Kiddings!!

It's been a busy past few days!

Friday around noon we came home from helping down the road, and my little yearling Mini doe, Frenchie, who was not suppose to be bred, was licking a kid off! I was relieved because I thought she may have problems kidding, but I guess not. It was a little 3 lb doeling. Frenchie is milking pretty well for how tiny she is. . . I feel like I am milking a kid! They are both doing good though.

Saturday morning Reata, a Boer/Nubian doe, kidded to a beautiful buckling and doeling out of our Boer buck, Ace. The buckling is a redish-blond and the doeling is a light paint. Since we milk Reata, we pulled the kids as usual and bottle fed them. The buckling was about 7 lb and the doeling was about 5 lbs.

Saturday evening is when things got crazy. . . it was the most traumatic kidding I've ever had! A first freshener Boer doe had been going into labor all afternoon. Around 8pm she had some mucus. After a bit, we realized things were not progressing as they should. I went "in" to check her out and her cervix was only big enough for 2 of my fingers to barely fit in, and I could feel a hoof back there. I realized we were dealing with Ringwomb - a condition where the cervix does not dialate by itself, that I have been reading about for years and dreaded to ever have to deal with. Just so I don't have to write a whole lot again, here is what I wrote right after everything calmed down.

"Well, in the 6 years that we have been doing goats (& lots of kiddings), that was the worst and most traumatic kidding I think I have ever dealt with!!

We gave her Oxytocin and I manually dialated her cervix, probably for about 30-45 minutes (on and off, and time flies by when you're busy!). Anyway, I finally got it much bigger and the kid was right there ready to come out. She was now pushing, and the kid's feet were out and the nose was right there, and it's tongue was starting to go purple. Every time she would push we could see the whole ring of the cervix - it was yellowish/whitish. I was still helping stretch the area, and then the kid came out.

It was ALIVE (after over 2 1/2 hours of being in the birth canal and the sack being broke), to our amazement - and a little doeling!!!

Immediately after the kid came out, the mom started bleeding like I've never seen before. It looked like someone was pouring a jug of blood there - it was gulping out. I ran and got the Shepherd's Purse tincture, and a good friend (who's not "farmy"!)  started putting counter-pressure in her. I gave her a ton of Shepherd's purse, and her tongue was going white. Within a minute, the bleeding subsided and the color came back to her! She started licking her kid and acting great for what just happened! I never want to be without Shepherd's Purse!!

I gave her a bunch of Karo and sugar water, injectable B and probiotics.

She is now eating grain and hay and nursing her kid! I also started her in Penicillin, gave her Banamine, and a calcium drench just to boost her."

Today, both Momma and baby are doing surprisingly well!

Then this afternoon, Blueberry, a first freshener Mini Nubian doe, went into labor and kidded to a beautiful blond doeling. The sire is SQSW Berry Blast, my Nigerian buck. The doeling has super long ears and is very cute!

Pictures of all these new additions will have to come later.

Grandma Maggie is doing great, and I think she realized she is a goat again as she is willingly hanging out with them all!

I'm sure there is more to update on, but for now, I am going to eat my ice cream & cake (for my little brother's birthday, today) :).

Have a good evening,

Suriyah