Friday 4 July 2008

A very sad day at Patou.

Some time ago a farmer friend of ours spoke to us about keeping livestock. We were new to alpacas and thought it was all great and fluffy. He gave us a few words of caution when he said 'If you have livestock, sooner or later you are going to have deadstock'. A cheery fellow he was.

I have never forgotten those words and knew that one day his prediction would come true. I hoped that it wouldn't.

This evening I'm afraid it did. We have had three gorgeous healthy cria in the past two weeks all born without problem, all doing well.

However, this evening Coolaroo Judah had a very rough ride. We noticed at 8pm that she had a crias head hanging out. It hadn't been there an hour before and she had shown no signs of being about to give birth all day.

Unfortunately it was quite apparent that the cria was dead. Judy was also very aggressive and simply couldn't shift it. The vet was called and David Hollingsworth our vet soon arrived.

With a little help the dead cria was delivered and thankfully Judy seems ok. It was a very big white male cria, Judy was 11 months and 15 days.

David said that the cria had been dead for sometime before it was born and that there was nothing that we could have done.

Sorry there are no laughs today but as it says at the beginning of this blog it has been a very sad day here in Patou land.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sorry to hear what a terrible day you have, having lost two cria this year I know exactly how you feel. Hope mum is ok.
Debbie
Barnacre Alpacas

Anonymous said...

Thanks Debbie, you know it's going to happen one day but you're never quite prepared for it.

Mark

Gerry said...

Sorry to hear of your loss Mark. I know from personal experience how horrible it is to wait all year for a cria and then to have it stillborn. It's truly gutting but your farmer friend was right - it's part of the deal if you keep them. Cheers - Gerry, Coire Alpacas

Patou Alpacas said...

Thanks Gerry, life goes on.
Although we are experiencing some truly Scottish weather at the moment, howling gales and pouring rain. Hopefully the rest of the girls wil hang on until the sun come out.

Gerry said...

Indeed it does Mark. Funnily enough we are experiencing similar type weather! But it didn't stop our best girl having a Killawasi cria for us yesterday (and it's a girl!) - mating carried out by his Tim-ness last year! Cheers - Gerry, Coire Alpacas