Adorable baby alpaca at West Lothian animal attraction limps into visitors' hearts

dailyrecord.co.uk:

Staff at Almond Valley Heritage Centre have shared an update on their adorable new addition.The baby alpaca - known as a cria - was born to mum Percy at the end of October.But he’s had a tough old start to life as it was discovered one of his joints were malformed and he was walking with a noticeable limp.Sadly, after close to two weeks of intense physiotherapy there was only a limited improvement to the cria’s overall movement.The decision was then made to splint the leg in an effort to reposition the joint and bear some of the load to ensure the newest arrival to the herd was not in any pain.The centre has been sharing some gorgeous pics of the little alpaca and are inviting visitors to give him a name.A spokesperson for the centre said: “Visitors to Almond Valley at the tail end of October may have noticed a new and very cute looking face on our farm. “Late in the afternoon on October 27, just before our Friday Fright Night Event, our Alpaca Percy gave birth to a male cria.“With it being quite late in the season, the weather was already getting colder and that day was particularly miserable and wet.

Therefore the decision was made to keep Percy and her newborn cria inside under shelter for the first two nights.“Upon reintroducing them to the group on Monday, it became quite obvious that one of crias joints were malformed and he was walking with a noticeable limp.

Often the best remedy is exercise; as in the wild crias will often be up and moving around within the first hour or two of being born, so it was hoped that being with the other alpacas might encourage him to regularly move around the paddock.“For the next week the animal team watched closely to ensure the little one was still able to manoeuvre his way around