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Wednesday 25 May 2011

Beginning to see the light


.. at the end of the tunnel I hope ! Diablo , as he will be called, is making progress thank God. Monday night was stressful , with a couple of night feeds from me , so I was tired by the morning . Luckily Tuesday was glorious , and so the little chap went out to meet some of the herd , red cria coat and all. Everybody was very excited to meet the new cria and there was alot of running around and of course lots of sniffing . Veronica was torn , on the one hand she wanted to get at the grass and on the other she really didn't like the others getting too close to her baby . In the end a compromise was reached by putting her in a small filed next to the rest of the herd . Diablo took it all well , initially he couldn't get up by himself , but once up could stand for a short while before folding himself back into a perfect little cush. Despite being over due by forever , he is tiny at just 5.8 kg , by far the smallest cria we have had.

Today he is able to stand and walk about by himself and he has spent a large portion of the day outside. The yearlings are very excited and there has been a lot of skittishness , Diablo is keen to join in but the flesh is not quite up to it! I am still milking mum about every hour and then giving it to her cria , his sucking reflex is a bit weak , thou' it seems to be getting better , and he is having trouble keeping his tongue under control , but that too is getting better. He is keen to feed from mum , but with a slightly out of control tongue and still wobbly legs he has not managed to perfect latching on , he knows where to go and is very keen so I am hopeful that within a couple of days it will all come right , meantime I am milking mum and supplementing with goats milk from a bottle . Still fingers crossed!

6 comments:

Debbie, Barnacre Alpacas said...

Great news, I hope things continue to improve.

Alpaca Sue in Wales said...

Bless him - he looks gorgeous so well done Mum & well done you!!
Some crias do have a floppy tongue but it should right itself soon and he will be able to suckle for himself. The sunshine will do him the world of good xxx

Eliane said...

So what I want to know is where did all the rest of Veronica go? I mean we all know humans who've trebled in size during pregnancy and then produced a tiny baby - I was one first time around. But I know where that went - my bottom! Didn't think alpaca could do it too.

Glad to hear Diablo is up and about. Hope the night time feeds don't go on too much longer. (T always says "You're not having animals when we get back to Wales!" after he reads these posts!)

Unknown said...

Hope your little one is still ok Suzanne

Lois Evensen said...

How very precious!!!!!

Karen Oglesby - Meon Valley Alpacas said...

Hi Suzanne - Just found your blog ...Good nursing always pays off in the end - well done! BWs
Karen