A Hard Kidding

Thursday morning was a rushed early morning. I had just came in from doing chores and was about to head out the door to an estate sale when the phone rang. My mom answered and it was our good friend on the line.

"I think we're going to have to kill Athena" were the first words out of her mouth. 

"Ok, why?"

"The kid is stuck really bad, is dead, and I can't get it out."

"Give her some MFO and we'll be over in a few."

In the truck and down the road we went. Once we got there, Athena (a LaMancha doe), was in labor, having hard contractions and was obviously a little distressed. There was no kid foot or anything sticking out. Our friend had already been trying for about 30 minutes to get the kid out. When she originally found the doe in labor (who had probably been in labor for some time before she was found that morning), the kid was all the way upside down, trying to come out. That just won't work. So she went in and tried to flip the kid all the way around and pull him out. She couldn't get him out though.

Once we got there, my mom went in and felt around for a while. Eventually we figured out the kid had flipped back on his side. . . and obviously, a kid can't come out sideways. The doe was also very tight feeling. I wasn't sure if she was all the way dilated. She seemed very swollen on the inside and very unusually small inside, especially for a doe who has kidded before. Just incase and to possibly help things out, I gave her a shot of Lutalyse to help dilate things if needed.

So, my mom went back in and successfully flipped him down to the position he is supposed to be in. We knew the kid was dead at this point. We took a small break for the doe, gave her some more MFO (calcium, magnesium, potassium and dextrose) and a little molasses water.

After the little breather, back in we went and grabbed ahold of the kids head and pulled hard, really hard. From the outside I gave her some counter pressure on the kid's head to help him slide out. Finally, his head popped out, whew! His feet were not there though, so my friend went back in with one hand and found one of his front feet. After a few hard pulls, he was finally out. Dead, but out of poor momma goat at least. My mom went back in to check if there were any other kids, and there were not.

The doe was slightly in shock, so we let her lick the dead kid off a few times just to "snap her out of it." She didn't want to get up at this point, so we carried her into the barn. Her vulva was extremely swollen, poor girl. We gave her a shot of Banamine, started her on 5-days of Penicillin and gave her a little Shepherd's Purse to stop any bleeding. 

Sad we lost the baby, but very glad that the doe is doing good.

I just thought I'd share a hard kidding story with all of you. We'll probably have a video of the whole thing on our YouTube channel soon.

Suriyah