Chat
04-25-2022, 07:15 PM
It's been an exciting couple of days here at Goat-O-Rama! I don't have time to post all the photos now, but I'll post the first photo I took of this season's kids. Meet Bonnie--the first kid born here this year!
Sadie had a fairly uneventful delivery. I was at a saddle club work day all morning and I got home about two hours later than planned. I pulled up just in time for the action! Sadie was in active labor and pushing hard. I gave a polite tug or two on the front legs as they came out, but other than that she did the job on her own. First was a beautiful 8 lb. blue roan girl followed almost immediately by a lovely 7 1/2 lb. cou clair boy. We're calling them Bonnie and Clyde.
Mocha, Phil informed me, had been going at it since mid-morning. She'd had long strings of goo all day but hadn't shown any sign of contractions. I didn't like the sound of that. Still, she showed no signs of distress. Mocha eventually did lay down and start to push, but she seemed half-hearted about it. She'd push for a while and then give up for long stretches. I had a quick feel and nothing was in the birth canal. Mocha also was determined that I should be there. I left for a short while and labor immediately stopped. Phil sat with her but it wasn't good enough. She stood looking out the shed door until I returned, at which point she promptly laid down and began to push. I had to help pull the massive blue roan kid. He weighed 10 lbs. and had a broad forehead that didn't want to clear the pelvic bones. We're calling this one Spats.
There was a long delay and I began to wonder what was going on. I was about to go in and look for another kid when Mocha finally laid down and began to push. I felt feet and began to panic. This one was breech and it had been a long time since the first kid. I pulled quickly and could tell right away that the kid had been stressed from the dark orangey-yellow muck inside the amniotic sac. Unfortunately this kid was dead on arrival. She was small and very beautifully colored, with splashy white on a delicate blue roan coat. I swung her, pumped her chest, and even tried to blow some air into her lungs, but I quickly realized that this kid had been dead a while. Her tongue was solid white and when I pried an eyelid open the eye was filmy as though she'd been dead at least a couple of hours. I realized that she was probably the reason Mocha couldn't get on with labor. I suspect she may have started as the first kid in line, but it took all those hours for the big boy to get past her into the birth canal and start the contractions going.
Our sadness over the loss of the second kid was quickly overtaken when a third kid surprised us by popping quite suddenly into the straw. This one was a lovely cou blanc girl and she weighed 7 lbs. Phil quickly took the dead kid away and buried her. Mocha was so enamored with the two she had that she didn't seem to notice she was missing one. That was a great relief!
On Sunday we could see that Skeeter was revving up. Poor girl! Her udder was enormously swollen. The problem was that it didn't seem to be engorged with milk. I suspected that if I milked her down I wouldn't get very much. Her udder just seemed massively congested but there wasn't much I could do about it. Sometime in the mid-afternoon Skeeter finally started labor. She was having a hard time. It was clearly painful for her to lay down on her udder. Skeeter was pushing hard but it seemed to be taking a long time for anything to appear. I suspect if I'd left her alone she would have eventually gotten the job done on her own, but she seemed fairly distressed so I reached in, grabbed legs, and helped pull. It was a very dramatic "Hollywood" type birth with mama screaming her head off, but once the first kid came out she forgot all about her agony. She was smitten with the little cou clair boy with the splashy white face. She quickly delivered a second buckling without much help. The first one was 10 lbs. and the second one 9 lbs. so I guess Skeeter had good reason to yell for assistance.
I hoped that if I milked Skeeter down a little and got the kids nursing, the inflammation in her udder would subside through the night. It did, but not enough, and this morning the left side was engorged with milk while the right side was shriveled up, hard, and not producing much. It wasn't hot but I could tell it was starting mastitis. I began treatments this morning and went out and massaged it every few hours during the day. It's improving, but I feel like we may be battling this for a few days. Thankfully I had some shots of Naxcel in my freezer and I'll give her a course of it along with some ToDay. I hope it sticks to just the right side and doesn't start in the left. I was hopeful all day, but this evening I felt a little ominous hardening and heat in the left side. I'll check it again before bed. I hate it when this happens. She had such a nice, low-maintenance udder the last two freshenings. I hope I can get it back to that soon!
I got some fun photos this afternoon. Hopefully I'll have time to post them tomorrow!
Sadie had a fairly uneventful delivery. I was at a saddle club work day all morning and I got home about two hours later than planned. I pulled up just in time for the action! Sadie was in active labor and pushing hard. I gave a polite tug or two on the front legs as they came out, but other than that she did the job on her own. First was a beautiful 8 lb. blue roan girl followed almost immediately by a lovely 7 1/2 lb. cou clair boy. We're calling them Bonnie and Clyde.
Mocha, Phil informed me, had been going at it since mid-morning. She'd had long strings of goo all day but hadn't shown any sign of contractions. I didn't like the sound of that. Still, she showed no signs of distress. Mocha eventually did lay down and start to push, but she seemed half-hearted about it. She'd push for a while and then give up for long stretches. I had a quick feel and nothing was in the birth canal. Mocha also was determined that I should be there. I left for a short while and labor immediately stopped. Phil sat with her but it wasn't good enough. She stood looking out the shed door until I returned, at which point she promptly laid down and began to push. I had to help pull the massive blue roan kid. He weighed 10 lbs. and had a broad forehead that didn't want to clear the pelvic bones. We're calling this one Spats.
There was a long delay and I began to wonder what was going on. I was about to go in and look for another kid when Mocha finally laid down and began to push. I felt feet and began to panic. This one was breech and it had been a long time since the first kid. I pulled quickly and could tell right away that the kid had been stressed from the dark orangey-yellow muck inside the amniotic sac. Unfortunately this kid was dead on arrival. She was small and very beautifully colored, with splashy white on a delicate blue roan coat. I swung her, pumped her chest, and even tried to blow some air into her lungs, but I quickly realized that this kid had been dead a while. Her tongue was solid white and when I pried an eyelid open the eye was filmy as though she'd been dead at least a couple of hours. I realized that she was probably the reason Mocha couldn't get on with labor. I suspect she may have started as the first kid in line, but it took all those hours for the big boy to get past her into the birth canal and start the contractions going.
Our sadness over the loss of the second kid was quickly overtaken when a third kid surprised us by popping quite suddenly into the straw. This one was a lovely cou blanc girl and she weighed 7 lbs. Phil quickly took the dead kid away and buried her. Mocha was so enamored with the two she had that she didn't seem to notice she was missing one. That was a great relief!
On Sunday we could see that Skeeter was revving up. Poor girl! Her udder was enormously swollen. The problem was that it didn't seem to be engorged with milk. I suspected that if I milked her down I wouldn't get very much. Her udder just seemed massively congested but there wasn't much I could do about it. Sometime in the mid-afternoon Skeeter finally started labor. She was having a hard time. It was clearly painful for her to lay down on her udder. Skeeter was pushing hard but it seemed to be taking a long time for anything to appear. I suspect if I'd left her alone she would have eventually gotten the job done on her own, but she seemed fairly distressed so I reached in, grabbed legs, and helped pull. It was a very dramatic "Hollywood" type birth with mama screaming her head off, but once the first kid came out she forgot all about her agony. She was smitten with the little cou clair boy with the splashy white face. She quickly delivered a second buckling without much help. The first one was 10 lbs. and the second one 9 lbs. so I guess Skeeter had good reason to yell for assistance.
I hoped that if I milked Skeeter down a little and got the kids nursing, the inflammation in her udder would subside through the night. It did, but not enough, and this morning the left side was engorged with milk while the right side was shriveled up, hard, and not producing much. It wasn't hot but I could tell it was starting mastitis. I began treatments this morning and went out and massaged it every few hours during the day. It's improving, but I feel like we may be battling this for a few days. Thankfully I had some shots of Naxcel in my freezer and I'll give her a course of it along with some ToDay. I hope it sticks to just the right side and doesn't start in the left. I was hopeful all day, but this evening I felt a little ominous hardening and heat in the left side. I'll check it again before bed. I hate it when this happens. She had such a nice, low-maintenance udder the last two freshenings. I hope I can get it back to that soon!
I got some fun photos this afternoon. Hopefully I'll have time to post them tomorrow!