Tuesday, July 28, 2009

C-section and alpacas


There is never a dull moment around here. It was Sunday and rainy outside, we had gotten a couple of loads of crushed granite, to fill in, inside the barn, so even though it was raining we decided to work on getting the pile smaller. It took us a couple of hours and by the time we were done we were wet, I was getting ready to head to the house when I noticed that Jenis was walking around with her tail up and every time she would take a step water would drip out... obviously her water broke. This was about 2:30 in the afternoon, so I wasn't worried the baby she had last year showed up between 3-4 in the afternoon. I just hung out in the barn. She would make a trip to the poop pile then she would cush for awhile. By the time 8pm rolled around I called the vet. Of course its Sunday, things like this NEVER happen on a week day, in the middle of the day. Apparently I wasn't the only one either, the vet was busy and it took almost 1 hr before he called me back. He said I needed to go in and figure out how the baby was positioned. So I went to the house and scrubbed up and got Charlie to come hold her, it didn't take long to discover that it was a tail and a hock instead of a nose and front feet, so now it is 9:20pm and we are at least 30 min away from the vet hospital. So we get the trailer hooked up, get her in it and head down the mountain. By the time we get there the vet has called in some help and we were greeted by 3 vets and 2 techs. The vet tries to manipulate the baby so it can be delivered normally, but was unable to, so the decision was made to do a c-section. A c-section that is done on an alpaca is done under local and sedation, so we get her on the table and prepped for surgery. Jenis ends up on her back with 4 feet in the air, Charlie ends up holding the front legs, which leaves me with the back ones, where I have a view of everything that goes on. It was pretty interesting, but not for the faint of heart. The cria was delivered and there weren't any problems. We were able to bring them both home, so by the time we got home, made sure the baby was nursing and the Jenis was awake enough that she wouldn't fall on the baby, it was 2am.... way past my bedtime. Of course I woke up before 6am worried that they were ok, so got up to check on them and all was well. Later that day, imagine my surprise when I went to doctor the umbilical cord and found an extra growth where it shouldn't be - it is a boy not a girl and no one thought to correct me from the night before, they even had him upside down stitching up his umbilical. But both mom and little boy are doing great, we just have to take out some stitches in about 3 weeks.


When we thought it was a girl we were going to name her Leah, but since its a boy his name is Jonah. Remus (in the picture with Charlie above) and Eve love him and Eve keeps trying to lick him through the fence.


This is a picture of Molly and Andy - they can't wait to play with Jonah.

No comments: