Cherry Hope Alpacas
Breeding Quality Suri and Huacaya Alpacas
This is Kiana's story.
7th July 2022 was a lovely sunny day, not too hot, with a light breeze and Serena was two weeks overdue, I could see that she was in labour by early afternoon, but with no progress the vet was called out and the baby was found to have all her legs back, this is a problem with alpacas, especially with those long necks of theirs and so a caesarean section was quickly decided on. With Serena sedated a cria was delivered at 5:30pm, a lively little soul who was up and on her feet, poking around the vet's surgical equipment before he was finished stitching up Serena.
Serena neatly bandaged post-op.
Kiana - not understanding why Mum wasn't interested
Unfortunately Serena was too poorly to provide any milk, and so a kind friend provided goat colostrum, this is so important as the first 24 hours is the period when Mum's milk has plenty of antibodies for the growing baby and provides the best start in life. Serena, whilst not rejecting her baby did not have the energy to devlop an interest in her baby, and so a lost Kiana would push her head into a corner and cry into the stable walls for her Mum, not understanding Mum was right there but just too ill to look after her.
Serena and Kiana ended up staying indoors for nearly two months as Serena needed a second operation, so slowly but surely and with a lot of persistence from Kiana, the two managed to bond.
Serena was never able to provide milk for her baby but she was incredibly tolerant of her bouncy baby who endlessly raced around her, jumping on her sore tummy and cuddling up to her at night.
Finally the big day came when Kiana and Serena were able to leave their stable, Kiana saw grass for the first time in her life and her eyes were almost out on stalks seeing other alpacas, there was lots and lots of jumping for joy, and possibly a big sigh of relief for Serena!
...and so Kiana is growing up, here she is at 5 months and 10 month old
