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Birthing and the full time job

Posted by Will White on March 1, 2011 at 4:39pm in Breeding

My Doe reached 145 days on Monday so I worked from home that day and today I took a personal day but no sign of kids yet.  Tomorrow I have to go back to work and there isn't anyone around to watch the doe. 

 

How do you guys deal with impending births and working a full time job?  I live in Vermont and the temps have been in the high 20's but it's supposed to get cold again (highs in the teens) on Thursday.

 

Any advise would be helpful.

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Replies

  • Adrienne March 2, 2011 at 10:42pm
    Great job Will! Sorry about the one, but glad the other two are doing well!
  • Will White March 2, 2011 at 9:47pm
    She had the kids at about 6:30 this evening after about 3 hours of labor.  The first kid was breach and didn't survive but the next two (a doe and a buck) are doing well.  I posted the full story in the birth section.
  • Will White March 2, 2011 at 12:23pm

    I was reading the Fias Co Farm web site yesterday and they got some security cameras from Home Depot and wired those up in the barn.

     

    I just went out and her Ligaments are definitely gone.  If she doesn't kid today I'm going to try and convince my wife to let me bring the doe into the mud room of the house tomorrow.  At least that way she'll be warm.

  • Deborah Niemann-Boehle March 2, 2011 at 11:03am
    Good luck! You have to tell us when they're born. It does sound like today -- at least from my perspective 1,000 miles away, for whatever that's worth! :)

    Will White said:

    I went out this morning and her ligaments are gone, her udder is hard(er) and her side has the hollow look between the middle and the rump towards the top.  She's also stopped eating for the most part and she was moving her straw around into what looks like a "nest".

     

    I decided to rearange my schedule and work from home.  She better kid today because I can rearange tomorrow.

  • Adrienne March 2, 2011 at 10:27am
    That is an awesome idea Deborah! I guess mine would be a porch cam though. :)
  • Will White March 2, 2011 at 10:27am

    I went out this morning and her ligaments are gone, her udder is hard(er) and her side has the hollow look between the middle and the rump towards the top.  She's also stopped eating for the most part and she was moving her straw around into what looks like a "nest".

     

    I decided to rearange my schedule and work from home.  She better kid today because I can rearange tomorrow.

  • Deborah Niemann-Boehle March 2, 2011 at 10:19am
    This might be a really crazy idea, but a few people have said that I should have a barn cam online, so I looked into briefly a couple weeks ago. I don't remember the name now, but there was one company that gave you a free account if you streamed 100 hours or less per month. You need a video camera and Internet access. I actually thought of getting it for myself, because a baby monitor just doesn't do much good for those moms who don't make a sound until the head is emerging.
  • Julia Johnson March 2, 2011 at 9:18am
    I am luck my 20 year old daughter is taking collage on line classes so she will stay at my place if a doe is close. Also I only work 1 1/2 miles from home so I come check on them at lunch.
  • Adrienne March 2, 2011 at 12:02am
    I had 6 days off before my does were supposed to kid, and one kidded the day I went back to work and the other the next day. I live in the south and I was concerned for the babies in the cold we had. I would be even more so where you are because If you are not there to dry off babies and the mama doesn't do it.... especially at night... Do you have a small room in your house that you could keep warm...like a utility room maybe...where she could labor and the babies could stay warmer? Just a thought.
  • Will White March 1, 2011 at 7:48pm

    I've been feeling the ligaments for several weeks now.  They got really soft on Friday which is why i thought she would kid over the weekend but that didn't happen.  Today it's almost as if her ligaments have gotten harder.  Maybe I just wasn't feeling right on Friday.  She also didn't want much grain Sunday but now she's eating pretty regularly although not as much as usual.  Her udder does seem to be getting bigger but she's a first freshener so it's hard for me to tell.

     

    I don't have a heat lamp because we live off grid (solar and batteries) and I don't have the power to run a high wattage heat lamp all day.  I did make a cave out of insulated panel (SIP) cut offs I had so the kids will have somewhere to go to keep them pretty warm.

     

    Thanks for the info I'll let you guys know how things turn out.

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