Ups and downs on the farm.

Has been a sad week here on the farm. We have always been lucky to have mostly easy births with our girls, and had never lost any babies.

With alpaca pregnancies lasting a year it’s a long wait to see the results of your breeding decisions. Then in the last weeks there is a lot of time monitoring for labor. Alpacas are stoic animals so most signs are subtle. It helps to know individual routines, but they can still trick you. It is lots of fun though to watch the babies move around inside and wonder what they will be. They can come in any color, and you never know what you’ll get. Then are they boys or girls?
So that’s what’s been going on the last 2 months, watching routines, bellies and bottoms for changes. This week though we’ve been reminded that there are never any guarantees. GiGi had a hard labor and we found that we had our first breech baby. She had her little back legs folded under her and there was no way she was going to f

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Another boy.

Gabby had her baby this morning. A little fawn who was up and running quick! He’s a strong little one. Mom is doing well too. Maybe a girl for GiGi? She’s due on Wednesday so maybe we’ll know soon.

Shearing and babies

Busy week on the farm. Shearing was on Wednesday, poor babies were cold when it snowed on Friday. Abby had her baby on Saturday morning. Another boy! Hoping for some girls out of the rest 🙂 He is very cute though. Appears to be dark brown with some white on his face and two white socks on his front legs. Gabby should be any day now, with GiGi and Cammie coming up soon after.

Also found out what has been making Josh sick. During shearing we found an abscess on his shoulder. Couldn’t see that with all the wool. So another round of antibiotics. Karly is learning how to give the IM injections and doing a good job. Ah the life of a farm girl 🙂