Positivity is the secret!
‘If you have livestock you have deadstock’, is a saying within the farming community. Having been raised in a town myself, it was not something I would have heard, or understood for that matter. That was until this summer. Here at Hilltop Farm Alpacas we started breeding from our own for the first time and most of the cria (babies) born this year would be our own. By the 29th June we were due to have four cria on the farm. But this is not the case. Two of our babies died, one at birth, the second – at four days old.
The first cria suffered a complication during the birth. The mother (Cloud) had a twisted uterus making it difficult to birth her baby and when the vet eventually managed to help it out, it had lost its fight and died because of the stress it had suffered during the process. The second cria was born to Apollo with fluid in one of its lungs and the high levels of humidity made it difficult for the little one to breathe easily. We did everything we could for the little one, but it wasn’t enough, Mother Nature had other plans. These two cria were named Evolution and Empress.
But it hasn’t been all doom and gloom. We have had two healthy cria – Eureka and Elijah – with one more expected in late August. You just have to accept that not everything will go your way and for some unknown reason the ‘powers-that-be’ decide that harmless creatures be taken from their bereaving mothers. But that’s just how it is. We have to enjoy what we have and just remember the ones that are no longer with us.
However it must be said that the two crias that we have are pure bundles of joy and we will undoubtedly have hours of amusement with them.
Until next time
Alan and Catriona