I think I have figured out what was ailing Eve. Like humans, alpacas are born with a meconium plug that MUST come out. Friday morning I gave Eve an enema, and thought she had passed the entire plug. Today, worrying and worrying, I was sitting in the field with her, observing. She went over to the poop pile and strained and strained, making little grunts. Hmmmmm, could it be that part of the meconium plug is still in her intestines? I went in the house and prepared an enema for her and administered it. Then I laid down in the grass next to her to watch what happened next. After about 15 minutes, she stood up and propelled a mass. Wooo hoooo. She pooped, she pooped. We get so excited about these things. And just to be cautious, we gave her a dose of mineral oil to keep thinkgs moving . Sometimes an impaction can form at the entrance to the spiral colon, which eventually bursts and you have a dead cria.
I will report in the morning on her status.
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I have everything crossed for you and hope things are now on the up.
ReplyDeleteYou really know your stuff!!! I hope this solves Eve's problem. Maybe Edna Mae knew the baby was failing and just walked away. Are alpacas like that when a baby is ill? Can you hand raise a cria successfully? Fingers crossed for Eve to make it thru this..................
ReplyDeleteYou know I am pulling for all to be well. It was good to talk to you last night as I felt a bit more hopeful about the situation when I got off the phone with you.
ReplyDeleteYou are sure a special kind of Lady. I am amazed at how much you know. One of the things I like about the blogging is meeting so many different people, doing so many different things. I am learning how different many of our life styles are, but at the same time how alike we all are. Super job diagnosing Edna Mae and what a beautiful picture I see in my mind of you lying in the grass observing her. Good JoB
ReplyDeletesmart thinking! you saved her life .... sometimes the most important thing in a mom's life is seeing the babies have healthy poops :)
ReplyDeleteI popped on over from Pat's blog to see your little Eve... She's adorable!
ReplyDeleteI hope things have improved for her, and that her Momma will do her mothering better...