It was cold Saturday, so I had left the goats in the barn. I was glad of that because Hyacinth at least didn't have them out in the pasture in the cold. They were born healthy and I made sure both of them were nursing. By Sunday, though, the littlest one was suffering.
I could tell he wasn't getting enough to eat, but I wasn't sure why other than while watching them, I could see that the larger girl would shove him out of the way, much like the case of her first twins, Cosmos and Rose. So that night I removed the girl to let the boy nurse as long as he wanted, then I went to bed, resolved to milk Hyacinth in the morning and bottle feed the little one.
When I got out there Monday morning, he was sprawled out and cold. I thought he was dead, but when I picked him up, he roused and cried. I got Meagan to hold him to keep him warm while I went to milk Hyacinth. Her udder was as hard as a basketball and I only got a couple of squirts of milk out of her. So I quickly got Daisy out and milked her. I got a bottle ready and tried to feed the baby. He swallowed a little bit after much effort, but he never did warm up and after about 15 minutes he slowly passed away.
I went back to read about what I did for Hyacinth's udder last year because I had completely forgotten that it was congested last year as well. If I had remembered that, I would have started the bottle feeding right away because she obviously doesn't produce enough milk to feed two until after her udder softens up.
So, out of seven babies born this year, three have died. That's not a very good track record. I only have two Nubians to sell this year, but at least one of them is a girl.
Every one of Hyacinth's kids have been the spitting image of Billy.
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1 comment:
Well, that does it for me. I don't want a farm. Oh, sure..I'd love some land with a few horses, a garden and maybe a couple of cows to feed out and then butcher..but other than that no more animals..nope. I'd be a complete basket case with all these babies dying.
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