Holy Smokes what a day!

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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 head 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

Great job Doreen! Makes you feel good. We are at 2 does kidded out with 3 bucks and 2 does, each doe has given me a daughter, and that is all that is important, and certainly is better odds than last year! The kids are big and healthy. 5 more to go this week and next, then a rest till April. The last of the cold weather is suppose to leave tommorrow, the babies are all in the summer porch, the woodstove keeps the house entirely to warm to have them in the house! The sun was so bright today I had them all outside. Nothing cuter than 1 day old kids finding their legs! Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh TX (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), March 05, 2002.

Am so glad your kdding did turn out well.May I ask an odd question? When you go into a doe, how far in do you go before you feel the kids or whatevr? This years kidding I had to go into the doe for the first time. As far as I could get my hand in, I couldn't feel anything. When I asked the vet, she said it must have been a dropped uterus.Shortly after I went in, Cookie went into some really forceful labor and had 3 kids, all laid wrong. One took pnumonia and died.But every body else is fine.

-- VickiP. (countrymous@webtv.net), March 05, 2002.

Whew! Doreen what a day. Sounds like you did a wonderful job and can be proud of yourself. I don't know abut you but goat keeping has taught me so very much about just educating yourself and getting to your business. Don't you just love it!

-- sherry (chickadee259@yahoo.com), March 05, 2002.

Doreen- I can relate! I can't usually get anyone to hold a doe for me, what I do is to have baling twine tied in each corner of the kidding stall (it is important to leave the long ends hanging, not looped, you don't want anything to get caught or strangled in it). When a doe needs help, I coax or drag her over to the nearest corner, tie her up close, and go to work. They then move to one side or the other, and you can push your weight against her so the doe stays between you and the wall.

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

Glad everything turned out alright... don't forget a round of antibiotics if you had to assist...nothing worse than a post-kidding doe with a uterine infection! Patty Prairie Oak Miniatures http://www.minifarm.com/prairie_oak

-- Patty Putnam (littlegoats@wi.rr.com), March 05, 2002.


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