We had our first cria born on July 1st! Having never seen anything born, it was both nerve racking & exhilarating all at the same time. Our mom, Wilhommenia aka Willow, who is a maiden, started going in to labor on the 1st. It started with her bracing her legs & putting her head down at intervals. There was lying down & head rubbing on the ground & then after about an hour of this, she cushed & appeared to be quite calm. Since there seemed to be no progress, I went back to the house & 1/2 an hour later when I came back, her vulva had opened & in a few more minutes, she was having contractions with the crias’s nose popping in & out. This was a good start since I knew the baby was not coming out backwards.
If you look closely, you can see that the cria is in the placenta and is surrounded by the fluid. It actually looked like it was in a giant balloon. At first I thought the cria would not be able to breath, but then I thought back to my high school science and remembered that while in the womb, the placenta provided all the baby needs to survive.
This stage of the labor went on for about 20 minutes at which point I called our vet since there was no progress. What if the legs were back? With alpacas, once labor started in earnest, there should be progress to the next stage about every 15-20 minutes. (It was also inconceivable to me that a cria was going to come out of such a small opening). The vet advised that I should scrub up & get my hand in Willow to see if I could feel the feet. I dashed up to the house & 5 minutes later I was back with Willow who, as it turned out, did not need my help & had managed to push out the head and legs in my absence.
At this point, the placenta had broken & the cria was gasping for air. Another call to the vet who explained this was normal as the lungs were just starting to work (Yes, I was quite anxious that all was as it was supposed to be). I have no doubt there there are lots of country folks who would have taken this all in stride as it was old hat, but for me, it was stressful.
Willow walked around for a while with the cria dangling as if this was a completely normal turn of events. She even decided to cush for a while at which point I held the crias head off the ground as I thought she would suffocate.
At last, the final stage of the labor arrived & Willow went in to several strong contractions that pushed out the shoulders & body up to the hind end. You can see in the video that the cria is all wrinkly looking…this is just the membrane from the womb. After that it was easy for Willow to finish with one last big push & out came our new little girl!
Within an hour Libby was trying to stand and an hour or so after that she was trying to nurse. It was very comical watching her trying to figure out where on Mom her meal was…she tried in front between the legs, in back behind the legs and finally found the spot.
What a quick change for Liberty from hanging out of mom gasping and wheezing as her lungs kicked in to gear until she was nursing…barely 2 hours had elapsed.
