An Aborted Alpaca Foetus

by Helen Ellinopoullos

posted June 2004

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Photos of the Aborted Foetus

alpaca foetus in bottle On a recent late afternoon routine paddock check I was “eyeballing” the girls in the Preg Mob when slight alarm bells rang. One of last year's maidens was suspiciously cushed on her own a little way from the rest of the mob. While being watched from across the paddock the maiden got somewhat unsteadily to her feet and walked slowly towards the others with her head to the ground. I was just about to continue on my rounds when I realised the maiden wasn't looking to graze, just walking "hang dog".

She then stopped over a poo pile and took position, but nothing eventuated. She then cushed awkwardly once more. Alarm bells increased. Nestor was on the (noisy) tractor taking rounds of hay to each paddock but soon took notice of my strange "rain dance", trying to get his attention. I then took the accompanying dogs back to the confines of the garden and the Preg Mob was called in - they usually readily obey Nestor's whistle (which could mean food!) - and walked back to the yards.

The maiden was separated and checked - she appeared to have liquid staining down her back legs and on lifting her tail, a slight vaginal discharge. She was given antibiotics and put in the shed for the night with a new mum and premmie we were already keeping an eye on, and observed for some hours. She was in obvious discomfort and stayed in cush, not showing any interest in the chaff and hay offered.

Next morning she seemed brighter, but was kept in until late morning, re-dosed with antibiotics and then taken back to her paddock, where she immediately ran off to join the others grazing on the hill. We then proceeded to clean up the poo piles in the shed and yard area when I found the foetus, complete, still in sac - a female of 12 weeks gestation, perfectly formed. Something very much amiss with it though and it had died and been expelled. We consider ourselves fortunate to have found the foetus and the ability to treat the maiden early before the infection became worse. (We continued treatment for 5 days.)

If I hadn't noticed the maiden's strange behaviour in the paddock, her abortion would probably have gone unnoticed - only at her next scan would we have found that she suddenly wasn't pregnant any more, and with an infection more deep seated, making another pregnancy difficult to achieve. This maiden had "taken" at her first mating, had spat off many times and had scanned positive at 8 weeks. Now she will be remated before winter with hopefully no further problems.

Since then while doing spit offs/matings with the maternity group we have found another female with similar (old) staining (no cleansing rain) down her back legs, and sure enough she sat at spit off. She had been mated in mid-February and had spat off on numerous occasions and scanned positive. So now I walk around the paddocks checking back legs! The maiden is SMBR and the second female (with cria at foot) is SW, but the staining was clear to see on both females. So how often does this happen but isn't picked up on, as these stoic animals go through a "premature labour", abort and not tell us????

We've taken the opportunity to photograph the foetus and these photos are set out on the following page in order of dissection. It is very interesting to note how clear and defined the foetus was at 12 weeks with all body parts clearly well developed and distinguishable. Looking closely at the photographs would indicate that the cause of the female aborting was a massive haemorrhage in the foetus.

Photos of the Aborted Foetus
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