2nd twin dead in the womb

A sad story here about a neighbours goat, and its too late to help now, but I'd still like to learn what could have been done:

my neighbour has a goat that has had a number of kids before.  Yesterday she went into labour and delivered one healthy kid.  However, there seems to have been another inside that died.  He called the vet who gave some medicine that was to help the her deliver the dead kid, but it didn't work.  24 hours later, the kid was still inside and they were deciding to slaughter the mother.  

Could anything have been done to get the kid out and save the mother?7

Thanks for any advice, always glad to learn, just in case.............

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  • I am also shocked!  Good gawd - I am so grateful my vet didn't do that to my Ginger girl!  They had to go in and pull the kids, completely.  If I had called the day before, there would be two healthy kids bouncing around out there even with that needing to be done.
    In Ginger's case, there was NO baby part showing - she wasn't dilated (not even any mucous secreting) and by the time she was manually dilated, she wasn't contracting anymore which is why the kids had to be hand-delivered.
    Even if the goat's cervix had closed, the other kid could have been delivered by c-section, dead or alive, and the doe saved.  I truly don't understand why the doe was sacrificed.  And if the cervix was still open, someone could have gone in and carefully turned the kid and delivered it.  I know - I watched it done!  (And my doe had never delivered full-term kids before.)

  • Such a waste, so sad for all concerned. 

  • Wow, I'm shocked. I can't believe they wouldn't at least try to help her by reaching in there instead of slaughtering her and her unborn baby. This makes me so sad. 

  • Yeah, if she was still obviously in labor, you know there's another kid, but the kid may or may not have been dead. Since the vet provided medication to help her deliver another kid, I assumed she was not acting like she was in labor, which is why I didn't understand why they thought there was another kid. That's actually not a good thing to do -- give oxytocin to a doe that is already in labor. It could have caused a ruptured uterus. Not pushing or not having contractions was not her problem. The kid was obviously positioned incorrectly. If she was bulging when pushing, but there wasn't a nose, feet, tail, or hocks, it was probably presenting side or spine first. You would have to push the kid back in far enough to have enough room to find one end or the other to pull it out.

  • Just spoke to the owner and he confirmed that when they slaughtered and cut the goat up (to eat) they saw that there was indeed a second kid inside.

  • Hi, I saw the mother goat - she was in labour, straining, bulging, really suffering.  Thats why they assume there's another inside.  I asked about sticking a hand inside, and they said they don't do that, they don't pull unless they can see a head or a foot or something to pull on.  Its not my goat so I wasn't going to risk doing anything since I am not experienced, but I do think that if it was my goat, I would have put my hand in (but hated it!) to see if perhaps the kid was turned the wrong way.    As for whether the kid was dead, I guess they didn't know exactly but assumed as it wasn't coming out.  Yup, I have your book and read up on that chapter.  

  • I really hope they're not just assuming she has a second one.

  • I'm curious how they know there is another kid in there, unless they stuck their hand inside. Even then, how would they know it's dead? You didn't say anything about them trying to pull the kid, but that's definitely a possibility. (I talk about that in my book, which I think you have.) If you have access to a knowledgeable vet and anesthesia, a c-section is also possible. Do you have more details?

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