Prepping for Kidding Season

Well, Surprise on us! Bailey may beat Rachel to kidding! Overnight she has grown an udder and "dropped". She hasn't lost her mucus plug yet, but her lady bits have grown swollen and are getting ready to deliver.

(This is a recent video of Bailey and her recovery. Notice how round and healthy she looks. No lumps or scabs anywhere on her. The infection resolved. This was shot in Mid-December. It has taken many months to get her looking this way.)

This is not good news. Bailey has spent the last 9 months recovering from a massive mastitis/staph infection that caused her udder to be shredded. Multiple visits to our vet happened where multiple cysts were opened and drained. She has been on antibiotics, anti-inflammatory medicines, and steroids and *finally* was getting to the point where she was healthy enough to rejoin the herd as soon as the weather turned. We had not planned to breed Bailey again. Keeping her locked, separate from the rest of the herd so she could fully heal has not been an easy decision, but the alternative was to have her put to sleep. We could not risk her infecting the rest of the herd. But, she has such a personality and affection for people. Even as sick as she was at the height of her illness, she always perked up when we came into the barn and pulled herself up to get scratches and love from us. She wanted to fight and we gave her the chance to do that. (Alternatively, as unpleasant as this decision would have been, if she began to decline to the point where she had no quality of life and was in pain, suffering, we would have made the hard call to end that.) As best as we can work out, Master Jareth had other plans. One of our 2-year old Nigerian Dwarf bucks, he escaped the young buck pasture and was found in the horse stall inside the barn last fall. Apparently, he also made it into Bailey's private stall. Bad, bad goats!

This was the beginning of the damage.
The infection spread and got far, far worse.

One Concern is that Bailey's udder might be so damaged that she won't be able to nurse her kid(s). If that is the case, we have colostrum saved in the freezer if she kids before Rachel does. If Rachel kids first, and the timing is right, we will use the fresh colostrum from her if we need to. (If the timing is not right, we will still use Rachel's freshly frozen colostrum as it will be higher in nutrients than what we saved from last season.)
Another concern is that Bailey may relapse under the strain of kidding and caring for the kids. We want Bailey to be as healthy and happy as she can be. Hence the decision to never attempt to breed her again. We will do everything in our power to support her and hope that she has a successful kidding.

This little monster was the cause
of the mastitis. Good thing Frankie
is still adorable! 

And, she may. She has kidded here before- each time gifting us with healthy twins. She is an attentive mother- when she is not riddled with an infection. So, we wait and hope that things will be okay. We will not be using facebook's "Go Live" feature when Bailey kids. We need to focus on her and those babies. But, we will attempt to "Go Live" with Rachel's kidding. She has always kidded well and needs little assistance from us, if any. If you are interested in watching Rachel's LIVE kidding make sure you check into our FB page for updates. Kidding happens fairly quickly, so do be prepared. :) Thanks for visiting with us tonight, Friends. Sean & Sonja ♥