SIGNS OF IMPENDING BIRTH
By Ed Kinser, Enchanted Hill Alpacas
Hang around with a bunch of “alpaca people” and it won’t be long until the subject of being on “baby watch” will become a topic of discussion. Folks talk about going “on guard” starting at ten and a half months of gestation, and they hardly leave the farm for the next month and half. They spend an inordinate amount of time watching for “signs” and wear a new path to and from the barn and all over the pasture trying to get a clue that the cria is ready to arrive. Then, after all that watching, they make another swing by the barn, and there’s an unannounced cria struggling to get to its feet for the first time. In most situations, all is well. In the worst case scenarios, there’s a female alpaca in trouble, or one finds a dead cria and never knows if being present could have made a difference. Even though there is no known way to predict a birth days in advance, it is certainly an advantage to know “today is the day” old Susie is going to deliver.
Watching for a birth is nerve-wracking! And at times, it is downright inconvenient, especially if one has a regular, away-from-home job. Not many people have “Alpaca Maternity Leave” worked into their contracts, and certainly can’t be off work for several days, waiting and watching for each female to deliver. But if you can take a day or two off here and there, perhaps our method for detecting impending birth can be of help to you. Just this spring, seven of our female alpacas selected seven different workdays for delivery. Luckily, I had seven personal leave days to use, so each morning that I found a set of loose ligaments, I called work to say that I wouldn’t be in, and each time we had a new, healthy cria whose birth was carefully attended.
My wife and I have raised Nigerian Dwarf Goats for years, long before getting alpacas. During this time we have learned to use the stretching of sacrotuberous ligaments to detect impending birth. With the addition of alpacas to our farm, we pretty much figured we could use the same exact methods to detect their readiness to deliver. Not quite so! But after a few frustrating years we’ve now modified our technique and have been able to predict in the early morning (with the 6AM feeding) whether or not any given female will birth that day. We learned there were two differences between the goats and alpacas that had to be taken into consideration. First, unlike the goats, most alpacas do not show a significant ligament change until a very short time before going into labor so they have to be checked in the morning and not the night before. Secondly, the alpaca musculature is different from that of goats, making the actual ligaments harder to palpate.
If you would like to try our technique, you will need to know the location of the ligaments and you will need to practice checking them in order to be able to recognize their normal (no-birth-today) texture, thus allowing you to detect a change. The sacrum is the last part of the vertebral column in front of the tail. Just below the tail and to either side of the anus and vulva are two bony prominences (easily felt through the skin), the tuber ischii, often called the pin bones. There is a sacrotuberous ligament running from either side of the sacrum to these prominences. Other than when an alpaca or goat is just going into or is in labor, these ligaments feel like bones with the approximate diameter of a pencil. In alpacas, the muscles in this area mask not only the ability to locate the ligaments but also the ability to check their tautness.
To first locate the left ligament, stand facing the left side of the alpaca. Place a somewhat hooked index finger near the anus, and then while gently pressing into the skin, draw the hand toward the animal’s left hip. A skin-covered layer of muscle, tendon, and ligament will be encountered. The first portion of that is the cord-like ligament that will ultimately change texture. Although you may reach across and check the opposite ligament, it seems that folks learning to find these ligaments for the first time have better luck finding and palpating the ligament on the side by which they are standing. There is a good diagram of a goat showing the location of these ligaments if you’ll look under “One Week Before Due Date” at the following website: http://www.fiascofarm.com/goats/prenatalcare.html
It is best to start checking these ligaments days or even weeks before the due date. Practice on any member of the herd. If you have a calm open female or gelding or even an intact male, they have the same ligaments so check them every chance you get. It is extremely important that you recognize the somewhat bony texture a typical ligament has. As the female draws closer to delivery, there may be a slight change to a rubbery texture. However, on the day the female will give birth, there is a distinct “slackness” in the ligaments (which will allow expansion of the pelvic opening during actual delivery). For me, this feels like a large rubber band tied between two points, but not stretched. If the expectant mother is checked every morning, there will come a day when the checker can exclaim, “Wow! There is a big difference! Today’s the day!”
On a final note, if the expectant alpaca is recently shorn, you can visually see a difference. The ligaments and adjoining tissue along each side of the last five or six inches of the sacrum become flexible enough that distinct tissue movement can be seen as the female walks. However, in some animals a small amount of movement here is normal, so again you must be able to make comparisons. While the female is standing, the tissue in question may have a sunken appearance or the tail bone itself may appear raised. In the last photo below, the right arrow is over the ligament and the left arrow is over the area that shows significant movement on the day of delivery.