After the clear bubble came out and burst, she pushed pretty hard for about an hour and nothing was happening. So, once again I had to put on my midwife hat and put my hand in to see if I could feel the baby. You also know that if you don't feel feet right there in the birth canal...trouble. So, there were no feet. I felt all around and all I could feel was the body. I was working against the clock because I knew the vet closed at noon. Tom wasn't home (of course), so I was alone and had to get Pansy in the trailer, which just wasn't gonna happen. Tom called upon our neighbor again and he ran right over. Thankfully, Tom had hooked up the trailer and had it ready for such an event, being as how we've had to go in the freezing middle of the night before. Neighbor and I pushed and pulled and shoved until Pansy was in the trailer, then I took off like a shot, calling the vet on the way to let them know I was coming. I had time to spare because by then it was 11:00.
When I arrived at the vet, they were working on a cow in labor that was having the same trouble we were. I hung out in the trailer with Pansy for a while just in case she was able to birth her baby, but nothing was happening. She wasn't even pushing. So, I went to watch the birth of the calf, which was pretty amazing.
When that was over and the vet was washing up, the vet tech went with me to check on Pansy. She had had the kid! My first thought was to feel dumb for rushing to the vet because she ended up having it herself, but I noticed right away that it appeared dead. Not breathing, sac over it's head. The vet tech cleared it's mouth with his fingers, and alternately held it around it's middle with it's front end hanging down, shaking it, laying it down and doing chest compressions. After a few moments of this, he instructed me to go tell the vet what was going on, which I did. So, the vet hurried over and said, "give him to me". He took him by the back feet, held him upside down, and swung him like a pendulum with moderate force. After that, more chest compressions, rubbing and shaking and finally the baby started to cough and try to breathe.
When that one was sufficiently revived and breathing, the vet went to work on Pansy. He felt around inside her and said, "there's all kinds of goats in there, all tangled up". He sorted them out and pulled two more out, lickity split. So, triplets for Pansy. All alive...barely. Tom named the first one Lazarus.
These Nubian triplets were the first kids born this year. The one standing was breach. I was able to help the mother enough so that we didn't have to call on the vet. When I saw that intervention was inevitable, I carefully reached in to see if I could feel feet. Nope, no feet, only body. But, I did feel something that I thought was an ear, which gave me hope that I would only have to maneuver the feet in position. But, when I pulled the little ear out, it actually was a tail. So, for several minutes, the momma goat looked like she had two tails...her big one and tiny little one that was actually wiggling back and forth. I was dismayed because I thought I was going to have to do some major birthing, but when I got my hand in there, it must have triggered something in the momma. She gave two mighty pushes and out that baby came, bottom first. After him, the other two, one boy and one girl, slipped out easily and in quick succession.
Big Momma was the next to kid. No problems with her, thank goodness.
She has some big chunky babies.
Sweet.
They run and jump and play right away.
Lazarus.
Lazarus' brothers.
Last born were these triplet girls.
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1 comment:
Baby goats are the cutest things. It's hard to imagine they're so much trouble being born.
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