I'm a first time delivery/goat baby "step-mama". My doe (Tenny) gave birth last night (first kid at 10:30 p.m. PST, last one at 12:30ish a.m.) to three bucklings (darn! soooo wanted to keep a girl from her).
They are all adorable, but the births kind of wore Tenny out. She seems fine, as in she looks good and has been eating hay & some grain and drinking her molasses water regularly, but she still seems quite tired & is spending a lot of time laying down. How do I know if the kids are able to get enough colostrum/milk from her with her laying down so much? All three kids last night seemed to have difficulty latching on (or even catching a clue for that matter), and Tenny has teats that are short & tight against her udder at this point. I oral-syringed in colostrum for two while the deliveries were going on (Tenny was just too distracted) and got them all a couple of quick (bud good) suckles before going to bed at 2 a.m.
This morning they are all walking around and looked good. I ensured they all got a 1-2 minute full suckle (that's all they seem able to do at this point), but Tenny keeps laying back down. She is a very attentive mother & is very bonded to them all already; she's just not on her feet a lot.
How often should they be eating? Is there anything more I should do this first day or two?
Thanks in advance for any comments.
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Yes, triplets for a first freshener is a challenge.
Years ago we had a kid that kept getting lost while her mama would be running around screaming for her. I went to bed one night thinking that it was gone forever because we couldn't find it anywhere. Next morning it was back with mom. We never knew where it had been hiding. That was actually Lizzie, who is now 10 years old. Time flies! And she's still a stinker! But I love her dearly!
Yes, they are all doing well, thanks for asking. My next thing to nail down is the feed for Tenny, as she is already looking thin. I'm also thinking I'll have to supplement feed the babies at some point. Tenny has great bloodlines, but three boys on a first freshener is a load to handle. Nothing like a steep learning curve!
On a side note, Tenny is such a good mom. I had to go out in the middle of the day to help her find one of her babies (she was bleating like crazy & she never does that, so I knew something was wrong). He had hidden under an overturned basket that had a little kid-sized hole in it. Never a dull moment with kids around, of any kind.
Congratulations, Janet! I hope everyone is still doing well!
Thanks for the response, Deborah. I've been monitoring them carefully today. They all seem to be doing well and Tenny is back on her feet. She's looking more rested, actually, than I am currently. Time to go sleep myself!
If the kids are peeing and pooping, that's always a good sign. Running and bouncing around is also good. Also, you can feel their tummies. It's right behind the ribs. You need to feel it when they're standing up to get a good idea of whether it feels full. It may not necessarily feel like a balloon, but it shouldn't feel hollow either. To give them some more time to nurse, you can also put a pan of grain on the ground so the doe will stand up to eat it, and the kids can nurse then, assuming their little tummies are not too full. I hurt my back a couple of weeks ago, and we had a couple of kids that were driving my husband crazy because he never saw them nurse, and he didn't think their tummies felt very full. Turns out they were doing just fine.