Goat-O-Rama Kids of 2023

[Nanno]

Snowball is snowballing!

We scaled back this year, but we're kicking things off early! We didn't sell enough of last year's babies so we only bred three does. Snowball was accidentally bred by Clyde in late September and it looks like she'll be bringing her little ones into the world sometime in the next 15 hours or so. I secluded her in one of the sheds. We have 13 goats in the doe pen right now and Snowball hasn't done anything to alert her close-knit family that they may not be welcome to hang around during the delivery. Most does kick their older kids out a few weeks or months before the new ones are due, but Snowball loves all her kids to hang around. My concern is that she will suddenly stop loving them during delivery, and her confused family may not leave her alone easily. New kids could accidentally get trampled or ignored if mama is distracted by nosey interlopers. Molly and Dolly will be a bit distraught tonight. They are used to snuggling up tight against their warm mama, and Isabella (Snowball's kid from 2021) and Dillinger (Isabella's almost-yearling kid) are usually snuggled with them as well. As I said, it's a tight-knit family! I think Snowball will appreciate the privacy though. She seemed a bit worried about the lack of anywhere to lay down by herself. Now she has her own private palace with grass in one feeder and alfalfa in the other. 

Can't wait to see what the stork brings us! Snowball makes the most gorgeous and colorful babies. Fingers crossed for boys!

[Nanno]

We have some new arrivals! Meet Perdy and Pongo! (I'll bet you can't tell why we named them that.) I've always wanted a Dalmatian dog, but I'm sure I'll never have one. They just aren't practical for farm life. But having black and white spotted goats is surely even better! 

We were watching Snowball all day yesterday, but I was pretty sure she'd have these two during the night and I was correct. I couldn't get to sleep because I kept watching her, but I finally dozed off after a final check at 1:00 a.m. I was shaken awake at 2:45 by Phil who had checked the camera and spotted two wet kids wriggling on the ground! It looked like Pongo had just been born about 10-15 minutes earlier and was still pretty wet while Perdy was already cleaned off and attempting to stand. So they must've been born between 2:00-2:30. They are adorable and Snowball is doing just grand.   
 
It's hard to tell these two babies apart. Perdy has lighter gray spots down her back and Pongo's are darker. They both have black spots on the backs of their necks, but Pongo's spot is bigger. Still, it's going to be a job telling who's who at first glance!
   
   

Pongo is still having a little trouble standing up. The ligaments in his hind end are still all loosey-goosey so his back legs won't support him yet, but I gave him some selenium and vitamin E and he's already improving! He sure has no trouble nursing when I hold him up to the milk bar!
   

This is Perdy. Isn't she precious?
   

[Tater74]

Good looking babies.

Congrats to all.

[Nanno]

Thanks! Unfortunately little Pongo still isn't right. His ligaments have not tightened up yet (although they are slowly improving) so he still can't stand up on his own or walk yet. Phil and I went out every hour or two and worked with him to move his legs around, stand him up, and prop up his behind when he'd start to shuffle along. He's not injured. He's not acting like a baby in pain. But he acts as though his leg bones are not tied to each other. It's kind of gross to watch his hips pop outwards and his hocks flex the wrong direction, but it doesn't seem like it hurts him other than he can't support himself on those loose joints. He's like a little floppy puppet who needs a set of strings to hold him up. It's not Floppy Kid Syndrome. That affects slightly older kids and isn't present at birth. I suspect he didn't absorb selenium in utero for some reason. Hopefully he'll tighten up in the next day or two because his sister really wants to play with him and I can tell he wants to play with her too. He seems a little sad that he can't hop around like a normal baby. Hopefully this will pass soon because he sure is a cutie!

[Saph]

Congratulations on your new goat kids Phil & Nan! Sending good thoughts to Pongo--Saph

[Tater74]

Pongo doing any better?

[Nanno]

Thanks for asking! I was just about to post an update!

Pongo had a rough first couple of days. It took him about 48 hours to finally start getting up and walking on his own. Phil or I would go out every hour or two and give him a bit of physical therapy in the form of standing him up, supporting him as he shuffled along, and moving his joints, which seemed to want to flex in every direction. We were also concerned that his heartbeat and breathing were abnormally fast. I have a wonderful friend who is a vet and I asked her to come take a look at him on Tuesday. When she arrived, I grabbed both babies from where they were laying in their shelter and brought them into the house where we could all be warm during Pongo’s examination. It was when I plunked Perdy down on the floor that the vet noticed she wasn’t standing on her right. She’d been hopping around only an hour earlier! We had a look and the leg was broken near the hock joint. I realized with horror that some goat must have stepped on her! I don’t have any goats that are mean to babies, but Perdy must have been lying in the doorway of the shelter or under one of the feeders and got trampled by accident.

So it turned out to be a good thing I had the vet here! She made a splint for Perdy’s leg and then she checked out Pongo. She agreed that his heartbeat was abnormally fast, but she couldn’t hear anything really wrong with it. He’s bright and active and has a pretty good appetite so she said to just keep doing what we were doing with the physical therapy. 
   

Because we now had two special needs kids, we decided to set up an enclosure in our basement where we could keep an eye on them and make sure no other goats could step on them. We brought Snowball in to feed them and settle them into their new temporary home before taking her back outside.
   

Babies love having a cubby hole to hide in, so we found a cardboard box for them to crawl into. It barely fits the two of them together, but I think they like being smooshed in there.
   

We were expecting cold weather the next day, but the predicted storm passed us by and we were able to let the babies out with their mama in the big pen for most of the day. Pongo was intrigued by the dog, who responded to Pongo’s inquisitive prodding with a slow flapping of his tail. It was pretty adorable!
   

Perdy adapted to her cast pretty quickly and was hopping around and exploring just as much as her brother. In some ways this is convenient. Having a baby goat with a broken leg is sad, but since her brother is slow to develop it’s slowed her down to his pace. She was kind of jumping all over him before and being a little bit annoying. Now they are both shuffling around and gaining mobility at a similar pace.
   

Snowball was happy to enjoy a day of sunshine with her new little family. I closed the gate so the other goats couldn’t bother them.
   
   

Today Phil and I brought the babies into the house for a while. They found a nook beside the washing machine and promptly curled up in it. Too cute!
   

[Tater74]

Awesome news on one, yikes on the other.
We had 2 broken legs this year. A first for us.

[Saph]

So cute! They look so sweet snuggled together. Happy healing, little ones!

[Nanno]

Pongo seems to be totally normal now and is racing around all over the place like a little maniac. Perdy still has her leg in a splint but it's not slowing her down! She's racing and jumping all over the place like Pongo and likes to demonstrate that she can leap on and off the couch just as well as he can. I'm hoping we can remove the splint by this weekend.