Arm Deep in Knowledge

Today I attended a Camelid Neonatal Clinic in Ottawa, OH. The instructor was Dr. Cheryl DeWitt and it was amazing.

It was hosted by J. C. Alpaca and Cria Barn at Cranberry Creek.

The first part of the day was a slide presentation/lecture showing us normal births and abnormal. We learned terminology and saw pictures and ultra sounds of pregnancy and births. After a wonderful lunch presented by our hosts we broke into two groups where we went to "cria lab" or toured the farm.

I started out in the lab.

Now these pictures are not for the faint of stomach. We used stillborn cria that had been donated by fellow farms. Dr. DeWitt had uterine simulators that we could position these cria in the various positions that would cause birthing problems and we would have to reach in and assist the the "birth" using the knowledge we had gained during the morning lectures.

It looks easier than it is. Those cria are snug tight in their mom and there isn't a lot of room to manipulate them into the correct position. We had to reach in and feel to see if the cria was in the proper position. Were we feeling a head, a tail, a leg, a neck? That is what we needed to determine.

We practiced tubing a cria to help feed since there are times with a cria has to be bottle fed or is not gaining weight and the farm needs to make sure the cria is getting all the nutrients. This is a very tricky procedure because you don't want the tube going into the lungs.

We also tubed their noses to check for air passage that might not be there due to choanal atresia. This is a condition that can not be corrected and usually means that the cria has to be put down because it will eventually suffocate.

We learned about all sorts of issues that may happen during pregnancy/labor/delivery/post-delivery.

My head is just swimming with knowledge. Having the hands on lab was amazing. I hope that I never have to use what I have learned today but I at least know the basics of what to do and not go into total panic if the vet isn't available to assist.

One of the cria was actually donated by a fellow participant today. They went through quite a time with the delivery and still lost the cria. It's death was heartbreaking. Alpacas take approximately 245 days to gestate. That's an awful long time to find out that the outcome is death. The death of that cria did allow our group to learn so that future births can be successful.

It was fun seeing how the Cria Barn was set up. They have some beautiful huacaya on their farm. I wish I had money to buy some. I loved seeing their setup. I always love touring other farms and looking at the barn layouts and procedures. A young farm like mine can learn so much from experienced farms.

Now I just need to wait until my Sprite's due date in September. I can only hope for a simple and safe delivery but if there are complications I at least have the knowledge of what needs to be done.

Finally, I now know why I need to stock my cria kit with the extra long gloves and tons of K Y Jelly. Yikes!