Thursday, February 27, 2014

Another Buck! WARNING: GRAPHIC IMAGES

It has been several days since Abigail, Leah, Jane, and Ruby kidded. We are checking our remaining pregnant does, Hadassah and Rachel, several times each day, always hopeful that this will be the day and that our does will have an easy time of kidding. Sean checked them at 1 o'clock and everything remained in a holding pattern. More waiting.

Apparently, when Asher escaped his stall last fall, he did not accomplish his goal of mating with any available doe all in one go. I was relieved that he did not impregnate ALL twelve of our does, especially the yearlings. Though old enough to breed, I never plan to breed our doelings until they are at least 18 months old and are nearly full grown. Sometimes the does have other ideas. And, so it was that after failing repeatedly to keep Asher secure with the bucks and waking to find him snuggled up with the does in the morning, we eventually resorted to tethering him inside his stall at night. This, after being unable to go through the fencing, he actually ripped through the plywood wall to get to the does, leaving in his wake a gaping hole. For a while, this drastic measure seemed to keep Asher contained and our doelings safely unmolested. But, as the adage goes, "If Mohammad won't go to the mountain, the mountain must go to Mohammad." We woke one terrible morning to find that the doelings had broken through the door to their stall and were quite happily snuggled up with Asher, still tethered to the wall. I swear he was grinning.

Hadassah was thankfully the only yearling to be impregnated. With memories of the trouble with Sapphira and her subsequent loss in the front of our minds, we approached her first kidding with feelings of anxiety and fear. I did not want to lose this doe. I don't want to lose any doe, obviously. But, Haddie is something of a favorite around here because of her cheerful and inquisitive demeanor. She is often the first one to greet us upon entering the pasture.

After Sean returned to work, I checked the goats this afternoon, but no one showed any signs of immediate kidding. As chance would have it, Sean was about half an hour later than normal coming home from work tonight, perfect timing to find Haddie very obviously mid-delivery.

<---- This is what Sean found.

Sean raced inside to get me. I grabbed the vet bag, camera, and towels and joined Sean in the barn. By the time a doe is at this stage, delivery is very nearly finished. In our experience the head is the most difficult part to deliver. Once it is out, usually the rest of the kid is born quickly.

We watched and waited. And waited. And waited. No more contractions seemed to come. Haddie was relaxed and acting as if she did not have a relatively intrusive head poking from the back end of her body. She was eating, drinking, and walking around. She paused to lick one of the buckling kids that wandered near her.

Sean broke the amniotic sac to make sure the kid could get air. The kid moved occasionally, shook its head back and forth, moved his feet, but made no further progress. Haddie had not had a contraction in over 10 minutes. The kid was alive, but how long should we wait? I was worried. I wanted Sean to call for the vet again. With Haddie being smaller than I was comfortable with, I did not want to wait until we needed the vet and not have them here. Sean listened to my fears, but told me he felt comfortable helping Haddie himself. Actually, he clapped his hands together, threw back his shoulders, said, "I got this." and headed inside to wash up.

I believed the trouble came from the kid's presentation. While it was facing the right direction, its head was fully delivered, but the front legs were held very close to its face. I thought the front legs should be stretched out in front of the kid much further than they were. I tried carefully gripping both of the kid's legs and provided gentle traction on them. Nothing happened.

Sean returned with clean hands ready to assist. Careful not to touch anything, Sean entered the stall. I squirted some lubricant onto Sean's hands. While I held the tail up and out of the way with one hand, Sean carefully eased a couple fingers inside Haddie to see if he could help ease the kid out that way. I suggested, "Can you hook your fingers under the kid's knee and pull to get one leg out? If you can get one leg out, it might provide enough room for the kid to shift and be born." While Sean felt his way around to hook his fingers under the kid's leg to draw it out, I placed my hands on both sides of Haddie's stomach and pushed from her shoulders toward her tail across the sides of her sides and again down her stomach. I could feel the kid's back legs move inside.

Sean was able to free one leg and align it into the proper position. And, finally, I felt a contraction! With each contraction, I ran my hands down Haddie's body from shoulder to tail while Sean gently eased the kid from her mother's body. In just a couple minutes, we had a live kid laying in the hay.

Haddie was interested in smelling and licking this new arrival. With it being such a cold night, I helped her to get the kid dried and warm while Sean washed the blood and amniotic fluids from his hands. I took the opportunity to check the kid more closely; lamancha ears, but everything else was from his Momma's genetics! He is gorgeous and more importantly, alive and healthy!

It is with relief and great pleasure that we introduce the forth kid born to Lally Broch Farm and we need your help. This little guy needs a name! We can't decide between: Amos or Joel. Please, help us by commenting which you prefer below. To show our appreciation for your help, we'll draw a random person from those who comment and send that person their choice of scent of a 5 oz bar of our goat's milk soap.

To help you decide, here are some pictures of the new buckling:

Haddie is curious about this new thing.

Smells right. 

Tastes right...

Guess we'll keep him
Ready? Set? Vote!

Should this little one be named Amos or Joel?

14 comments:

  1. Joel gets my vote

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  2. So cute, looks like an Amos to me too.

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  3. I vote for Amos also

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  4. Replies
    1. You won! Please, visit our etsy shop to see which scent you want sent to you and then, email me with your address to sonjatwombly at yahoo dot com. Thanks for playing along! ♥

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  5. i think amos too! he's precious! birth is so magickal!

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  6. He looks like Joel should be his name. He is so adorable and looks very healthy. I have always felt Joel was a strong name! Welcome little one!

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  7. I think he looks like an Amos, as well.

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  8. I say neither. I think it should be Neal, since his knees gave his monks such a hard time.

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