I figure it was around 7pm when I poured a cup of coffee and went out to stand amidst the pregnant females for a few minutes. Sandy was off by herself and looking fairly uncomfortable. She let me approach her and lift her tail. Lo and behold the placental sack was protruding with no baby in sight. Not good anytime, but a Saturday night, after hours, on a holiday weekend is REALLY not good.

Got lucky…the vet answered his after hours line. He was just leaving for Reno, which is an hour north, but he’s now on the way to the office to meet us. Whew! Sandy helped us out and sauntered over towards the minivan(God bless minivans). She seems to know we’re trying to help her. We help her into the back of the van and we’re off to the vets office.  The vet pulls up, washes his hands, lubes up and all of a sudden he’s up to his elbow inside of Sandy. It took about 5 minutes but first the front feet emerged, then the head, then shoulders and rear feet, all right there on the tarp IN the minivan! The baby is breathing and what’s more, SHE’S perfect!

Steve MacCabe, our vet,  commented on the dystocia, saying that it was a difficult one with the head back and in between the rear legs and that she would have never delivered little “Evie” on her own. He say’s it’s fairly common in sheep that deliver twins. Interesting comparison I thought, but what the heck, we’ll take a single female alpaca over twin sheep any day.

Sandy and Evie(Sandalwoods Evening Song) are home and doing just fine now. Evie weighed in at 12lb6oz. She’s just a little tyke, but that worked to her advantage(and ours), but perfectly formed and very energetic. Sandy is a great first time mom and took to nursing right away.

Suggestions -

Watch the moms closely, especially the maidens like Sandy, that are 2 weeks+ overdue.

Sandy was protruding on her right side more than her left. I don’t know if that means anything by itself, but 95% of alpacas conceive in the left horn and most of our females tend to protrude more to the left. Is that just coincidence?

Always have the vet’s after hours phone number within reach. Your vet does give you an after hours phone number, right? Let him know, as we did one week earlier, that you are watching a potential problem mom, and to be ready.

You may have to carry your alpaca. Have your late term moms in a convenient location and park close.

We sheared 2 days before Sandy delivered. Sandy was excluded from the shearing because she was so close. Would she have been OK with shearing? Who knows. What we DO know, is that we lost a little baby girl last year. She was stillborn 2 days after shearing.

We’ve done both and now we can say without equivocation, it’s a lot easier to call a client to tell them that “there was a problem but congratulations we overcame and it’s a healthy girl”, rather than “we’re so sorry to inform you….”.

God bless minivans, especially the ones with tarps in them.

Dystocia - Difficult birth, typically caused by a large or akwardly positioned fetus

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