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Okay I’m fed and coffeed and now I can provide the goat update. First, here’s a photo of that tiny girl born to Gilda last night that had me so worried. She’s doing great.
After my 5am panic barn visit, I went home and slept a little bit more, talked to my day job boss online, etc. went back to the barn 8am and 2 does were standing in the barn looking at me in that way. Nigella and Nutmeg.
I got each of them into a clean kidding pen. Nutmeg already had some slime coming out but she wasn’t bagged up. That makes me worried, like the kids are premature or dead. So I expected trouble.
Poppyseed, the old girl who had the stillborn a couple of days ago, is actually not recovering her appetite as well as we would like, so I gave her treats and vitamins and then this big willow branch that was downed in the wind storm Friday. – bei Angeles Crest Creamery
By the time I was done with Poppyseed, there was another girl standing in the barn with the look. So we set up another kidding pen for Spy. Now Nutmeg is pushing. Nigella is eating but now has slime. Spy is mad at me for putting her in the pen.
Nutmeg pushed for a while with no progress. More worrying. Then she managed to push out a giant baby goat head but no legs. This is not a good position. With both legs back, the shoulders are too wide. You have to get at least one leg forward.
So I clean up to go in and fish out a leg. This usually involves finding a knee and then unfolding the leg to pull it out. But she’s barely dilated and I can’t get my hand in far enough. I decide to give her a little bit more time to push and dilate.
Meanwhile Nigella has a perfect unassisted kidding, which I captured on video, including educational voiceover, and this short video will be included in Sunday’s The Obligate Sprouter newsletter (which you should sign up for, see pinned tweet).
Then Nigella has a second, also unassisted. They are a perfect family, everyone strong and healthy. The second one has two cool moonspots on his back. – bei Angeles Crest Creamery
Then I try Nutmeg again. She’s opened up a little bit more and I can get my hand in far enough to find a knee. Success! Baby out, and he’s still breathing!!!! – bei Angeles Crest Creamery
He recovered quickly from his difficult birth and is now nursing on his own. Nutmeg has passed her afterbirth, thank goodness. She’s bleeding a little bit more than I would like but nothing alarming. She got a grain snack, herbal wormer, vit C.
Now Spy has slime. But I have a meeting online. More shortly!!!
While we were in our meeting, Spy delivered a big boy without needing any help. He’s already nursing. Yay! – bei Angeles Crest Creamery
And now Pepperncorn has been put into the last available kidding pen. We like to keep moms and babies in their private quarters for a week for bonding and so they babies get their sea (mountain?) legs but we always run out of room. – bei Angeles Crest Creamery
