The wait is over...
Nottingham Hollow's Darius finally arrive on March 6th at about 9am. Unfortunately it didn't happen at home...
On Tuesday, March 4th at 9:30am, Whitney went down on her side with her legs straight out. She tried to roll but didn't get very fr and was in obvious discomfort. In spite of having taken a neonatal hands on clinic I called the vet out to check her instead of doing it myself. I have large hands anyway and the thought of going in to a tight space made me uncomfortable at the thought! The vet got here about 11:30am. At first she just observed. Did Whitney go back on her side? Of course not! Just like the human child who runs the fever at home and has a normal temp when at the doctors office... Just as she was ready to leave without giving an exam I pointed out the "alien" trying to escape from Whitney's side. Hmmm. It was decided we should do the exam. She did and at first didn't find anything. She went in again and found a uterine torsion. It was pretty severe, 180 degrees. After a lot of maneuvering it was corrected. By 7pm I was concerned again because Whitney was in obvious discomfort. I gave her a shot of Banamine and she settled down. At about 8:30pm I hit the sack because I was going to be checking her every two hours through the night. The vet had found the cervix to be closed tight but everything was softening and she was pretty sure Whitney would deliver Tuesday night!
At about midnight I woke to the sound of a freight train! It seemed to last forever but Chuck said it was only about three minutes. We had lost a tree that was on the property line but it luckily missed the house and fencing. All of the alpacas were fine and the fencing intact. Lots of downed tree branches, a shutter off the house, chimney cap and a couple of trees downed along the driveway... We found out on Wednesday that they were looking for a tornado touchdown on our road. They found it. Our damage was from straight line wind. The tornado touchdown was a mile or two away. I can't imagine what the folks living nearer to it went through with the sound since it was so loud at our place! It didn't bring on the cria though. Aside from me checking through the night Whitney was comfortable all night. Oh- we were without electricity as well.
Wednesday was Chuck's day off and he spent most of it taking care of the damage from the storm. I spent it watching Whitney. By late afternoon I began to become concerned again. She was cushed, legs somewhat out to the side. It could have been stage one labor but she was not opening or elongated at all. By supper time I decided I had to call the vet back as I was convinced she had another torsion. I placed one call to her cell and waited about 45 minutes and caught her on her house phone. She was headed out the door to dinner with her husband and some friends. I felt bad that I had to mess up their plans but while on the phone with her Whitney was obviously in a lot of pain again... She was trying to climb into the two foot high hay trough! By 7pm the vet was back out and found that she had started to "torse" again. It wasn't as bad as the previous one but bad enough. She corrected it, found the cervix to be slightly opened - just about 1 finger. We discussed what to do next.
One option that she had suggested that morning was to induce her. She checked with the doctors at Ohio State and they determined that if we were sure of her gestation date and that since her milk had come in it would be safe to induce. We knew the cria was a large one and very active and robust inutero. There was a problem though. The meds would cause her to deliver for sure between 19 and 24 hours. That's a lot of time to wait if she was going to chance another torsion. There were no guarantees that wouldn't happen. The doctor was scheduled to assist her husband, another vet, with a C-section on Thursday morning and would not be available to come out if there was an emergency.
The other option was to take Whitney to the camelid specialist over three hours away. There she could be monitored and if she had trouble the doctor would be right there. So, that was the option we chose. At 9pm on Wednesday evening we loaded Whitney in the van and drove her to the vet's clinic. We arrived there just after midnight having made great time on the road. Whitney did very well and only tried to visit us in the front seat a couple of times! Most of the trip she slept. The lights from other vehicles were somewhat upsetting to her, especial the blue strobe lights from the cruiser! I bet you figure they were for us? No, that happened in front of us...
We got her settled in and she had to be examined again poor thing. All was well still and this vet didn't feel she was dilated much at all. Maybe she tightened up, I don't know. She was started on Penicillin as a precaution since she had been examined so many times. She had refused supper Wednesday night so we gave her pellets and she had plenty of hay and water. Chuck and I left there about 2am and headed home, arriving at 5am. We cheated and fed the dogs early so they would let us sleep in some. Talk about exhausted.
I still don't know when Chuck got up but he woke me at 9am saying "It's a boy". I must have looked at him as though he had two heads or something because he laughed at me and said "Whitney had her baby - it's a boy!" After that it registered and I got up immediately, did the normal first things when one wakes up, and reached for the phone. I was on the phone with the vet when he stood, walked and fell for the first time. She was laughing at him because when he toppled over he got up, shook his head and looked at her as if to say "I meant to do that!" I smiled because it was something I could easily imagine...
She told me that about 8:45 Whitney started pawing the ground and groaned a couple of times. She put her in the chute and did an exam. She found the cria upside down. That's probably the worst position possible, right up there with a breech. Luckily she was able to turn him. She only had to get him started and he finished the turn himself.
Okay, you know how things come in threes? Well this time it was three hunches that were followed and each and every one was the right decision! I am not sure we would have had a good outcome at home. I actually don't even want to think about that.
He is a fawn color. I am not sure of the shade yet as he wasn't totally dry when we talked color. He weighed in at 19.5 pounds wearing the cria sweater. They usually weigh about .5 so we will call his birth weight 19 pounds. He stood and walked within half an hour of birth. After the first 5 ounces of bovine colostrum he poo'd! That's the quickest any of ours have passed the meconium!
We do have issues though. He isn't nursing. This is distressing me to no end as this is her sixth cria and there have never been issues before. She's had milk in since March 2nd... Unfortunately she wasn't milked out and her colostrum given to him. He had plenty of bovine but no camelid. I had said to watch her for engorgement as we dealt with that last year. It must have fallen through the cracks though. I suspect if he really isn't nursing it is because she is hurting. She was milked this morning and some of it spilled but they gave him 5 ounces from her. Of course it was over the 24 hour mark so it likely wasn't doing any good. This afternoon she was milked again and had less but they gave that to him too.
I can't wait to get them home tomorrow! Chuck is going to pick them up and I will stay back here and get things all ready for them. I am going to set up a pen in the barn so that they can bond in their own surroundings before they rejoin the herd. You don't know how much I am praying that he is stealth nursing and it has just been missed! I will be ready with the warm compresses for her though to make her more comfortable.
Now I have to go and sew some heavy duty snaps on to a cria coat I made. I brought a cria sweater for him but the vet said it fit him like a muscle shirt! What a picture that makes! :-)
I'll take pictures on Sunday...
Until the next time.
On Tuesday, March 4th at 9:30am, Whitney went down on her side with her legs straight out. She tried to roll but didn't get very fr and was in obvious discomfort. In spite of having taken a neonatal hands on clinic I called the vet out to check her instead of doing it myself. I have large hands anyway and the thought of going in to a tight space made me uncomfortable at the thought! The vet got here about 11:30am. At first she just observed. Did Whitney go back on her side? Of course not! Just like the human child who runs the fever at home and has a normal temp when at the doctors office... Just as she was ready to leave without giving an exam I pointed out the "alien" trying to escape from Whitney's side. Hmmm. It was decided we should do the exam. She did and at first didn't find anything. She went in again and found a uterine torsion. It was pretty severe, 180 degrees. After a lot of maneuvering it was corrected. By 7pm I was concerned again because Whitney was in obvious discomfort. I gave her a shot of Banamine and she settled down. At about 8:30pm I hit the sack because I was going to be checking her every two hours through the night. The vet had found the cervix to be closed tight but everything was softening and she was pretty sure Whitney would deliver Tuesday night!
At about midnight I woke to the sound of a freight train! It seemed to last forever but Chuck said it was only about three minutes. We had lost a tree that was on the property line but it luckily missed the house and fencing. All of the alpacas were fine and the fencing intact. Lots of downed tree branches, a shutter off the house, chimney cap and a couple of trees downed along the driveway... We found out on Wednesday that they were looking for a tornado touchdown on our road. They found it. Our damage was from straight line wind. The tornado touchdown was a mile or two away. I can't imagine what the folks living nearer to it went through with the sound since it was so loud at our place! It didn't bring on the cria though. Aside from me checking through the night Whitney was comfortable all night. Oh- we were without electricity as well.
Wednesday was Chuck's day off and he spent most of it taking care of the damage from the storm. I spent it watching Whitney. By late afternoon I began to become concerned again. She was cushed, legs somewhat out to the side. It could have been stage one labor but she was not opening or elongated at all. By supper time I decided I had to call the vet back as I was convinced she had another torsion. I placed one call to her cell and waited about 45 minutes and caught her on her house phone. She was headed out the door to dinner with her husband and some friends. I felt bad that I had to mess up their plans but while on the phone with her Whitney was obviously in a lot of pain again... She was trying to climb into the two foot high hay trough! By 7pm the vet was back out and found that she had started to "torse" again. It wasn't as bad as the previous one but bad enough. She corrected it, found the cervix to be slightly opened - just about 1 finger. We discussed what to do next.
One option that she had suggested that morning was to induce her. She checked with the doctors at Ohio State and they determined that if we were sure of her gestation date and that since her milk had come in it would be safe to induce. We knew the cria was a large one and very active and robust inutero. There was a problem though. The meds would cause her to deliver for sure between 19 and 24 hours. That's a lot of time to wait if she was going to chance another torsion. There were no guarantees that wouldn't happen. The doctor was scheduled to assist her husband, another vet, with a C-section on Thursday morning and would not be available to come out if there was an emergency.
The other option was to take Whitney to the camelid specialist over three hours away. There she could be monitored and if she had trouble the doctor would be right there. So, that was the option we chose. At 9pm on Wednesday evening we loaded Whitney in the van and drove her to the vet's clinic. We arrived there just after midnight having made great time on the road. Whitney did very well and only tried to visit us in the front seat a couple of times! Most of the trip she slept. The lights from other vehicles were somewhat upsetting to her, especial the blue strobe lights from the cruiser! I bet you figure they were for us? No, that happened in front of us...
We got her settled in and she had to be examined again poor thing. All was well still and this vet didn't feel she was dilated much at all. Maybe she tightened up, I don't know. She was started on Penicillin as a precaution since she had been examined so many times. She had refused supper Wednesday night so we gave her pellets and she had plenty of hay and water. Chuck and I left there about 2am and headed home, arriving at 5am. We cheated and fed the dogs early so they would let us sleep in some. Talk about exhausted.
I still don't know when Chuck got up but he woke me at 9am saying "It's a boy". I must have looked at him as though he had two heads or something because he laughed at me and said "Whitney had her baby - it's a boy!" After that it registered and I got up immediately, did the normal first things when one wakes up, and reached for the phone. I was on the phone with the vet when he stood, walked and fell for the first time. She was laughing at him because when he toppled over he got up, shook his head and looked at her as if to say "I meant to do that!" I smiled because it was something I could easily imagine...
She told me that about 8:45 Whitney started pawing the ground and groaned a couple of times. She put her in the chute and did an exam. She found the cria upside down. That's probably the worst position possible, right up there with a breech. Luckily she was able to turn him. She only had to get him started and he finished the turn himself.
Okay, you know how things come in threes? Well this time it was three hunches that were followed and each and every one was the right decision! I am not sure we would have had a good outcome at home. I actually don't even want to think about that.
He is a fawn color. I am not sure of the shade yet as he wasn't totally dry when we talked color. He weighed in at 19.5 pounds wearing the cria sweater. They usually weigh about .5 so we will call his birth weight 19 pounds. He stood and walked within half an hour of birth. After the first 5 ounces of bovine colostrum he poo'd! That's the quickest any of ours have passed the meconium!
We do have issues though. He isn't nursing. This is distressing me to no end as this is her sixth cria and there have never been issues before. She's had milk in since March 2nd... Unfortunately she wasn't milked out and her colostrum given to him. He had plenty of bovine but no camelid. I had said to watch her for engorgement as we dealt with that last year. It must have fallen through the cracks though. I suspect if he really isn't nursing it is because she is hurting. She was milked this morning and some of it spilled but they gave him 5 ounces from her. Of course it was over the 24 hour mark so it likely wasn't doing any good. This afternoon she was milked again and had less but they gave that to him too.
I can't wait to get them home tomorrow! Chuck is going to pick them up and I will stay back here and get things all ready for them. I am going to set up a pen in the barn so that they can bond in their own surroundings before they rejoin the herd. You don't know how much I am praying that he is stealth nursing and it has just been missed! I will be ready with the warm compresses for her though to make her more comfortable.
Now I have to go and sew some heavy duty snaps on to a cria coat I made. I brought a cria sweater for him but the vet said it fit him like a muscle shirt! What a picture that makes! :-)
I'll take pictures on Sunday...
Until the next time.
posted by Sue at 7:39 PM
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