Positive Pregnancy!

After last years disappointment with two open girls (Maddie and Snickers) and a retained CL (Kateri), we decided that this year we would have the vet ultra sound any girl we questioned if she really was pregnant. We would rather know now that they are open then wait for their due date and have disappointment.

With J's new work schedule, we decided that it would be better for the vet to come to our farm. In the past we have hauled our animals there, figuring it was cheaper. But then he worked off shift and getting to the vet wasn't an issue. We decided this time it was worth the extra money to have her come to us. Also, two of the girls we wanted to ultra sound do not halter well. Miss Kitty is a full figured girl who would rather cush than walk on lead. And Jewel was never halter trained. I meant to work on that when she arrived at our farm last spring, but it just didn't happen.

We wanted Miss Kitty ultra sounded because due to her full figure, it is impossible to see a pregnant belly. And Jewel is a maiden, they often don't spit test well nor do they show much (I remember when Maddie was pregnant with Twilight we often doubted if there really was a cria in there). We also wanted to ultra sound Bay, given she is new to our farm we did not know how to read her spit testing behavior, and she is older so she always has a pregnant belly. In addition, we wanted to ultra sound Rose. We did not believe her to be pregnant, but she was bred ever so briefly early last fall, she *could* be pregnant. We definitely would not want to take her to any alpaca shows if she is pregnant, but if she is not, we'd love to show her off some more.

Our other girls we have a pretty good handle on how they act when pregnant. For example, Maddie becomes quite crabby and fights with everyone. Latte starts to ignore us (when not pregnant she becomes a little too friendly). This year we can see a cria move inside Kateri, no retained CL this year, that is for sure. So we did not feel the need to ultra sound each girl. Also, as with any business, you have to keep cost in mind. To give a frame of reference for this, it costs about $30 per girl to have them ultra sounded. We have 10 pregnant girls, so it would have been $300 plus the farm visit fee (about $75) to do that! If we already know from spit testing and our experience with that girl that they are pregnant, we don't need to spend money to confirm what we already know.

The vet first ultra sounded Rose. She was open, not pregnant. We were happy about this because we would like to be able to continue to show her this spring. We likely will bred her late spring, giving her a chance to strut her stuff a couple more times at a show.

Miss Kitty was confirmed pregnant! Jewel was confirmed pregnant! Bay was confirmed pregnant! YEAH!!!