My brother, Todahyah, got the newest addition to the ranch last night - Molly, an English Shepherd puppy! She is so small and just adorable!
Time for an update. . . everyone is doing well! The two "miniature" baby Boers are doing great and growing, they are both nursing on their own - amazing, I was not sure if that little guy was going to make it, but he's a strong little buck now!
Grandma, who had the hypocalcemia, is doing well also. Yesterday was the first day that she actually ate a good amount, although she never went completely off-feed. The past 2-3 days I have been giving her the calcium/magnesium/phosphorus/potassium/etc every 2 hours or so in the day and every 4-5 hours at night (which turns out to be only once). So, thankfully she is doing much better.
If anyone is looking for hay, we are hoping to bring in a truck load of nice, first cutting alfalfa/oat hay ($5 a bale) and possibly some straight alfalfa. When cutting starts, we should start having the alfalfa/grass available then. If you would be interested, feel free to email me for more info.
And don't forget, if you have not joined the Oklahoma Hay & Feed Coop, come on and join! The link to join is on the right!
Yesterday it snowed some more. . . BRR! It has pretty much all melted though. Time to go check Grandma, feed the does their lunch hay, and whatever else.
Have a good day,
Suriyah
Last night was a very long night. We stayed up late anyway, and then around 1am my brother checked on the does and a little Boer doe that someone had recently given us, was in labor. So he brought her back to the kidding stalls and we watched her. By 2:15am or so, the sack on the first kid had broke. After that she was pushing, but there was not much progress. I went in and pulled the front feet out, but due to her being very small, I could not get my hand around the kid's head. So, since Mom's hands are slightly smaller than mine, she went in and was able to get her hand around the kid's head, while I held the feet out. But now, sine she had the head, she couldn't not pull her hand and the kid's head out. So I pulled on her arm as hard as I could and out pops the babies head! Praise the Lord! He came out easily after that. Surprisingly, he was just a little over 3 1/2 pounds - that shows you how small this little doe is. Poor girl.
Some of the placenta was hanging out, so I thought she only had one kid. I gave her some electrolytes, warm brown sugar water, Penicillin since it was a hard kidding, etc. Then someone says, "there's another bubble and a kid!". And a TINY little buckling came flying out butt first - at least he came out easily!
He is SO little and thin, I was not sure if he was going to make it. He only weighs 2 1/2 pounds. After us drying everyone off and getting them all set up, we got the bigger buckling to nurse off of his mom. The little guy had a small suck reflex, but not strong enough to be able to get a sufficient amount of colostrum. So I sat there for 20 minutes and drop by drop (with a syringe), fed him an ounce of colostrum. He could only stand with us helping him also. By this time it was almost 3am, and we were all very tired. So we put them on the heating pad by their mom and went to bed.
At 6am, we heard one of them screaming down stairs, and went down there and got them both to nurse off of mom. The little guy was now standing and walking some on his own.
Now this morning, they both were able to find the teat by themselves, and nursed a lot! For a first freshener Boer doe (& any doe, for that matter), she is a WONDERFUL mother. The little guy is walking also.
So, hopefully they will all survive! Things are looking a lot better now than they were at 3am last night. . . we shall see.
Well, Grandma Maggie (Laports Mahogany Sage) and Rosie (Free Spirit Rosemary), her daughter, kidded within 6 hours of each other. Late Saturday night Grandma went into labor, and had two beautiful kids - a buckling and doeling. We are keeping the doeling, since Grandma is almost 10 and I want to have a "mini replacement" for her, plus she is just beautiful. She is solid brown, and a friend's little girl thought she looked like cookie dough, so we named her "Cookie Doe" - I thought that was cute. Their sire is PawPawNin Junior Mint.
Then we got up to feed those kids early Sunday morning and checked on Rosie, and she was licking off a buckling! So we dried him and dealt with all of that, then jumped back in bed for a few more hours of sleep. He is a very different color and very cute (& eats a LOT). His sire is Dreamy-Hollow's Parker.
Grandma and Rosie are both feeling very spunky and "light" today without all that baby weight, especially Grandma, as she was getting very slowed down by those kids. So, I am very glad to see her feeling well.
Some photos of the kids,
Alright, as I said in the last post... here are the pictures from the snow and ice storm. Almost all of it is melted now and it is a big muddy mess here (not fun!).
Well, it was a sad weekend. Thursday afternoon Double Bubble, a 2 year old first freshener doe who was 106 days bred (due in March) aborted a baby. I don't know why. She was doing pretty good but seemed like she missed the baby, until Saturday afternoon when she went downhill. Her temp was very low, so we brought her in the house and treated her for a lot of things (Listeriosis & Goat Polio, Hypocalcimia). Her temp went up and she seemed to be a bit better. But she had not pooped all day and was straining. We tubed her electrolytes a couple of times, and late Saturday night we gave her a couple enemas. She did end up pooping. I was really tired after that and went to bed. Mom checked on her throughout the night. In the morning, she was looking terrible. She started having seizures and could not stand anymore. Her eyes were darting back and forth. Classic signs of a far-along case of Listeriosis, even though we were treating her for it. As the morning went on, the seizures got longer and worse and worse. She was just slowly going, and I could not just sit there and watch her suffer. So we decided to put her down... hard decision. Very sad. She was born at our place in California and was a bottle baby. . .
But, we are still extremely blessed with too much to name.
On the brighter side of things, we had 2 bucklings born at 5:30 this morning! Since the kidding stalls are down stars right below our bedroom, mom heard a goat grunting/pushing, and we ran down there and sure enough, Piglet was pushing and there was a head and a foot out. I went in the stall and did not know how long the head had been out, and it was upside-down - NOT a normal position :)! So I found the other leg and pulled pretty hard and he came out. A buckling that looks JUST like his mom! Then a minute later the next kid came, and it was only his head so I found both his legs and out he came. Another buckling. They are both doing great and so is Momma Piglet.
A couple pictures... not very good but will do for the moment ;).
