Wow. So I wake up at 5:30 and look out to see one of my does just pawing the ground like crazy! I run out in the frigid cold (for here!) and she has a buckling on the ground already! Thank the Lord it was a buckling. After getting him inside and fed, and tending to the doe, and doing my normal chores, my other first freshener starts really acting like she's in labor. So in she goes into the birthing stall. Hours go by. She seems to take a break from labor. Then she starts to act like it again. The poor girl wasn't dilating at all. So I called Vicki's friend Becky. Yup. I gotta go in. She gave me a pep talk, told me what to feel for and that I could do it, and such. Whew. I called my friend to come help me hold her.

Good thing.

That poor girl. The first doe was in there all messed up. She had her head pointed to her left and up and her legs to the right. This took me awhile to figure out, and in the meantime I felt something rip. This scared the dickens out of me. Red blood!!!Augggh. I kept at it after my friend was thrown off the doe three times we finally had her held tightly and I got the stuff sorted out. The next doe had her head pointed straight up! So she came a bit better.

All I can say is WOW, and thank God that it all worked out okay and the red blood was the umbilical cord. The poor girl is going to be sore, but she ate and seems to be doing well.

And the score here is 3 bucks, 3 does, 1 to go...maybe tonight!

-- Doreen (animalwaitress@yahoo.com), March 04, 2002

Answers

Way to go Doreen!!!!!!!!!! Welcome to world of kid "sorting". Somehow I always end up doing it the coldest night of the year. Not this year, for a change I am kidding pretty late.

-- diane (gardiacaprines@yahoo.com), March 04, 2002.

I really hope I never have do that again. I am relieved that it worked out nicely, but MAN- it was scary! I am thinking I will try to kid at the end of March next year as this cold weather has caused some troubles. The little buck is not doing great....hope he makes it.

This was my favorite homegrown doe, Zy, last name: Goat. I feared that I killed her. She is acting like she is hurting a bit this morning. Looking at her rear and baaaaing a lot. She also seems tense. Is this normal?

-- Doreen (bisquit@here.com), March 05, 2002.

I think, especially the young ones, are a bit tense even after normal kiddings. If she is eating and drinking I personally would not be too worried at this point. Quite by accident I am kidding the first week in April this year and I am feeling grateful now about it. This old granny is not missing going back and forth to the barn in the cold all night.

-- diane (gardiacaprines@yahoo.com), March 05, 2002.

Doreen, if you are going to keep raising goats, you will have to do it again. :-) The bright side of it is that now you know how, and it will get easier every time you assist. We had three more born Sunday, the first was coming tail first, no legs, so I had to help. I have heard that Preperation H applied to the sore parts, really helps with the pain and swelling. Think Vicki wrote that...

-- Rebekah (daniel1@itss.net), March 05, 2002.

Well, today was even more interesting. I got to go inside another doe, call the vet out, have him go inside, go to the clinic and have a C section done, only to find 1 kid. One hideously deformed huge kid. 7 legs at least two spines, and a head in the pelvis of the main body. It also had the intestines outside the body. It was alive, too. Super duper creepy and no offense Rebekah, but it didn't seem any easier. We thought there were quads in there which is why we did the C section.It was a somewhat rear presentation as well. I just couldn't get two rear legs, I kept on getting a very large rear leg and a pretty small foreleg...that's what the vet got too. <<>> I am just exhausted. I also am hoping and praying my doe lives. Wild. I tell ya, sometimes this life just wears on a person. Night now.

-- Doreen (bisquit@here.com), March 05, 2002.

Ugh....No, that wouldn't make it any easier.. Doreen, I am so sorry you had to go through that. That would be hard on any goatkeeper. What I meant is that routine assistance will get easier, this is abotu as weird and un-routine as they come. Good news is it's not real likely to happen to you again. Oh, what a mess, I cannot even imagine...

-- Rebekah (daniel1@itss.net), March 06, 2002.

sheeshhhhhh Doreen. Never, never has happened to me. Wow, so sorry you had such an ordeal.

-- diane (gardiacaprines@yahoo.com), March 06, 2002.

Whoowee, gracious, you goat ladies do beat all. Makes we glad to be a hog farmer. Good old Emma just wallers her out a nice smooth spot,pops out 10 or 12 healthy piglets, lines them up to feed and feeds them till they get big enough to come out through the cattle panels and eat out of my hand. No shots, no vets, no CAE, no scrapies, no horns, no fence jumping, and no preachers.

-- Rags (Yeaforpiags@pigworld.org), March 06, 2002.

Yeah but Rags, we never, ever have to worry about our does gobbling down their babies!! ;-)

-- Rebekah (daniel1@itss.net), March 06, 2002.

Oh Doreen, I am so sorry!

(((((((((((((Doreen)))))))))))))))))

I'm with Rags on this one. If they can't birth healthy on their own, I won't be able to cope with goats. It's been too many years since I've worked a birthing barn. I don't think I could handle the stress anymore. I've seen hellbore kids, but what you got was way too bizzarre!

Let us know how your doe is doing.

-- Laura (Ladybugwrangler@hotmail.com), March 06, 2002.

I'll have you know,Rebecka, that not only has Emma NEVER so much as nipped at a piglet, even Virgil, all 400 pounds of him, has never bothered a piglet even when they crawl all over him. Where on earth did you get such an idea? Must be the way Yankee hogs act.

Anyway, this is Doreen's thread. Poor Doreen. Lo siento mucho, pobrecita, que Dios le biendiga.

-- Rags (Takenosass@fightback.org), March 06, 2002.

Well Rags, my Dad has a saying to describe his pleasure...Ain't had so much fun since the pigs ate my little brother. But I am glad that Emma and Virgil are so well disposed, perhaps it's helpful that they have names???

She seems to be doing okay. Actually ate a bit tonight and she was fighting me pretty hard on getting the probios in her. I think she's going to be okay!!! Most times things don't go like this. I bet that out of all the goat folks on these several boards no one else has had this kind of nightmare. hmmmm...What do I win??? lol. thanks very much for all the kind words. It's a balm-sincerely. God bless all of you folks!

-- Doreen (bisquit@here.com), March 07, 2002.

We know Emma and Virgil are special. Their little piggies can fly.

-- Laura (Ladybugwrangler@hotmail.com), March 07, 2002.