DMAR Alpaca and Maremma Blog

DMAR Peruvian Halston was born on 12/5/2010. His color is brown and weighs 14 lbs. Halston is strong, has straight legs, and nursing just fine.

We are not exactly sure what time Halston was born as we weren’t present. I can tell you that I am at the barn every two hours to bottle feed Sofia, maremma puppy with cleft lip, and when I was done with my noon feeding I saw Shasta walking outside with all the other girls. I saw no sign of her being in labor. That morning Shasta ate just fine and I noticed her going to the dung pile but she was actually using it.

At 2 pm I told Tom I was going up to feed the pup and he should come with me so we can scoop up some poop. He agreed and said he would meet me there. Once in the barn I went directly to Sofia and began to feed her. Tom came in shortly after and started to scoop the poop out of the barn. Yes, my dear girls think the barn is their dung area too. Afterwards he went out back to where the girls were hanging out.

Next thing I know Tom is yelling my name. When I answer him he tells me that there is a cria on the ground. A cria?!? It was so cold and the wind advisory was up to 40 mph. Then I saw the cria. It was kushed and almost dry. Also Shasta had him right at the gate so she didn’t have access to him as he was kushed in the little boys area. Not that they could have cared less. None of them were by the cria. I told Tom to get the cria into one of the stalls while I grabbed a heater.

Once cria and mom were in the stall I told Tom to get me some towels, hair dryer, and the container filled with cria sweaters and coats. Since the cria was mostly dry it didn’t take long to finish blowing out the fleece. I could immediately see the crimp inthe fiber and was very pleased. I checked the cria over and noticed he was a male and slightly dismature by the looks of his ears. One ear the tip is slightly bent and the other ear is folded outwards. I won’t do anything about it as it is my experience that they will straighten out on their own.

Since I’m on a kick with designer names we decided on Halston. It sounds strong. Halston was on his feet with in minutes of bringing him into the stall. In no time he was nursing. BTW Tom was busy trying to close the barn door to keep the draft out so I decided to try to wash and remove the wax tips off of Shasta’s nipples by myself. I thought this was going to be futile but amazingly Shasta stood still and allowed me to do it. I was even allowed to squeeze out some colostrum too just to be sure she had milk. Shasta was not born on my ranch and has never been friendly. Not that she is mean to me but just not the type to stand still. Birthing really changes some alpacas attitutes at least temporarily.

I put Halston into a sweater and then double coated him. Even with two heaters in the stall it was still only about 40 degrees in his stall. I guess that was pretty good considering it went down to 25.

Today Halston looks great. He’s able to stand and kush easily and needs no help in finding mom to nurse. Gotta love it when they are this easy.

Halston’s sire is Snowmass Incan Emperor. Incan is a mrg full Peruvian herdsire that we own half interest with Square Top Ranch in Arizona. Incan is a multiple blue ribbon winner. Incan has many crias on the ground that are ribbon winners. For us he is sire to DMAR Armani – 4x champion, DMAR Nikoli- multiple blue ribbon winner, DMAR Dolce – blue ribbone winner, and DMAR Dior – 2nd place winner. Snowmass Incan Emperor will return to DMAR in February 2011. Breedings to Incan are $2000.

Halston’s dam is Shasta. She is a white female who can throw color. Shasta’s fleece is very dense and crimpy. We wanted to add fineness, coverage, and less guard hair to her cria which is why we chose to breed her to Snowmass Incan Emperor. Shasta is a full Peruvian who has now produced two crias.

What wouldn’t I do for my alpacas? That’s a good question as I find myself doing more and more for them every day.

  This is our full Peruvian MRG stud, Snowmass Incan Emperor. We currently have 6 offspring on the ground ourselves from him. One male is a 2x Reserve Color Champ, and another male is a 2x blue ribbon winner. The last two crias, DMAR Dolce and DMAR Dior, are turning out to be some nice contenders in the upcoming show season starting in the fall. With this in mind I used Incan on Shasta who is currently confirmed pregnant. Because I loved the way Dolce and Dior have turned out I was going to use Incan again on the mothers, Alexis and Electra.

Last week sometime I tried to use Incan. I noticed him getting down and then back up again. He was quite frustrated and I thought it was because of me since I kept reaching in to move the tail out of the way. After 5 minutes I was more frustrated than Incan and decided to put him back with the boys. A couple of days later I tried to breed him and the same thing was happening. This time I looked closer and noticed that he was not extending his penis and semen was dripping out from inside the shaft. Ok, now I understood why he was so frustrated. Incan obviously wanted to breed, but something was wrong.

I made an appt. for him to see the vet, but it would have to wait a couple of days as it was the weekend. In observing Incan I noticed his appetite was good and he didn’t seem to have any problems urinating.

Monday morning he was the first off the trailer and my vet began to palpate his shaft and penis. The doctor thought the front of his shaft was a bit swollen, however, she did ask me to go home and palpate other males to see if this was normal. She advised she hasn’t palpated that many males to know the difference.

After I explained what I noticed with Incan she then went on to snake (I use snake for a lack of a better word) the penis out of the shaft. In doing so she quickly noticed the side of the tip was swollen and had two small cuts on it. Ouch! She had me look at it while her assistant went to get Panalog cream. She applied the cream to the penis directly and then proceeded to stick the tube up the opening of the shaft to apply more panalog.

Directions for me was to go home and apply panalog up the shaft for one week once per day. I am also to give Naxcel once a day and banamine 2x/day. I’m sure Incan is thankful for the banamine relief. I am not to introduce Incan to a female for at least a month as to not cause more trauma to his penis.

Good news is that Incan should recover just fine. The steroids in the cream should ensure that his shaft doesn’t get any scar tissue build up and he should be able to breed with no problems in the future.

We’re not sure how this problem occurred. Many thoughts pop into our heads like during breeding some hair wrapped around his penis and when he extracted it could have cut into him,  possibly he hit the ground and scraped his penis on some small rocks, or maybe he extracted his penis pulling some kind of debris back into the shaft. We’ll never know for sure.

Tom can’t believe that I am able to apply the med by myself into Incan’s shaft, but I do. Incan isn’t thrilled about it, but he’s a good boy.

So what wouldn’t I do for my alpacas?

It’s a girl, DMAR Dior!

DMAR Dior was born on Novemer 18, 2009 at 12:12 pm. This is dam’s, GLA Peruvian Alexis’ fourth cria. The birth was a breeze with no interference from me at all. Dior is strong and very alert. She attempted to stand 6 minutes after birth and was walking around at 8 minutes. She was eager to begin suckling. Alexis stood like a statue as I assisted Dior with her first drink.

GLA Peruvian Alexis is recovering well. She is a wonderful, attentive mother with plenty of milk. Alexis is the mother of 2x Color Champion, DMAR Royal Peruvian Princess, and 2x Reserve Color Champion, DMAR Royal Knight. We are currently looking for a partner for DMAR Royal Knight.Click Here for more information on DMAR Royal Knight, who is a full Peruvian son of 105 Peruvian Sun (Royal Fawn’s son).

DMAR Dior’s Sire is a rose grey, full Peruvian, Snowmass Incan Emperor. Incan is the sire of multiple reserve color champion, DMAR Armani, and multiple blue ribbon winners, DMAR Nikoli and Pizzaro from Bosque Ranch. Snowmass Incan Emperor is available for breeding.Click Here for more information on Snowmass Incan Emperor.

Long Labor, but DMAR Dolce is Here!

DMAR Dolce arrived at 3:26 pm on Nov. 15, 2009. She weighed 15 lbs at birth and is very alert and strong. She was standing on her own within 5 minutes. As soon as she was standing with a little help from me she nursed immediately. She had quite an appetite worked up.

Dam, DMAR Electra shown in pictures with Dolce above, had a very long labor. This is Electra’s first cria, but she is proving to be a wonderful mother with plenty of milk. She is very attentive to her cria and is often heard clucking at her baby.

We noticed Electra humming a lot starting at 8am. Her appetite wasn’t normal, so this along with the humming made us think she was in the beginning stages of labor. However, as time went by we really didn’t see her being too uncomfortable or trying to push. It was 12:30 when I was going to take a ride with Tom to get some alfalfa. We had just finished moving the girls into the front pasture and with horror we watched as Electra rolled all the way over on her back to the other side. Of course the only thought going through our minds was uterine torsion. Anyway she didn’t appear to be in any pain, so we were about to leave when I noticed that the inside of Electra’s tail was damp. I told Tom I wanted to check it out when I noticed a drop falling to the ground. Her water must’ve broken.

Our plan was to move Electra and one other alpaca back into the stall. It was a little difficult as they didn’t want to leave, but it really didn’t take us too much time. At this point we did notice Electra was very uncomfortable. She was standing then kushing and then standing again. When she kushed she would let her back legs out to the side and then kush straight to finally letting her back legs out to the other side. After an hour of her water breaking I saw no sign of impending birth. I gloved and lubed up to check to see if she actually had a uterine torsion. I went in rectally, but I could feel no torsion. Well at least that was good news.

I placed phone calls into my vet (out of town- go figure) and then to another alpaca breeder. She asked if I had checked for a uterine torsion in which I advised she had none. Next she thought it best to go in vaginally to see where the baby was. I knew I had to do this, but quite honestly I was procrastinating. Ok, new glove and lubricant ….I went in, but to be stopped immediately by a wall. There was a small hole in which only the tip of my middle finger could penetrate. Her cervix was closed. How is this possible? Her water broke over an hour ago. Another phone call to the alpaca breeder and one more to another vet hospital who gave me another clinic who was on call.

While I am waiting for the on call doctor the other alpaca breeder advised that I could bring my maiden female to them for examination. If nothing else they could either second my original assessment or tell me that they did feel a torsion. No matter what we would be closer to the vets when they finally called.

We packed Electra up in the trailer and I followed behind in my car. Tommy would have to come home to do the afternoon feeding, so it was necessary to bring two vehicles.

On the way to the alpaca ranch I received the phone call from the on call vet. Guess what he told me? Yep, he doesn’t handle alpacas!!! I told him he was covering for a hospital that does handle alpacas and the only response he gave me was that he would leave a voice mail for the doctor that I have dealt with in the past and maybe she would return my call. I didn’t argue for it wouldn’t do me any good. I thanked him for making the effort to call the other doctor.

Within 5 minutes the other vet called. I couldn’t believe it. Unfortunately she too was out of town, but you wouldn’t imagine how much better it is to hear someone support your efforts. She told me that what I had done to assess Electra was correct. As soon as I reached the next ranch to have them examine for a uterine torsion, but that is all. She advised that going into the cervix continually will cause more issues than not. If the cervix is closed it is up to the cria to open it. The only thing left for us to do is to wait. That is all.

It was at this time that Tom pulled over on the Hwy. I pulled up behind him and when he jumped out of the trailer he advised that Electra is bulging out the back end. I looked at her and agreed. Ok this is what we were waiting for. I sat down to wait, but then Tom said we needed to get off the Hwy. We were closer to the other ranch, so we decided to continue.

Not even 5 minutes later and Tom pulled into a gas station. He jumped into the trailer (by the way we have a camera in the trailer, so Tom could watch what Electra was doing) and by the time I headed over he came out saying the nose was out. I jumped in and was both thrilled and scared at the same time. I wasn’t seeing any movement in the cria.

It has now been 7 1/2 hours since the onset of labor. My vet told me that any labor this long is no good and her main mission is to get the cria out asap. I lubed up and told Tom I was going in. Easier said than done as Electra was very tight. I had no choice but to push the head back in. As soon as I did her two front feet popped out. Elated I was since I now knew the cria was in the correct position. I pulled and eventually got both the head and legs out further. I gave Electra a slight rest and then worked on the shoulders. Within 10 minutes we had a female cria on the ground who was breathing and super strong.

I examined Electra and to my surprise she has no tears. She stood like a statue while I helped the cria nurse off her. It did take Electra another 3 hours to pass the intact placenta, but I was thrilled that I didn’t have to give her any drugs to do so.

Overall the experience was quite new and we learned a lot. However, I am now ready for an easy birth. I feel that this year there has been too many new experiences and I really don’t want to learn anymore. Can you blame me?

Dolce appears to be fawn with a dark fawn and white face. Her fawn color is weird, so I wouldn’t be surprised if she turned into a light rose grey. Time will tell. I can say for sure that her fiber is really really crimpy. The crimp was so tight that the hair dryer we applied to her did nothing to straighten it out. She is simply beautiful.

Dolce’s sire is Snowmass Incan Emperor who is a multiple blue ribbon winner. Incan’s crias have been fawn, brown, rose grey and silver grey. He has produced reserve color champions and blue ribbon winners. The crias all are very fine with high amplitude of crimp. Incan is available for outside breedings. Click Here for more information.