We believe she has what is referred to at as a “Retained Corpus Luteum” (Retained CL). I will attempt to explain this is layman terms. When breeding alpacas, the female is an induced ovulator, meaning she will release an egg when she hears the male orgle (they do not have a regular monthly cycle). Then the male breeds her and the egg meets the sperm, a cria results. Well if the female releases an egg, but the sperm never meets up with her - then what? Most often the egg is reabsorbed by the female's body, and she's bred again another day. Sometimes the female's body takes this unfertilized egg and believes it is pregnant, which is what appears to have happened to Kateri. She is spit testing as pregnant, but in fact is not.
Here is a link I found where someone else explained it:
"False Pregnancies".
Occasionally a female that has ovulated but is not pregnant will have a retained corpus luteum ("CL"), resulting
in a "false pregnancy". The CL has failed to regress, despite the egg not being fertilized. She thinks she is
pregnant and behaves accordingly, but is in fact empty. Such a female may require prostaglandin to facilitate
regression of the CL and she should be receptive again anywhere between 24-72 hours afterwards.
Our vet gave her a shot to assist her in letting go of the retained CL. We should be able to breed her in a few days.
J and I knew this to be so, but we kept holding out hope. It would have been nice to have another cria. We would have liked to have seen a healthy happy cria be born, after this rough summer that we have had.
So this means 1 2011 cria for us - Our Peruvian Thunder. Last year at this time we were preparing for 6 cria, what a shock to only have 1. While it means some changes for our spring show schedule, I'm most sad for Thunder who loved running and pronking with Cheyenne and is now left with the grumpy old ladies.
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