New Baby reindeer to my herd

Willow - belly watch drives me crazy every year........................ I am watching BUT I won't know for a while... Hoping for up to 4.
A couple of years ago I paid for ultra sound scans in February (18th) to put me out of my misery... Scans said they weren't in calf but they were pregnant (2 1/2 months later they calved, out of 7 1/2 month gestation), but only 3 weeks after the "negative" scans I saw tummy punches and I wasn't even looking as thought there were no babies on board.. So now I gaze daily at those tummies.
As they are ruminants, there is lots of tummy action. At first I see movements... is it a calf moving or their stomach working??? but once I see punches, that's a baby....
I just keep watching and drive hubby mad for weeks/months!!

At the moment, my only "girl/mother" update is Mischa looks fab (podgy but extra weight is good) - she has lost her calf (two years running - ). Katya is looking good but I would like more weight on but she was the young female a fed both babies last year. Twiglet looks good too.. We'll wait and see but the waiting is excruciating.

 

Sounds like the ultrasound techs have a hard time with reindeer. Like looking for a needle in a haystack? How much practice do the techs get? I think I'd ask them to do the following year for free!

 

Caviar... My first guess is their udders which are completely hidden (unformed) in their thick winter coats but if pregnant start to swell slightly.. They are not too impressed as, as soon as they start eating my hand creeps to find any slight signs of growth/swelling.. heehee.. They are getting a bit twitchy about feed time, just in case I start groping!!! It becomes the "Ministry of Funny Walks"!!! Don't worry as soon as I get even the first guess I will bore you all...
PS my money is on Mischa calving first!!! NOT that I am even thinking about babies yet!!!

 

Too bad they don't have a simple "pee on a stick" test for reindeer huh? (Not that you'd wanna follow all of your girls around all day hoping to get lucky enough to complete these tests, lol). Can't they determine pregnancy with a blood test?

 

I would gladly follow them around all day to get pee on a stick... just to know for sure!! In Alaska some vets will do a blood test but in UK vets do not offer (hormone levels are different in different animals) nor do scan techs know what to look for in reindeer either (they do sheep/cows/goats/horses - I just thought a 3/4 grown anything would be easy to spot!!!) ... I am a solitary tummy gazer for now!!! I get positive results BUT hours spent gazing at tummies... sad git I am!!!

 

Have you ever tried "de-sensitizing" your home raised females to allow you to touch bellies and udders? Might be worth working on with Lotte now. Would also make it easier for the first time a calf tries to nurse.

 

Karen - thanks for the update on your herd and the pictures too. Lotte is so beautiful and all their coats look so soft that I would love to stroke them. When my mom was raising miniature donkeys and sheep, she was also on 'belly watch' for a long time waiting and hoping. Even though it can be a stressful time, it is also very exciting. I was blessed quite a few times to be able to go over to her house when she would call that someone was in labor and got to see the new arrivals.

 

Blackcaviar my tame girls (Mischa & Katya) are already used to me groping their udders (they aren't impressed though) but I regularly have head and camera between back legs too!!! But looking back (today) on last years pictures and FB page, tummy punches happened way before udder growth... Tummy punches I started to see late March - udder growth not till April (first picture 11th, second 28th). Before April - no sign of an udder at all.
This photo was 11th April 2015 and nothing before... Let's just face it, I have to be patient... BUT Mischa's tummy does look promising!!!


Patience is a virtue... no real signs yet for this year BUT high hopes!

 

Awwwwwwww they have 4 lil teatsies!!! How cute is THAT!
LOL @ head and camera between the back legs... good job Karen

 

Karen - I don't know how you wait? It would be agony for me. I'm not at all...... patient. When the babies are due....I'd probably camp out in the pasture with them.

 

Reindeer herding isn't all about the cute and cuddly...
Have been trying to replace my original Alvin Fisher auto drinkers, as the first I purchased shouldn't have been attached to mains water, so started leaking after 2 years... I am now having to re route water supply (plus add extra taps - okay the extra tap is just because)... All sounds relatively easy, until you spend days of hard graft and you keep getting Gizas rather than a wonderful water supply... Almost in tears today... I have made my adjustments (yet again) this afternoon and hope they will be water tight but haven't turned water back on as I need to check T-section leaks underground and area was too wet to see below ground leaks... And this is only the start as the new water troughs are too large to fit to fence posts so need paving slab bases and blocks to raise them.....

Not a good week but hope when I turn water on tomorrow, stage 1 may no longer be causing stress!

 

Plumbing is something many fear to tackle so all credit to you for persevering through that battle!

 

As you can see, Lottes play is a lot more Ladylike than my little Monster...


and an update on my major plumbing works. Is my cup half empty or half full?
The good news is that I have no Giza's at the moment - all I have done so far is NOW water tight BUT I had all paddocks supplied by auto drinkers, now not a single drinker working as I need to build footings and raise them up... Don't worry they all have water, just an on going project...

 

Keep on plugging?

 

Shame on nawty little Hector... his antics scared the girls away
He's just allllll full of hormones/testosterone right now isn't he? Ugh. Looks like he's grown a lot lately too. Double ugh.
Poor you, Karen. He looks like a handful to be, lol. Do the bucks/entire males get "fragrant" when they go into rut? My billy goats do and they are really n a s t y strong smelling. It's a funk that you can't wash off of you easily after handling them

 

Guinea, reindeer owners never dare get close to bulls in rut (way too dangerous to know if they smell more)... I just smell of reindeer 24/7 !
Hector seems a little hormonal but it's just baby play (until September)- his hormones will be low at this time of year. Must say I have to dissuade him from being over friendly with me but not at all scary BUT he will be, come the rut, and even more so as he isn't afraid of me or anything else...
Might be an eye opener for followers to see my cuddles boy become a raging bull in September - where I won't dare to enter his paddock..
Scary from many angles as a rutting bull reindeer cannot be sedated either (they are at their most active and aggressive during the rut and most likely to harm themselves or others)- any form of sedation will kill them (this isn't a problem in other deer but it is in reindeer)... ie if they injure themselves or become ill, there is nothing you can do until their hormones abate...
The rut is very scary, the first year one of my girls died as bull chased her into a corner and she severed a tendon in fence & two years ago, the bull injured one of my girls and she was hopping on 3 legs - getting her out of his paddock without being impaled by his antlers took tactics...
Hector plays like a ***** cat..... for now!!!!
edit.... The starred out bit was only the equivalent of kitty cat... I wasn't swearing honest!!!

 

As cute as babies are, we all realize they must grow up. I look forward to seeing Handsome Hector as he matures into a full grown male. I do not, however, envy your situation when he has more than cuddles on his mind! Hope the water situation get settled quickly.

 

Unfortunately that one word for kitty has other connotations. Tweety bird said it with a lisp! It was also great humor every time Mrs. Slocombe (Are You Being Served? the BritCom) used the word.

 

My "Little Monster" has a poorly eye today.
No sign of discharge or foreign body, just partially closed. It did look slightly more open this afternoon. He has probably just scratched it, as no flies around at the moment but an infection may set in.
Saline solution eye wash tomorrow to try to ward off infection... he isn't going to like me... but then that may be a good thing!!!
I was going to say I will keep an eye on it but you know what I mean.

 

Maybe in Hector's antics....he scratched it. I really hope it isn't infected!