Here Come the Kids

Kidding season has started - although we're off to a rough start. I'm hoping it improves from here - logically the problems are much more likely early - early babies are often early for a reason (mother's poor health, a deficiency or disease) and after that, things usually improve.  

We started with Raven kidding last Thursday - I went to check the pasture, and found her looking gaunt, like she was hours from starvation.  I  looked around and discovered 3 dead babies nearby :(  I felt a bit better about how she looked - largely new-mama hollow rather than healthy-goat-about-to-die, but she is still pretty thin.  Raven and another goat have hoof rot, after this warm wet winter a lot of foot issues have cropped up, mostly fixed by a good trimming, but these two have fullblown hoof rot.  Raven in particular has lost body condition rapidly, so we've got the two of them in the yard around the hoophouse (ironically, probably the best, most lush grass on the farm!)  I don't know if the triplets were born alive or not, but Raven has been in pretty poor condition and had no udder at all.  She wouldn't have been able to care for them anyway.  I theoretically could have taken care of them if I'd found them immediately, but they were very small, and I think probably a little early, and I'm not sure I would have been very successful.  A very frustrating start to the season - Raven was our prettiest, sleekest, fattest goat and the daughter of my best milker that died last summer.  I was really looking forward to not only seeing how she milked, but also seeing what big, beautiful babies she made.

Next, I looked out the window yesterday (in the middle of my second batch of soap for the afternoon) and saw a goat lying down, pushing.  Liam and I ran out to watch her deliver - she was a first-time mama and I wanted to make sure she was doing okay.  It's a good thing I did, because she wasn't.  Initially, it looked fine - two hooves and a water bag bulging out.  I thought it a little odd that the hooves were outside the bag, but figured they were squeezed tight enough to be preventing the bag from draining.  Then, on a push, I saw more feet and a tongue - inside the water bag :(  They were both trying to come out at the same time!  We caught her, and I started pulling tension on the farther-out feet, but mama was so nervous she wouldn't push now.  I pulled that one enough to worry that there was no head coming with it, then realized it was back legs, a breech birth.  That's actually not a problem, they just pop out backwards, it was actually a relief to not have to try to get the feet back in, locate a head, and try to get them out together, all while trying to keep the second kid back!  I pulled much more confidently, now that I knew things were laid out right, and she slid right out - up to the shoulders.  Then she just stuck, with her head still inside - the one dread of a classic breech!  I pulled and pulled, mama was pushing and pushing - and then I realized the second kid's head was coming first, like a cork in a bottle.  They were head-to-head, with their heads nestled in each other's necks, so that pulling my kid's body actually pulled the other kid's head into the opening.  I fought with the other kid - being vigorously pushed by mama now, when I DIDN'T need it! - until I finally got her back enough to pull the first head out. Mama wandered off, and shortly had #2 without trouble - but I had an apparently dead kid in my lap.  This little one was limp and not breathing - she had a pulse but nothing else - and I just couldn't get her to breathe.  I  held her upside down by the ankles and repeatedly drained her - I mean squeezed her empty over and over! - getting huge gobs of goo just drooling out of her mouth.  But still no breathing.  Her heartbeat continued, but after probably 8-10 minutes, her tongue was turning purple.  I had already demanded Liam's shirt to swab goop out of her mouth, and finally, in desperation covered her mouth with the "clean" part and gave her mouth to mouth.  For at least 10 minutes off and on.  Her tongue turned pink again, and her pulse continued - but she still didn't breathe.  Liam ran and got me a needle-less syringe, and I suctioned her throat, and just kept breathing for her.  After at least 25 minutes since birth - her side twitched!  In another 10 minutes she was faintly sucking air and gasping it out, and - long story shortened a tiny bit :) - she's in a box in the living room, working on getting her feet under her.  She had a stretch of convulsions for several hours yesterday evening as she was coming out of mild hypothermia - I didn't realize she'd gotten so cold - but she got through those around bedtime, and proceeded to cry me awake at least 4 times overnight to get a little milk.  She's still working on sucking - I'm mostly syringing milk into her - but she's getting better at it every time, and I'm able to milk the good stuff off her mom for her.  I'm going to start taking her out to try nursing from mama in a few minutes - my goal is always to just bottle-feed enough to get them back on mama! (Baby just stood up unaided as I'm typing!)

As the icing on the disappointment cake, we've had Agnes, our oldest, always-least-healthy goat in the yard since Saturday evening.  (We should have culled her last fall, but she's just so sweet and always raised triplets with no help.)  She was in even worse condition than her usual scruffy, thin shape, had just developed awful diarrhea, and stopped walking.  She was still eating ravenously - we were moving her a few feet multiple times an hour, and she was draining the electrolyte water we provided as fast as we gave it to her - but was still pooping puddles.  After two days of this, though, she pooped solids all day Monday, and continued to eat well.  At 9 pm, I checked on her to find her softly moaning and pushing - she always has triplets, although in her condition I wasn't expecting three this time.  I came in, told Caleb she was in labor, got a pot of water to try to clean up her rear end after all the diarrhea, and went back out - to find her dead.  We did an emergency C-section, and pulled out dead triplets.  I don't know when they died, whether it was in that 10 minute window that I was inside and she died, or sometime earlier.  They also were small, but she is a small goat and always has 3 itty-bitty little things.  As with Raven's babies, I don't have much faith that I could have done anything anyway, but like with giving mouth-to-mouth, I couldn't just stand there and do nothing.  

I am so disappointed in this start to kidding, and it's especially frustrating because I think these 6 babies lost are chalked up to basically poor nutrition - it sounds like shirking responsibility, but I really think it's largely the fact that we have a very hard time finding good hay.  We had decent hay to start with - not great, but not too bad - but then we ran low about a month ago, and bought more - but at that time of winter the selection is pretty awful.  This hay had been rained on the whole winter, one bale at least was charred from internal combustion, and we can trace the sudden loss of physical condition, in Raven in particular since her change was like night and day, to switching to this hay.  We already feed a liquid protein supplement, free choice multi-mineral, with extra copper and seaweed, and dosed everyone with even more copper and selenium and liquid multi-vitamin just weeks ago.  It really comes down to the hay - you just can't keep anything healthy on vitamins alone!  

On the (hopefully) positive side - I certainly saved the second baby with my intervention yesterday  - she wouldn't have come out with the first in the way - and if this little bottle baby makes it, it will be my most impressive save to date!  I just hope I never need to do mouth-to-mouth on anything again!  Also, we are running heavy on girls so far, which we like - both of those babies, 2 of Raven's, either 1 or 2 of Agnes', and 2 more healthy girls born this morning with no help, so either 7 or 8 out of 10.  Good numbers to replace our losses, although I wish we didn't need that!