Difficult Birth for Toft Brown Alpaca Storm Trooper

23 April 2008

Following the easy birth of Linseed, our second cria of the year had a slightly more traumatic entrance into the world.

Yesterday morning we noticed Clarissa shifting from one side to the other. Being close to her due date we suspected that she might very well be in labour. An hour later we still hadn’t got any feet popping out, and so decided to take a closer look. On inspection Clarissa was in fact in the early stages of labour, and appeared to have been so for well over an hour. Going in for a closer look we discovered the cria appeared to be upside down.

We called the vet out to be sure of the safest birth and he confirmed our fears. Ten minutes after he arrived, Storm Trooper (proudly named by our vet) was out in the field and sitting in the cush position. This is the first birth we have ever had upside down in ten years (and hope we go another ten without seeing another one).

Storm Trooper is a deep chestnut brown like his mother. He is a lovely looking boy running around with Linseed in the field.

Difficult births are not too common as a result of alpaca pregnancy, but with the number of breeding animals that we now have a couple are inevitable throughout he birthing season.