All hands on deck

As of 2011 we had gone some 14 years without having to do a cesarean birth here. We were probably a little too proud of that in fact and let’s face it: we all know what that inevitably leads to. Our beloved former show female, Seraphim, developed such a bad uterine torsion at full term in her pregnancy that Jen, finding herself shorthanded on the farm on that day, ended up driving her to our vets’ clinic so that the baby could be born the hard way. Though nowadays all is well with both Seraphim and her little girl, Avalonn, it was not something we were eager to repeat any time soon.

Then just two days ago our herd manager, Kim McAllister, noticed that another girl of ours, Boheme, was being kicked wildly by her cria still in utero. When you’ve seen enough pregnant alpacas and what the variations of normal delivery and gestation can look like, you start to intuitively sense when something is off. Such was the case Sunday when Kimmy witnessed our female getting repeatedly whacked by her unborn cria. Something was amiss. That was far more than regular fetal movement and coupled with the fact that the alpaca in question was just over a full year’s gestation it raised a red flag. A quick exam by Jen revealed a uterine torsion severe enough that at first she couldn’t even find Boheme’s cervix.

After our veterinarian Susan Johnson came over and confirmed what Jennifer had felt, it was quickly decided that there was only one way to save the lives of both dam and cria. In the end it took virtually our entire staff to help get Boheme’s baby out. Susan — and for the record this was only the 3rd C section she’s ever had to do on an alpaca — led the effort of course with Jen fully scrubbed and assisting, Kim was in the role of stand-in vet tech chasing down drugs, sutures and what not, Eric and Cefi helped to hold/restrain Boheme throughout the operation, and I got what was admittedly the glamour job (not being facetious here) of taking the newborn little girl and getting her going as soon as she was free and clear of her mama.

Hind sight being 20/20 what we now know is that the uterus was turned 2 full rotations, 720 degrees, hence the initial confusion when Jen checked on mom. Though we are accustomed to fixing torsions ourselves without a vet’s help and tried initially on this one as well, this torsion was severe enough, the baby of such size (18 lb.) and in such distress that there was unfortunately no other option than to do a cesarean. Poor Boheme ended up losing quite a lot of blood in the process and thankfully Jen was able to get a catheter into her neck while Susan finished suturing up the incision on her side. We managed to get 2+ liters of IV fluid into her before she fully came out of her drug-induced stupor and was then gently lead into the Arena’s adjoining warm room where a pen was waiting for her and her cria.

Though we are certainly not out of the woods yet, having gotten through the first 36 hours or so there is cause for optimism. The next major task will be getting mom to fully accept her baby and let her nurse on her own. Though we’re quite certain that Boheme realizes the cria is hers (there has been some clucking and some definite concern when we go to take the little girl away), there is also the small matter of both the pain she feels from the surgery and — were I to anthropomorphize for a moment –the trauma of the birth itself, neither really the best association as far as creating a positive mother/baby bonding experience. Time will tell of course and we’ll update the story as things progress…

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