More of That Long Sixteen Hours

Next up was the grey Kiko.  Last year, I thought she didn't get pregnant, or might have miscarried because she never did get big or look pregnant.  But she surprised me and had twins.  This year, she really surprised me and had triplets and she still didn't even look pregnant.

Thankfully, I recognized her signs on Friday morning and stayed in the barn, ready to assist if necessary.

**Warning:  Graphic pictures ahead.**

This is after a few minutes of pushing in earnest.  What can be seen at this point is the sac containing the baby and the fluid.

What we should be seeing here, within the sac, is little white feet (the kid's feet always have little white caps on them that fall off later).  We are not seeing the feet here because...

oops, this baby is breech.  She came out rear end first, but it didn't seem to bother the momma.

Now, here you can see the little white feet.  This was barely four minutes after the first was born and momma barely got the face of the first one cleaned off before she had to push this one out.

And, plop, he landed on his head, but at least momma wasn't standing (as they sometimes do).  As you can see, he is fully encased in the sac.  Sometimes, the sac breaks before the baby is all the way out or as the baby pops out.  Sometimes, it doesn't break at all and, if the momma is busy with the previous baby, she might not get to the other one, just born, and not able to breathe.  That sac is tougher than it looks.  I ended up breaking this one and clearing the face just enough for it to cough, clear it's nose, and start breathing.  Then the mother took over.

About 20 minutes later, surprise!  She started pushing again and out came a third.  She was standing for this birth, so I kind of caught the baby on it's way down.  Her sac broke, but it broke across her back, leaving her head still completely covered.  Momma started licking her, but as soon as one of the other babies made a sound, she was instantly distracted and left the newest just lying there.

This one, just minutes old, started nursing while momma was cleaning up the third.  

And, that distracted Momma who went back to licking the nursing one.  Evil goat showed some uncharacteristic tenderness and helped clean the newest one, who, coincidentally, looks exactly like the baby that Evil lost, although I doubt that means anything to a goat.

Just a few hours later, everyone is cleaned up and dry.