The wait is over

 At last the wait is over, Fair Lady eventually decided to go into labour late on Friday morning (just before it started to rain)!

I was quite pleased she'd decided that Friday was the day as we'd got mum farm sitting on Saturday whilst we were at Morpeth for the Food and Drink Festival with the alpacas and our knitwear.  After the Marne delivery a couple of weeks ago I didn't want mum to have to deal with another overdue baby to be delivered.

At 11.30 mum went up to check and thought that Fair Lady was showing all the signs; she's getting very good at it now, she was spot on.  After lots of rolling, and visits to the poo pile out fired one leg, yes just a leg, no sign of anything else!!

Fair Lady is a real worrier so I knew getting hold of her in the field wasn't going to be easy but I needed to investigate.

I decided the easiest way was to get everyone out the field and into the channel; perfect it worked and she was soon in a catch pen.  All lubed up and in I went, further and further to try and find the other leg and a head.

I eventually found the head down low underneath the cria and squashed to its tummy, but as for the second leg I couldn't find it anywhere.  I could find back feet but no front leg so I called the vet as I knew I was going to need help.

It took the vet over an hour to arrive so during this time we took Fair lady down to the shed, Rose and Selkis were happy to show her the way as it was raining by this time and they'd spent time in with Nelson if you remember and found it rather cosy down there.

I continued to try and get the cria out but try as I might I couldn't budge the head, she was on 365 days so I was thinking the cria must be big and I was starting to think it would be dead.  Having chased the location of the vet (they said she'd left an hour ago so should be there!) I had one last go and somehow managed to get the head up and out.  I've never been so relieved about anything, there was a few coughs and splutters but the cria was alive.

With some extra space I hoped I would now be able to find the missing leg but I still couldn't feel it and then I heard a car, I can't begin to tell you how pleased I was.

It took the vet some time but eventually after constantly finding back feet she sighed a sigh of relief she'd found the leg, somehow bent over the back of the cria!  Fair Lady wasn't very keen on the cria being pushed back in to move the leg but she was clearly very pleased to have the cria and the vets arms eventually out!

Other than a bit of a wonky neck the cria didn't seem any the worse for her (yes it's a girl) rather stressful arrival into the world.

Despite being 365 days gestation she was only 6.48kg and is showing signs of prematurity, down on her pasterns and teeth not erupted.  She is also causing me some concerns over feeding, my regular vet Sam Prescott is coming out tomorrow so we'll see what he has to say about her.

I've got to be honest she is not at all what we were expecting.  Fair Lady was mated to Lavender Park Tully and has herself produced two very nice cria, the first one of our colour champions' Zoom and the second a very nice fine black Jumping Jack so we were hoping for grand things but that is not the case, however as long as she is happy and healthy that's all that matters, we all know alpaca mating results are far from predictable!