Long Night

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.

the little guy nursing this morning,

So, I am still very tired right now ;).

Grandma, the almost 10-year-old doe that kidded Saturday night, I am treating for Hypocalcemia. Yesterday morning she didn't act just right, her production dropped, and for some reason I had this gut feeling that she was going to get hypocalcemia (why? because she's old? I don't know). So I have been treating her with oral MFO Solution and I started Propylene Glycol this morning (was using NutriDrench yesterday, but ran out) and she seems to be doing OK. I hope she pulls through. She's such a sweet doe. I am going to need more MFO, but can't find any at the feed stores. I have 23% Calcium Gluconate if I need to use it, but prefer the MFO or CMPK.

So, I think that's it for now. Kind of a sad and exciting post ;).

Have a great day!
Suriyah