Sunday, August 22, 2010

Labor Pains!


Over and over again through the years we have heard alpaca breeders state that it's almost impossible to know when your pregnant alpaca goes into labor.

Well, we beg to differ! While it's true that you won't see the alpaca in labor holding up a sign reading: "I'm having a baby", on the other hand, there are signals that you can learn to spot. In 14 years we have only missed 2 births! And even those had signs...we just chose to ignore them!

Most of the time, alpacas will deliver their crias between 335 days and 342 days from the last breeding. But alpacas have been known to deliver fully mature crias as early as 320 days of gestation, or to go as long as 380+ days before delivery. If you want to be at the birth, you quickly realize that you may be housebound for many weeks, unless you can learn to tell when your alpaca is nearing her deliver date, or is in active labor.

So what do we look for when determining if an alpaca is ready to have her baby? While there is no hard and fast 'smoking gun' rule, we look for a combination of the following:

-alpaca moves away from the herd and is off by herself.
-alpaca is vocalizing more than normal.
-alpaca is less interested or more interested in feed than usual.
-alpaca is rolling more than usual.
-alpaca is visiting the poop pile more frequently than usual.
-alpaca is stomping back foot on ground.
-alpaca drops to the ground suddenly, or sits down in a strange place (such as right in the middle of the doorway).
-udder is engorged and teats are enlarged.
-"waistline" disappears as baby moves into birth canal.
-alpaca's perineal area appears soft and the vaginal opening enlarges (looks longer).

If we see a one or two of these things, we know we are getting close. If we see several of them together, particularly physical changes to the udder and rear, in combination with vocalization and visiting the poop pile, we know the alpaca is in the early stages of labor.

Fairly commonly we hear something like this from breeders: "I checked my pregnant dam and nothing was happening, and then I went out two hours later and a cria was running around". Well, obviously, when they checked the first time, something WAS happening. The trick is to watch your alpaca for long enough to spot the behavior. If you take just a quick look, you may well miss the action. Alpacas are very good at pretending that everything is fine. Their instincts tell them not to let on when they are not feeling well. After all, the predator (you) might get them!

Since contractions can be 20 minutes apart at the beginning of labor, you have to be a patient observer to see one. But once the alpaca enters heavy labor, there is no excuse for confusion! In the late stage of labor, the alpaca is very vocal, very uncomfortable, and you can clearly see the contractions. At this point, delivery is 30 minutes away, or less, so this is not the time to make a quick run into town, or you will miss everything!

Most alpacas deliver 'by the book', without our help. But since our business is producing alpacas, and it takes almost a year to get one, it's well worth the effort to learn how to tell when your girls are about to deliver. You want to be there, in the rare case when the dam or baby needs help.

At the worst, the extra time spent observing your girls will mean a few less minutes for other things you need to do in your day. At best, it means you will know when labor starts and be there to make sure everything goes well.

And heck...wasn't spending time in the barn with our animals one of the reasons we got into breeding alpacas in the first place?!