Catching up...............Xali and Xyllan

XALI - a lovely story. Little Xali was born 3 weeks ago. She was the first live birth for her mummy, Miss Tunisia (aka Missy) Xali was 5.2 kg at birth, which is relatively small. The problem was that Missy didn't want Xali to feed from her. They bonded well, but as soon as Xali wanted to feed, her mother spat at her, and pushed her away. I gave Xali Impact Colostrum for the first 12 hours and some glucose, and then started feeding her Di-Vetalact (which is a milk substitute). Missy continued to spit at Xali for the next 2 days whenever she tried to feed. When she was 2 days old, I noticed that Xali's left eye was starting to weep and in my words, was a bit "goopy". I was devastated, and phoned up the alpaca gurus in a panic. To cut a long story short, and not mentioning all the tears I shed in the next few hours, Xali was rushed to one of the vets and had a camelid plasma transfusion. The eye had a small ulcer in it, (irritation , I think from the spit from her mother) and so for the next week I had to give her antibiotics, and eye drops, and eye cream, and treat her as an orphan. By Day 4 Missy had decided that this gorgeous baby could touch her titties, and so Xali started trying to feed from her mother. I kept "force feeding " her, and kept weighing her to ensure she was putting on weight. In the past few days, I've decided that she's getting enough milk from her mummy, and have stopped feeding her. The weigh-ins continue. She is the most gorgeous baby, and races round the paddock like there is no tomorrow..... which I hope there are plenty of. She also has an umbelical hernia, but I've decided that this is the least of her problems for the moment.
XYLLAN - This is Xyllan and Jessie, his mother, when he was 2 hours old. Another lovely story. Jessie's first baby was still born 18 months ago. (Yasmin) There was much confusion about when Jessie was due, and indeed if she was pregnant. We had expected a cria in early May this year, but it didn't arrive. This truly has to be an immaculate conception, because the Stud Male has not been in the "girls paddock" for well over a year. Anyway....... something happened, and nobody's telling me! and then one day when I was stressing that she must have had some terrible gynecological condition, I felt what I thought was a cria in-utero. (no ultrasounds available here............) Xyllan was born 1 week after Xali, and was a large boy. Very large shoulders, and so I gave Jessie a hand birthing him. She is the most gorgeous loving mother, and Xyllan too is weighed every second day, but is putting on heaps of weight, and is no cause for concern.