Bad Day

Sadly I had to deliver a still born cria this morning.   The dam was Nina, who belongs to my friend, Pauline.  She has been at livery with us for many years.  We had noticed that she was not herself a few days ago and I was concerned that with only a month to go in her pregnancy there was no sign of movement.  I gave her some antibiotic and kept her in the barn overnight with her yearling cria for company but last night we left her out because she seemed a little better and she had been  quite stressed being shut in when the rest of the herd went outside.

When I looked out of our bedroom window this morning I realised that she was giving birth and threw on some clothes quickly so that I could get out and attend to her.   I soon realised that she had stopped her contractions and that the cria was dead.  I won't go into any more detail.

She is still looking lost and trying to find her little cria, but she has steadily returned to normal as the day goes by.  Obviously we will be keeping a close eye on her for the next few days.

Nicko, the only male cria from last year is starting to take an interest in the ladies he lives with so this afternoon Nick and I took him down to join the rest of the males in the "Winter"paddocks. We sprayed him with vinegar which helps to cover his natural scent and make him more acceptable to the other males.  As we have a much smaller herd, he was the only male to join the batchelor herd.   In past years there have always been several so they were able to start off in their own mini herd before joining the big boys.

On a happier note, the four lambs are doing well and getting into lots of mischief.   Still waiting for the other two ewes to give birth.

New Arrivals at Laurel Farm

www.alpacas-for-sale.co.uk
www.alpaca-stuff.co.uk

Our first Gotland lambs have arrived.   On Monday we had twin boy and girl and this morning when I went to check on the ewes at about 5.30 a.m. I was just in time to catch the birth of the second girl of twins.   Two more ewes go go!!

Ladies in Waiting

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The ewes are nearly ready to pop!!  It is exciting and worrying.   We have birthed alpacas for years, but we have had no experience with sheep,so fingers crossed all will go well.

This is my first attempt at the blog since buying a new PC.  This one does not take half an hour to boot up and is really wizzy, although some things seem a little strange and I keep losing files which pop up later in unexpected places.   On the whole, though I like it.  Windows 8 is a very big upgrade for me - I think I missed quite a few rungs on the ladder!

Sadly the sick hen had to be despatched as she seemed to be in pain and we had tried everything we could think to try and help her.  Nick thinks something fell on her and injured her neck, although I cannot think what it could have been.