Tuesday, February 12, 2008

New kid on the ranch

Yesterday or the day before, Shawn pointed out how my black goat must be pregnant as she has a bag on her. We were both amazed as she is just so fat, that we didn't think she would ever get pregnant.

So, last evening, I was out doing my evening chores - 9PM or so and heard my big fat black goat (Chubs) crying. Sure enogh, she's in labor. Well, she sure isn't conditioned to delivery due to being very huge. Shawn came and helped and we got one out, cleaned off, breathing. Make another temporary shed in the garage and move her and baby in there as it was cold outside. Comes to the delivery of the next one and neither Shawn nor I could get our hand around the head. Denise was able to and got the kid out. We tried to make that little thing breathe, but just couldn't get it to.

Then, Shawn checks to make sure there aren't any more kids and.... another one. That one didn't make it either. I was really worried that Mom wasn't going to make it through the deliveries, but she did and the first baby (Denise appropriately named it "Lucky") and Mom are doing fine.

Now to get the baby to suck, but for now, milking and feeding with a syringe. Needless to say, a late night, early morning, and a lot of work when I get home. Will have to leave work early to check on the "kid" :)

3 comments:

Kuoppala and Inlaws said...

How does the mommy respond to those that don't make it? Does she look for them?
-b

Kuoppala and Inlaws said...

Good question. dk

Kuoppala and Inlaws said...

We showed the to her and she wasn't interested. Now, she is next to the other goat with her kids and when those kids make noise, she does right back to them. She is also a bit hyper and tries to escape out of her pen sometimes. Not sure if she is looking for the babies or not. So, long story short, I'm not sure...