On Saturday Emma got kicked by one of our males, Apollo. I wasn't there, so I don't know what happened. Emma came home crying, and all I got was a story through tears about Apollo kicking her for no reason. She didn't have a lot of details. Emma has been feeding the boys for close to a year now. She does an excellent job. She has not had an incident like this in the past, so I think it was an unfortunate accident, not anything she did. My guess is that either Apollo was aiming to kick one of the other boys but hit Emma instead, or Emma startled him somehow and he kicked before realizing it was her.
When she got home we took a look at her leg and could see the outline of an alpaca foot (they have two toes and pads on their feet like a dog). By bedtime, there was still a red outline of Apollo's foot:
3 comments:
Aw. Bless her heart. It really does look like a foot.
I know with our alpacas, the kicks are more instinctive than on purpose. Also some are more likely to kick than others.
I usually ask those boys to move rather than walk behind them or where they can't see me. But every now and then we're not in sync.
It stings, but fortunately usually doesn't hurt for long. Regardless, that is an impressive mark. It looks like he got her just right.
I agree Kathryn, it likely was that he just swung his foot back. I'm thinking she may have been in his blind spot back there and he just swung. The odd part is that this is not one who's been known to kick. He's spit at me, but not a kicker. We have others who we know are kickers. If I catch them when they are cria, I give them a swat on the butt whenever they try to kick.
Post a Comment