Alpaca mother and baby doing well after vet answers a cria for help

Maybell the alpaca and her female baby, known as a cria to the burgeoning community of alpaca breeders in Yorkshire, are doing well.

But it was touch and go for them both two weeks ago when it became apparent that six-year-old Maybell needed a Caesarean cut to help her give birth – a rare event in alpaca herds and a first for Julian Norton from the Skeldale Veterinary Centre at Thirsk, which mainly handles sheep and cattle.

The alpaca is a Peruvian cousin of the camel which has become fashionable here as a pet and a producer of fine fibre.

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Mr Norton said later: "The interesting thing was the reason the operation was needed, which was a uterus twisted practically 360 degrees, so the baby simply could not be delivered normally.

"We see it in sheep fairly rarely and in cattle a bit more commonly, but of course this was the first time I had seen it in an alpaca."

He was called out by Marina Fowler-Jones and husband Trevor, who work with daughter and son-in-law Linda and Ed McDonald at Whitestonecliffe Alpacas, Sutton-under-Whitestonecliffe, near Thirsk.

They have named the little survivor Marbella.

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