I can't believe that Hughie is four years old today. I remember the day he was born prematurely as though it was yesterday. He was our second cria to be born and arrived at 319 days gestation, initially and rather naively I wasn't too worried as he kushed as he should, we just didn't get any further than that.
After a while I decided that I needed to help him stand. He was down on his pasterns and had no strength what so ever. I decided to call the vet who came straight out. I did have some colostrum which the vet tubed into a very flat Hughie, eventually he left telling me he didn't hold out much hope.
He had no suck reflex, very little strength but already a huge hold on my heart. After a crash course on how to tube feed and then milk an alpaca we soon mastered things and after three tube feeds Hughie grasped the hang of sucking. With help he was able to stand for short bursts to feed from mum, who was thankfully the most chilled out alpaca ever.
Here is the very handsome Hughie at three days old, looking good.
There was no turning back and the bottled feeding and assistance stopped. He did find having a wee rather tricky for a couple of weeks and used his neck and head as an extra leg!
He here he is today.
Hughie has received many birthday messaged on facebook, thank you to all those of you who wished him happy birthday. Anyone wanting to become friends you can find him under Hughie Barnacre.
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3 comments:
Happy Birthday Hughie.....I can't believe he is 4 yrs old either.....he does have the nack of stealing your heart.....he made a big impact on me...when I met him .....!! ;0)....lots of Birthday kisses.....xxxx ...Jayne
Happy Birthday, Hughie!
Some of them do have that extra special hold on you - particularly if you have bottle fed them - it's hard work pulling them through though!
Thanks for showing us what can come from such a difficult beginning, congratulations all at Barnacre!
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