Baby Goats

 

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Our goat kids started arriving this past Saturday evening. A first-timer started the season, #1305 – we have started ear-tagging to keep track of the goats since we have enough now that many look too similar to tell apart. I'd like to also have names, but so far I haven't gotten that done for everyone. She had a boy and a girl, both healthy, up, dry and nursing when we saw them. The next ones arrived Tuesday, a set of triplets from 1204 – one boy, two girls. Then Wednesday Sophia (my milker) had a little girl, and a couple hours later Sabie the herd queen and oldest, had 2 girls. This morning (Friday) 1306 had two little boys, up and nursing when we saw them at 6:30 am.

 

 

There's still about 20 mamas to go, but I'm especially waiting for Agnes, a smallish goat who's carrying triplets, I know – she did the last 2 years also. I've never seen a goat so fat – she looks like a puffer-fish, I swear she's actually pressurized! Poor thing is just staggering around out there, I'm starting to wonder if there's 4 or 5 inside!

 

 

I've spent the last few days nursing one of the triplet babies. 1204 also had triplets last year, 3 healthy kids. This year, either they were a bit early, or we should have given her supplemental selenium a few weeks ago, but two of them were weaker than normal. Often triplets are 2 healthy kids and one half-size runt who just has no drive, seems uninterested in standing or nursing, and doesn't last long no matter how hard I try. This time the largest one, a boy probably 6-7 lbs, couldn't stand at all but he was a strong nurser – he'd try anything near enough to get ahold of - my finger, his sister's knee, straw, whatever. The runt was a little 2.4 lb girl who tried to stand, but had trouble with her back right leg (selenium deficiency seems to give kids weak legs, especially back legs that flex past the vertical, and end up getting dragged) but had a fairly vigorous attitude. We put the three in a small house with mama to stay warm and dry (of course it's been cool and raining for days and will for several more), and so they could hopefully walk easier and strengthen their back legs in the proper bend instead of snagging on grass and constantly popping the wrong way. We checked on them frequently and things looked pretty good...

And here's where the story goes downhill. The next morning, Wednesday, Caleb checked on them first thing, and the runt had gotten jammed down the only place in the whole goathouse where the floor doesn't quite meet the wall. She was virtually dead, severely hypothermic when he brought her in. She wouldn't even twitch when I touched her eyeball. She couldn't cry or move – we only knew she was alive because there was a faint, sporadic pulse and a riny gasp maybe every 15 seconds. In spite of the books that say never do it, I gave my usual warm bath in the sink. After most of an hour and 2 changes of hot water, she cried once, and her heart rate sometimes sped up a bit. After 1.5 hours she had a steady pulse (still way too slow) and was actually breathing through her nose regularly instead of gasping many seconds apart. After several more hours in the (lowest heat) oven wrapped in a towel, she was holding her head up and even tried to stand. But her left rear leg was still weak and bending too far, so she spent the rest of the day snuggled with a hot water bottle, mostly on her front knees with her little bottom up, on her back feet.  I noticed that even her ankles were weak – kids should be walking on their hooves, the equivalent of our fingertips, but her feet looked like paws with the toes splayed out, because she stands on her heels. But – she was eating, peeing and pooping, that's the important thing. I had to feed her often, but she'd actually suck on a bottle rather the eyedropper I started with. In fact, we've been taking her out to the pasture several times a day and forcing Sophia to let her nurse. Then, downhill again - Thursday morning I noticed her back left leg – the good one! - was swollen. The lower half was twice the size of the other – we realized something must have happened to it when she was stuck in the crack and it was now infected. We gave her a shot of penicillin, and I kept her warm and fed through the day. Now Friday morning, we looked closely and we're pretty sure the leg is dead – rather than, say, infection from a splinter, I think her leg got the circulation cut off for too long on Tuesday night. There is no circulation – it's cold, the hair is starting to slough, and it's eerily squishy and oozing pink fluid in places. I think our options are amputation (that's into the realm of pointlessly heroic measures) or euthanizing. I'm going to wait until she looks actually sick, because ironically (depressingly so) she's been getting better and better, attitude and vigor-wise. I just can't bring myself to put her down when she seems so content and peaceful.

Other than this little doomed fighter, though, the kidding is going so much better than last year – then, we had 10 kids early and lost 8 of them, either at birth or within a day or so. One out of the first 10 this time, and a triplet runt at that, is not bad at all.  Yesterday we dosed everyone still waiting to kid with selenium, so hopefully we'll have another 40 or so healthy babies - I'll keep ya'll posted!

Comments

Baby goats

Sounds like things are much better than last year, and certainly better than the year before! So sorry to hear of this brave little one---a hard part of farm life. Thanks for providing such a great update!

Yes, it's so much better!

Yes, it's so much better! One more pair this afternoon brings us to 31 kids, with only the one loss. This is how kidding should be - just sit back and watch!

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