Our first birth of the season turned out to be exciting, a bit too exciting really. Classical MileEnd Julia was clearly in labour but there was no progress. Time to call the vet as Chas was being a white van man and on his way to Bradford to pick up 34 boxes of finished yarn.
It is a uterine torsion, says the vet, that often results in a caesarean. Not this time, the vet hung onto the uterus and we (luckily Di Davies of Alpha Alpacas was on farm) rolled Julia. Torsion dealt with, the vet Tom, pulled out the cria. I should have taken photos but I was pretty nervous and worried that the cria might be dead particularly as in 25 years of births I had never encountered a torsion.
One 8.1 kilo female cria very much alive. Both mother and cria looked as if they had rolled in a dust bath whereas in reality Julia is bright white and the cria a very light fawn. We kept them in for the rest of the day as it was raining stair rods all Thursday but set them free in the field in the evening.
