Peaches, the premie llama pic

[ksalvagno]

Don't give an alpaca or llama BoSe orally. It has to be injected. I think the paste will help.

 

[chickenzoo]

It says to give a goat 5 ml, should I give her that much as little as she is? For how many days?

I made a 12 X 10 stall in the barn with corral panels. I covered the bottom 2 feet with shade cloth to keep baby from falling out. i lined the floor with hay. i put mom and Peaches inside the one 12 x 10, and the young alpaca she adopted in the other pen. Peaches is walking around for a bit, she tried to nurse on moms chest, then moved down looking for the udder but it looks like mom may be too tall, and mom didn't hold still. I held the baby up to mom and got her to latch on for a few sucks, then baby spit it out ( all the while mom was none too happy). I milked mom, put some in the babies mouth and then smeared some on her head & nose for mom to smell.( Mom seems interested in the milk smell.) I have still been feeding Peaches with the bottle also. Mom seems to have less milk then when she first had her despite my milking her. i will try to milk her a few times a day to see if it will fill up again. She is interested in the baby, she licks it and lays by it, trys not to step on her...... etc... just doesn't know about nursing...... I am concerned about letting Peaches stay out at night with mom. I am going to try and pick her up a dog coat, but it is so windy and rainy and damp outside. I don't have power in the barn. hummmm... :/

 

[chickenzoo]

I tried to milk mom again, but not much of anything came out. Can she not produce milk if she's stressed?

 

[ksalvagno]

I'd say give her the 5ml but just once for the Selenium gel.

How long has it been since she gave birth? They dry up within 2 weeks. You really have to milk them out at least 6 times a day if you really want to keep them in milk. There certainly is the possibility that she is holding out too. With being a first time mom and taking her cria away, she may have sort of lost that she is supposed to nurse the cria. Also, with you being right there, she could be assuming that you are milking her. The cria is also getting used to whatever milk you are giving her instead of mom's milk. This is the problem with the whole situation but there was no choice if you wanted a live cria.

 

[chickenzoo]

I just couldn't do it.................. She seemed weaker, wasn't standing as much, she can't really reach up that high and I'm just not getting much out of mom. Plus I'd have to walk outside all night a good ways to the barn, and keep feeding her. I brought her back in. I will make the play pen on the porch and still give mom time with her.... but I rather be wrong then have a dead baby. She's come this far, I just can't risk it. So I guess unless she gets taller and mom produces more milk, I'll be bottle feeding Peaches. :/ I will still try to let the baby play with mom a few hours a day w/o me watching........

I gave Peaches the dose of the Selenium. I will keep trying with her and mom. I wish I had a very tall milk goat.

She was born at 10:30 Monday night, so 6 days now...

How much milk does a cria get from mom at one feeding?

 

[ksalvagno]

I don't know how much but it is very little. They really do nurse very frequently. I'm going to say that you have a bottle baby. I really don't think she will be able to nurse and by the time she will, mom will probably be dried up. Do you have a stethoscope? I'm really wondering how her heart is. A heart murmur is so frequent in preemies.

I'll be honest, I think it would be much easier to just assume you have a bottle baby and treat it as such. This cria is soooooo compromised that it won't take much for her to go either way.

 

[chickenzoo]

Yes, I have a stethoscope, though I'm not very good at listening through it.... what would i be listening for?

 

[ksalvagno]

You would hear a swish in between heartbeats. You probably couldn't detect a light heart murmur but a severe one you could probably detect. When they are really severe, the vets call them student murmurs because vet students could detect them. The other problem is her lungs since you don't know how developed they are. But I wouldn't even know what to listen for in the lungs since I have always had the vet out.

 

[redtailgal]

Listen to your own heartbeat first.......hopefully you will here "lub dub"

Then listen to hers, the speed may be different so just pay attention to the sound, if there is a "Swish" or an extra lub in there, then she prob has a murmur.

I really hope for a lub dub on this cute little wee one

 

[chickenzoo]

If she did have one, then would their be something I could do about it? i know I had one growing up and nothing was ever done, just monitored. If their is nothing I can do about it, I rather not worry about it right now, I rather just enjoy her and hope for the best. ...... if that makes any sense.

I tried to barricade her in her spot in the house, last night. She easily pushed through the boxes later on and found me in the living room, nibbling my nose. Silly girl.