The circle of life has been completed
Well, it turns out, Alpaca Ethel was pregnant! And she had her baby yesterday! Surprise!
Before we get to this little fluff ball’s name, which I know is likely why you’re reading this 😉, I wanted to share a little bit of Ethel’s story and how we completed the circle of life yesterday on the farm.
Earlier this summer, one of our alpacas, Annie, passed away unexpectedly. She became ill and despite our best efforts and the efforts of several vets, she passed away. That was a hard day. It was difficult to lose our alpha, our herd protector, and the alpaca with the goofiest personality. The entire situation was heart-wrenching. It made me question what we’re doing and whether I can actually handle any of this. There were lots of tears, to say the least.
It took a few months to finally be able to sleep without getting up in the middle of the night to check on the herd. (By the way, Annie’s sister, Snow, stepped right up to fill Annie’s shoes as alpha. She didn’t miss a beat!) I still miss Annie every day, but I find comfort in the fact that she died in our arms, with her entire herd nearby, just the way she would have wanted. She’s now with Lakey, partying it up I’m sure!
Before the pain lifted at all, we were searching for another alpaca that needed a home. Not to replace Annie, since she is irreplaceable, but to join our herd since alpacas like to be in herds of at least 3 of their kind. (Alpacas have some really interesting behaviors, such as this!) Some time went by and we had to say no to several for various reasons. We were really close to bringing one home but then we were told, “by the way” she might be pregnant. I didn’t think I could handle that, so we had to move on.
Finally, we found Ethel. Ethel was living with her male companion, Fred (we call him Freddy). The owner was looking to “rehome” them, either separately or together because they were not “friendly” or “cuddly”. She wanted animals that her young children could be around and hug and pet. If you don’t know anything about alpacas, let me tell you, they are none of those things. They are never going to be any of those things. If you want an animal to hug, get a dog. Or a donkey, they give the best hugs. But alpacas are not particularly fond of humans, except if you are feeding them! But hug them? Nope, not a chance.
Anyways, Ethel’s owner said she might be pregnant. Again, we were unsure if we could handle that, but thought we would be willing to give it a try. That’s the thing with taking on something like this, you can read everything in the world on how to raise animals, but until you actually do it, you have no clue what you’re doing or what you are capable of. You don’t become an “expert” by reading a book. You have to read A LOT and you have to do A LOT. We were not going to take Fred, though, because males and females are not supposed to live together and we had a herd of females. Males can hurt or, in extreme cases, kill the females so you keep them in separate herds, except when they’re making an alpaca baby.
We went to pick up Ethel. We knew this would be different than the other times we’ve picked up animals. But nothing could have prepared me for what was about to happen.
Ethel had a nasty case of lice which left her with big patches of scabby and bare skin. We’ve dealt with lice before. Not a problem. We know how to treat it. When we arrived, we saw Ethel and Fred kept in a tiny pen, about the size of a bathroom. They didn’t have access to grass and were not looking great. The overall situation was not good. The owner was in over her head and was smart to look at rehoming them. You should not have animals that you are not equipped or ready to care for. She just wanted to breed them to sell the babies and make money. Not a great strategy for someone new to the species.
We examined Ethel and then after one deeply, chillingly silent look at one another, Craig and I decided we would take Fred home, too. Neither one of us could leave knowing Fred would be kept in those conditions. So, they came home with us and started their new lives. We would figure it out. When we got into the truck, I lost it. It felt so good to take these sweet creatures home but it broke my heart knowing what they have been through in the two short years of life. And it breaks my heart, even more, knowing how many more animals there are out there in worse conditions that we cannot help. But, we needed to focus on what we could do.
Freddy and Ethel were seriously malnourished. They ate grass constantly for the first six hours of being at home. Neither stopped until it started to pour. We started them on the proper medications that weekend and worked on bulking them up. Soon, Ethel began getting wider and wider 😳. Craig’s instincts kicked in and we separated them, which probably should have happened right away, but they were bonded and we didn’t want to add more trauma to the mix.
The first few days were really rough on Freddy, who went with the big boy goats and the donkeys. He just paced the fence from sun up to sundown, wanting to get to Ethel, who was with the lady alpacas. Luckily, a few days later, we found two other boys for Freddy, Jerry and Benny. They came from a wonderful home and were clearly well taken care of. Freddy now had some bros to hang with and he started to act like an alpaca again! Woo hoo!
Our vet scheduled a time to come out and do an ultrasound on Ethel to see if she was pregnant. It was scheduled for today, October 28th. Ethel’s behaviors were telling us she was growing a little guy, but the vet would tell us for sure and how far along she was. We thought she had a few more weeks to go if she was indeed pregnant.
Well, yesterday, October 27th, the day before the ultrasound 🤪, I looked out the window at about 1:35 pm and saw a big dark blob that looked like it was on top of something white. (I had just taken out my contacts and couldn’t really see!) Nope! Not something white! It was a baby alpaca coming out! Ethel was in labor!!
Craig was out of town for work so I was on my own. 😬 Luckily for me, we were able to talk to the vet who walked me through what to do - nothing! She told me everything sounded like it was going exactly how it should and to sit and watch and enjoy the experience. You only intervene if mom or baby is in danger, mom does everything else herself. Nature is so amazing!
Ethel was a real tough girl! The entire process took no more than 25 minutes. The baby started trying to stand up almost right away. It took about 30 minutes before she got all the way up and started walking. Mom did an amazing job cleaning her off (it was my job to make sure there wasn’t goo on her mouth, nose, or eyes, which there wasn’t) and introducing her to the herd. Snow and Roxie are aunties! They were fascinated by the little fluff ball. She started nursing pretty quickly and had her first poop, which is another thing we needed to watch for. Alpacas get their immune system from mom’s milk, not from the womb or the birthing process like humans and many other animals, so they must start eating within the first few hours.
The vet came out to check everyone this morning. She said everyone looks healthy and happy! She also said that Ethel’s patchy skin is probably from a zinc deficiency, not the lice. Well, possibly that too, but definitely the zinc deficiency from not being fed a proper diet. Luckily, with the food we feed our herd, that should be reversed in a few months. If not, she will require medication to get her zinc levels to adequate levels. The vet did not want to do the medication right away because zinc would be transferred to the baby through her milk and the baby could then receive toxic levels of zinc. Mom’s milk is the number one concern right now. This is another example of why nutrition is key.
I can’t help but keep thinking about how this all happened. Had Annie not passed away, we would not have been looking for another alpaca. Then we would not have found Ethel and taken her home. If that didn’t happen, Ethel would not have had the nutrition she needed for the last 6 weeks of her pregnancy. Her life, and the baby’s, could have been in danger. Had Ethel and Freddy still been in that tiny pen together when she gave birth, Freddy could have injured or killed one of them. If the baby would have survived, she likely would have been taken from mom sooner than natural to be sold. Ethel probably would have been bred again right away to make another baby. And the cycle would have continued as long as her body would hold out.
But now, mom and baby will get to live their lives together. Baby will get to nurse as long as she needs and then mom will get to teach her to be a lady alpaca - together. It’s funny how things seem to work out….
Needless to say, the circle of life has now been completed. We were there to help Annie leave this world and we were there to welcome baby Brandy into this world. Life sure is fascinating, isn’t it?
Welcome to the world Baby Brandy! You’re going to love it here!
Click the button below to view Brandy’s page! I have uploaded several of the birthing videos to that page. You can also check them out on YouTube.
Peace, love, and Brandy!
Lindsay
PS - HUGE shout out to our dear friend Megan who named the baby! ❤️ #letsgobrandy