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.

More Kids

Well, just when I think I might know a little about animal husbandry and goat kidding, the goats have shown me that I don't know as much as I think I do.  I was congratulating myself on pinpointing the exact date of the first goat's kidding, but I'm completely off on all the other goats.  Daisy the Nubian kidded yesterday, the 12th.  She's the only one I thought I wasn't sure about.  I had estimated she was due either on the 3rd or the 11th and was supposed to be the last to kid.  Ha.  None of the other goats have kidded yet.

In previous years, Daisy has always had triplets and sometimes some of them die.  I wanted to try my best to be there at her kidding so that I could make sure the babies survived.  It was a long ten days of checking on her every 2-3 hours.  Finally, when I checked on her at 7:40 in the morning, it was obvious that she was in labor.  So, except for a few quick dashes to the house for a bite to eat, I stayed in the barn with her until the kids were born...

  the first one, a male, at 1:45 (not quite dry and trying to suck my finger*)

and the second one, a female, at 2:00.

  No triplets this year?!  Too bad, because I have a buyer for two of this doe's little girls.

 * Daisy's teats are so enormous that it's hard for the babies to suck right away.  So, each year, as soon as they start trying to nurse, I help them by holding the teat at an angle that is easier for them to get their mouth on.  I have learned that this is as good as bottle feeding them, without the actual hassle of bottle feeding.  They end up associating me with feeding and it makes them very sweet and tame.

I call this wide load Boer doe Buttercup, but Buddha or Butterball, might be more appropriate.  She has got to be at least two feet across.  Even though she is pregnant, there is no reason why this goat should be this big.  She's pretty enormous during the summer when all she gets to eat is pasture.  I think if a Boer breeder sees this, I might get hated on.

And, here's Evil the Kiko.  I can't believe how big her udder is this year.  It looks like she could be carrying a kid or two just in her udder.

She'll probably have her babies tonight.  Some signs that labor is imminent:

(1) udder fills up.

(2) the spot right in front of her hip bone hollows out (you can see that in this picture, see the indentation right in front of her hip, below the spine?)

(3) doe hunches up like she's going to urinate, but doesn't