 

Phew tired me out just typing this blog, (hope it doesn't tire you too much reading it!!) things are definitely moving in the right direction (oh forgot the latest!!! we have been approached to see if we would like to put some of our wool and products into a newly open department store in Evesham, a great idea from two men who want to help and support local crafters sell their wares, with nicely hand made, unique and unusual gifts- how exciting!!!!) 

 

And the biggest thing of all, we have every thing crossed as we will be shortly putting in planning permission for a proper house!!!!!!  don't get me wrong the mobile has been nice and cosy but we are quickly outgrowing it with all these things we are doing.  So keep everything crossed that the planners can see what a wonderful business we have built up and hopefully give us the chance to keep on growing.

 

That's all for today folks, two blogs in one week after such a long time!!!  will try to keep you up to date more often, especially with all the impending births. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Again its been a very long time!!!!!!!!

I really don't know where the time goes these days!!!!  Time just seem to just fly by and there never seems enough hours in the day!

It has been a tough few months, not so much with the animals, but the family!  My mum has been in hospital since April, at times it was touch and go, but thankfully she is a real fighter and hopefully she will back home today (fingers crossed).  And we had some very sad news last week, a very special lady sadly lost her brave fight against cancer, we are all in shock and totally devastated.

On the alpaca front its been fairly quite, they have been getting over the hard year we had last year with all the rain etc, etc.  All are doing well, with the exception of one of our weanlings from last year, sadly we made the hard decision to have to put to sleep last week :(

She was a lovely little suri girl, very friendly (sometimes I did wonder if something wasn't quite right, as for a suri - from my experience anyway, she was very quite and laid back)  back during the winter she did drop weight so she was having additional feed and had a rug on to keep her warm and DRY!!

About a month ago she had what seem like a colic attach, classic rolling around, ears down and looking in pain, so I spoke to the Vet and he gave me some pain relief, which seemed to work quite quickly and she was back to her normal self (I just put it down to change of paddock and rich grass)

Then last Friday around 6ish I notice she looked much the same, she had seemed fine all day with nothing out of the ordinary, but was now rolling a lot then lying with her legs out to the side, I watched her for a bit and then went out to her, it was raining and she was on her side and moaning, she never attempted to get up, so I called the Vet.  The vet arrived within 30 mins, on checking her eyes, gums and then her heart she told me she had a heart murmur, this could be due to stress on her body from the pain but she feared something worst, her concern was a twisted gut!  Poor thing was now in so much pain, after considering the options I sadly made the very hard decision to have her put to sleep.  After she was finally asleep and out of pain, the Vet felt her fears were confirmed (its wasn't a very nice experience so I am not going into details)  she would never had made the long journey for an operation and it would have put her under so much stress and I am relieved to be told I did make the right decision and I am glad the little girl was now out of pain.

Now the unhappy and sad bits are out of the way, here's the good news :)

Over the weekend we have had two lovely cria born,  the first was quite a surprise! At 6am on Saturday morning I went out to let the chickens out and cast a quick eye over the girls, who as usual were all sitting around up at the top of the field, so no signs of any action, I came back in and thought I would have a bit of a lazy start and went back to bed with a nice cup of tea and to have a little snooze (hubby had gone off to golf)  I didn't look back out at the girls until around 7.45am as really didn't expect any action that early in the day.  But to my total surprise, I couldn't believe my eyes!  down in the long grass by the barn I could see a small bump which look suspiciously like a small cria, I watch for a few seconds, but there was no movement!!  I quickly threw on some clothes and walked out, fearing the worst, but as I got close up popped the head and then it jumped to its feet quick as a flash and was off with its Mum, after the initial shock I felt such relief.

She was completely dry, had already found the milk bar and the placenta was down in the grass.  Wow that was a quick sneaky one, it must have happen not long after I had let the chickens out.

So here she is, (born at 330 days) this photo was literally minutes after I had first noticed her.

 

She is a beautiful, strong, healthy girl and as a special tribute to the special lady I mentioned, who sadly lost her fight against cancer we have called her Jeanie.

 

So that was Saturday, so Sunday I got up and wandered out to the girls to check all was well and check on little Jeanie who was happily enjoying the early morning sunshine.  No signs of any impending births, all well so I went back in for some breakfast (which I didn't get!!) put the kettle on, put the toast in, I just happened to look out of the window and I could see sticking out of one of the Suri girls what looked like to feet!  Out I go and yes within half hour there on the ground was a lovely little boy, very unusual colour and not quite what we were expecting from this pure white mum, but he is gorgeous, although he born at 340 days, he seems a slower than Jeanie, but he is fine, happily finding the milk bar and has now made friends with little Jeanie, my sister has called him Merlin.

 

 

And here are the two new friends yesterday evening enjoying the lovely sunshine together.

 

 

So as I write this I have one eye out of the window to see if we are going to have three in a row?????  will let you know :)