Traumatic birth for Nutmeg

At last Nutmeg has produced!!!

 

I actually had the vet out to her last Thursday as I was worried, she's been so big for so long and has had a bag full of milk for weeks.  Compared to the others she just wasn't the same, I was also worried I'd not seen much if any movement the day before.

 

It turns out that she had a double hernia, one on each side, these ruptures were what were making her look do big, it also turned out that she had the beginnings of mastitis too.  The vet concluded that she wasn't quite ready, but advised me that when she was it was very unlikely that she would be able to deliver the kids without assistance.

 

We were at Wallington Hall on Sunday and Monday with the alpacas, but as I didn't want to leave Nutmeg Carol and Dave had thankfully agreed to help out.

 

On Monday morning I thought that she was thinking about going into labour so I was keeping a very close eye on things.

 

Eventually at tea time she went into labour.  As Sam, the vet had predicted poor Nutmeg couldn't deliver the kids, she couldn't even present me with a nose or toes, so it was down to me.

 

On first inspection it was evident that the first kid had it's head tucked down and there were no legs.  After a bit of rummaging I managed to get the first kid delivered, there wasn't much room so it was hard work.

 

Then for number two, another wrong presentation, this time upside down and breech!  I really struggled with this one and came very close to calling the vet out.  Poor Nutmeg was a star, despite be being almost up to my elbows at one point.

 

Off I went to wash my hands and leave her to a bit of bonding with her sons, but when I returned it was evident that there was more.  A third kid, and a third mis presented kid, breech again, but with the other two out of the way there was more room to get this one sorted.

Aren't they sweet!

 

And here's the proud daddy, Galileo.

Thankfully I managed to sort out Nutmegs mastitis so she is looking after all three kids on her own - phew!

 

This birth has to go down as the most difficult I have ever had to deal with, but I'm pleased with the outcome.  Nutmeg won't be bred again so I'm glad to say that the third kid was a girl!