September 2009
A New Life ...
Julia's Entry into the World
We knew that some thing was going to happen, if not today then definitly tomorrow as Snowfall's teats had started to fill with milk. This was our third baby this year and we had narrowly missed the other two so now we had an idea what to look for. As you can see, she is becoming vey swollen and starting to enlarge. She spent 2-3 hours like this and didn't seem to be progressing and seemed quite uncomfortable, getting up and sitting down.
A quick call to the vet was made as Snow had had a difficult delivery last year ending up in hospitalisation, an emergency caesarian and the loss of her cria, so I didn't want to wait too long this time. The advice was to go in and have a feel to check that the cria was presenting properly ie. 2 feet and a nose. I am a paramedic so the vet had confidence in my ability to undertake this sideways step from my normal role! Fortunately everything was as it should be and the exam just dilated her enough for the delivery to progress within the next 5 minutes.
The next worry as you can see is that only one foot presented for a few minutes. This is known as an Elbow Lock Dystocia; everything is presenting normally except that one elbow has become pushed up against the pelvis and there is not enough room for it to extend. That must have been uncomfortable because Snow sat down and as she did so the one foot diappeared back inside and reappeared with its twin. Phew!
Closely followed by a nose... notice the amniotic sac still coveringthe face , but not the mouth and nose
........ and ears
......................and a break forlunch
Followed by a wait......and a wait.......and wait. Little Julia was hanging around for 30 minutes or more and even started to go back in. Time for another call to the vet and she suggested a little very very gentle help......downward traction
.......which did the trick 
A welcome from Jim Bob
Julia
4th September 2009
