Feb 25th was the due date on 3 of my goats, one I wasn't sure was even bred, one was wide as a house and one didn't look like she was quite ready and as we all know a due date is just a suggestion, not a rule.
The started off bad, with the one goat who was in question going into labor before I got the the barn. When I arrived she had 1/2 a breech baby out and wasn't looking so good. I discovered what I thought was 2 goats trying to get out, but turns out that the single was folded in half. I finally got her out and taken away but the poor mamma was not doing so good. I got her cleaned up, gave her some vitamins and antibiotics, a little bit of grain and molasses water. She was up and around and missing her baby.
She is physically doing better, but very confused about where her baby went. It is very sad.
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| we have renamed the barn wall 'The wailing wall' Alice was quite focused on it during labor. |
The 2nd goat who was wide as a house was definitely in labor by early evening. By 7:30 I was camped in the barn with all accessories ready. She is a 2nd time mom and I didn't really have any concerns about her, but after the Pearl lost hers and we almost lost Pearl, I wasn't taking chances.
Alice has completely mastered the art of Zen and kidding. She was happily munching hay and cud throughout her whole labor. Her first kid had his head down, so after a little rearranging he came out, so much for zen then! The second little one came out nice and easy. While I ran to get their little sweaters, I heard a noise.......
All night we were hearing the other goats, Pearl was sad, Betsy was munching hay and Calliope the sheep would talk to her little lambs. As I walked toward the main pen, I heard a baby cry, and thought that it didn't really sound like the lambs, and that is because it wasn't. Opal decided that she would have her kids on her due date after all. She had her first little doeling already clean and ready to nurse.
I brought them back to the kidding pen and a good thing, her 2nd was also coming out head down with one leg forward and one back.
4 kids from 10:15-10:45, a busy half hour.
After we made sure all kids where up and had a belly full, we made our weary way back to the house. And as always, a pot of tea made things much better.
So now for a bunch of shamelessly cute pictures!
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| Alice's baby girl. |
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| Alice's baby boy. |
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| Opal little girl and Alice's boy. |
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| Snack time. |
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| Suckle Up! |
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| Already anxious for grain. |
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| She is too cute! |
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| The pups are anxious to make sure everyone is ok. |
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| Nothing like a baby goat to make you forget your in the hay. |
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| They have waddles too, my favorite! |
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