At last, but what a morning!

It has been two weeks since our last cria was born and the waiting had become almost unbearable until today when we had somewhat of a double whammy.

 

Having finished locking up silly drunk people in the early hours I fell into bed at 3.45am this morning having customarily woken Sue up in the process. Sue then in turn woke me up at 7.35am to tell me that both Poppy and Penny (members of the hair-trigger spit-monster clan) were in labour. She knew that I would want to be awake and watching proceedings, which I did.

 

By 8am Poppy had produced a cracking solid brown boy but she had managed to prolapse her uterus in the process. We have never had one of these before but knew that a vet was required to put it back. Within half an hour a vet was on scene and we got cracking. Sue had gone out to a prearranged appointment so I enlisted the help of a neighbour to assist the vet. The neighbour, we shall call him Luke, as that is his name, took the front end. He held down Poppy's head and lay across her upper chest. I sat astride Poppy facing the 'business' end whilst holding her back legs out in the frog position. This meant that my face was less than a foot from the prolapse for the duration as the vet tried to get it back inside Poppy.

Now I don't know if you have ever watched this up close but it is pretty dramatic stuff. It was like trying to stuff a greased up half inflated space hopper into a childs wellington boot. It looked bloody impossible! The vet was confident, he had done numerous cow and sheep prolapses but this was his first alpaca. I gave him many, many words of encouragement but thought the task ridiculously impossible. Throughout, Poppy's cria was stumbling around us falling over comically like they do. He looked a big strong boy.

 

It took a while. Forty-five minutes to be precise and I was beginning to wonder. My pelvis sezied up, my feet went numb and I had cramp sporadically in every muscle below the waist. However, whatever I had going on was nothing compared to poor old Poppy. Sure enough the vet managed to get the uterus back in and a large stitch was inserted to hold it all in place. She was a star and not a drop of spit left her lips.

 

Halfway through this procedure I glanced across the field and saw a wibbly wobbly head on top of a wibbly wobbly body on drunken legs. Penny had fired one out in rapid time and it was looking for it's first drink almost immediately.

 

So what have we got. Pictured below is Poppy (an ATA Cambridge Centurion girl) and her big brown boy who weighed in at a very respectable 9.70kg. Poppy had been pregnant for 371 days.

In the background is Penny (a Canchones Witness of Inca girl) and her solid black female cria, she was a real whopper and after 340 days gestation weighed in at 10.90kg.

Both cria are sired by Van Diemen Qjori of Patou.

 

 

 

We have named the boy, Umberto and he will be known as Bertie. He has masses of fleece as you can see!

 

We have stayed with the 'U' theme with Umbria, who will be known as Brie.

They are both big and strong and feeding well and Poppy seems fine after her ordeal. Sue and I are delighted with the outcome. I need a lie down.