Hey Everyone......I had a super day yesterday although it was exhausting. We finally had our first cria of the fall season. I introduce to you DMAR Autumn out of Our Justice x DMAR Chablis. Autumn was born out in the pasture at 10:43 am. It was a textbook birthing with no assistance needed from me. She was sternal in a couple of minutes and up and walking about 20 minutes after birth. Her little pink tongue was out flicking about too. Everything was going fine until Chablis crazy sister Mercedes thought the cria (baby alpacas are called crias) was hers. She started protecting Autumn by screaming and blasting anyone who came near the cria. This included Chablis and me. I had to put up my hood just to be able to grab Autumn. Luckily, Chablis knew this was her daughter and followed me back to the barn. It was a long walk with crazy Mercedes following in tow and then every once in while running ahead of me to turn around and spit at Chablis. However, once back in a stall Chablis was able to bond with little Autumn. I took the wax tips off of Chablis nipples after gently washing them with soapy water. I checked for colostrum and she appeared to have plenty. I helped Autumn under her mom for her first drink. It took a couple of times because Chablis, first time mom, was not too sure about the whole nursing thing. On the third try Chablis stood like a statue and Autumn allowed me to tilt her head so she could drink. She liked it and continued to lick and drink as much as her shaky legs would allow her to. After a couple of hours Autumn was on auto pilot nursing on her own. Smart little girl! So there are some things you need to know when birthing crias. First is that crias are born with no antibodies. They get this from the colostrum they get when nursing. For the first 24 hours only the crias intestines can absorb antibodies. After the 24 hours are up no more antibodies can be absorbed. So it is really important that the cria nurses as much as possible to get all the antibodies it can to be able to fight bacteria, viruses, and any other illnesses. For crias that do not get any or enough colostrum during the first 24 hours will get sick usually around day 4 or 5. The cria usually gets septic (poison of the blood) and you will see the cria get lethargic not wanting to do anything much less nurse. The only real way to save the cria is to give it a plasma transfusion. Another thing you want to do for the newborn cria is dip its navel in an iodine solution three times over the first 3 hours. This is to get the navel dried up and closed. The navel is where the placenta was broken off. Leaving this open will allow bacteria to enter the crias body. Last, you want to take the crias temperature and ensure it is kept warm. The cria cannot maintain its body heat for the first 3 days so monitoring his/her temperature will make sure you have the cria at the correct temp. Autumn appears to be strong and happy. She weighed 15.2 lbs at birth and is white with a few marking of fawn especially on her head and tail. Chablis is constantly talking to her daughter and I do hear a faint hum in reply from Autumn. I can tell already that Chablis will be a wonderful mom. Welcome Autumn to DMAR!
Posted on: Fri, 24 Oct 2014 11:31:58 +0000
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