So our goat had babies at about 10:30 this morning. The goopy stuff is still hanging out of her backside. It is now 6:30pm.

Should we try to pull the goopy stuff out? I imagine that the placenta is attached to the other end.

-- Paul Wheaton (paul@javaranch.com), February 02, 2002

Answers

No. Very emphatically, no, do not pull on that at all. If it has been this long and she hasn't passed it out there could be several reasons. I'm going to post this so you will see it right away, then I will write some more. Just don't pull it.

-- Dianne Wood - Woodland, WA (woodgoat@pacifier.com), February 02, 2002.

The placenta sometimes comes out within an hour of the last kid; sometimes within minutes; sometimes several hours later. It could still be attached to the uterus and pulling on it could result in the doe bleeding to death. If you have not already done so, I would now scrub my hands and arm, wash the outside of the vaginal area with disinfectant and reach in to see if there is another kid yet to be born. The placenta could be loose and simply hung up around another kid. When you reach in, you will just be feeling to see if anything solid is inside, or if everything just feels squishy. If it is just squishy then I would not do anything else. If it doesn't come out overnight you should consult a knowledgeable goat person or your vet. Oxytocin could help her pass it, but you would have to be very sure that the cervix is still open. I will check again later to see if you post anything else, although I know other, perhaps more knowledgeable goat people will be signing in on this one. We will all be concerned.

-- Dianne Wood (woodgoat@pacifier.com), February 02, 2002.

Good post already. It isn't retained placenta unless it is 12 hours passed. A good idea is to milk the doe, lots of massaging of the uterus (just bear hug around the doe in front of the udder pressing up) and massaging the udder as you milk will bring out the does natural oxytocin. If the udder hasn't past in 12 hours than we give a shot of oxytocin every 6 hours until it does. The placenta is attached to the uterus with little suction cup type things. If you pull these off prematurly you can bleed her out. Now a vet knowing what he is "feeling" can pry them loose slowly. Tie the placenta up, add wieght to it so it has some pull to it. It will start to stink very quickly :) Retained placenta is yet another symptom of selenium defficency and also copper. As long as it is hanging out the cervic can not close, after she looses it you may want to put a uterine bolus up inside the cervic. Honestly though it is horrid you can just put her on penicillin and let it rot, it isn't going to infect her as it isn't part of her. Now a piece left inside with the cervic closed can cause infection that can render her sterile. We just had a lenghthy discussion on this at our last goat meeting :) Lunch anyone? Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh TX (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), February 02, 2002.

Well, she didn't like it, but I put my arm up there about six inches past the wrist. Just goopy stuff.

We'll wait until morning.

We have her babies in the house and she seems to miss them. We took the babies out for a few minutes and she got excited, but we had to bring them back in the house.

-- Paul Wheaton (paul@javaranch.com), February 02, 2002.

Paul, why don't you put sweaters on those babies? I use cut off sleeves of wool sweaters on my newborn lambs as body warmers. We don't use heatlamps anymore, too dangerous, and the sweaters work just fine.Wool seems to work the best as it insulates well even if wet. It can be zero degrees here at lambing time. Of course, you should wait till they are standing well and eating off mom on their own before leaving them out there.

-- Kate henderson (kate@sheepyvalley.com), February 03, 2002.

Paul, have you milked her completely out? Milking will stimulate contractions of the uterus and help to expel the placenta.

-- Rebekah (daniel1@itss.net), February 03, 2002.