The good, the bad, and the worse.

OK..... time to catch up. XhuXhu was born before Christmas. She is a bouncing baby, and sister to Yadra who died early in 2006. Xhu Xhu may have been a tiny bit premature, but is full of life, brown all over, and looks very much like Xeus. They will be very hard to tell apart in the future.

2007 Australia Day. Bad Day. Horrible day really. In the morning we had to call the vet out to help deliver a cria for Dew Drop. For some reason, the baby had died in utero a day or so previously, and just hadn't engaged into the birthing position. The vet had to rotate the cria, and then deliver it. It was a good sized white boy which we named Walla.

Later that afternoon my little friend Penny started to have her baby. She delivered Wink at about 2.30pm. Wink was tiny at 4kgs, and quite weak. The next day I decided to take him for a plasma transfusion, as he was still terribly weak, and wasn't feeding from Penny. That gave him a boost, but he was still worrying me, so I took him back, and the vet at Samford detected a heart murmur.... patent ductus arteriosus. Well, after quite intensive treatment including another plasma transfusion, being in an oxygen tent for 24+ hours, broncho dilators, antibiotics, and............ Poor little Wink died. We were all upset, because he was a such a gorgeous baby. Penny was being a wonderful mother too, and was really co-operative while I expressed her milk for Wink.

So..... I'm feeling incredibly sad that I have lost so many babies. There is no common factor..... different mothers, different fathers, different times of the year, different causes. I worry that I have a long way to go before I can write the A-Z of birthing problems in alpacas, as I've only got to about 8.