Sad news...

Well, I was hoping that during 4th of July weekend I could have updated the blog with pictures of Rick cutting and baling hay. We did get the baling finished but we had an unfortunate situation over the weekend with one of our girls.

You'll recall me mentioning that Misty looked like she was due any day. I'm sad to report that Misty had a miscarriage on Monday morning while in the care of the wonderful doctors and students at the UW-Madison School of Veterinary Medicine.

Misty had been acting strangely all week and had been lactating for about two weeks. On Friday, I noticed that she wasn't eating but she was drinking a lot of water. We put her in her own stall so that we could monitor her more closely. On Saturday morning, Rick noticed she didn't have any beans (aka alpaca poop) in her stall. We gave her some Karo syrup in the morning and again around 5 p.m. Rick had also given her some plain yogurt twice during the middle of the day. This regimen was to help her digestion and remedy her constipation or blockage.

We saw a few beans on Sunday but she was straining a lot over the poop piles. We let her outside with the rest of the girls so she'd be more comfortable. Since there wasn't much improvement in her condition, we decided to take her to Madison for observation. We don't have a local vet who is able to come out to the farm to thoroughly diagnose any serious problems so Madison was our only choice. It's a 4-hour drive but well worth the peace of mind!

Misty underwent a thorough pelvic examination followed by ultrasound. The doctor was unable to really see the cria inside with the ultrasound. Bloodwork showed an infection of some sort. We left her overnight and the doctor informed me the next morning that poor Misty had aborted the pregnancy early Monday morning. Apparently, the cria had been dead for at least a day or two and wasn't full term as we thought. They have been unable to find any specific reason for this so far.

Our girl has been on antibiotics this week and is doing well - eating, drinking and "making beans". We'll be picking her up on Friday.

We are so thankful that she is okay and we appreciate all the wonderful care from the UW-Madison Vet School.