We had two first fresheners kid yesterday, with one kid each. The first to kid, Artemis, had a boy with no problems, and the second, Athena, had a little girl that I helped to pull slightly because I was not comfortable with the amount of time she had been pushing with just the hooves and the nose sticking out, plus the silly kid kept pulling her feet back in. Athena seemed rather traumatized by the whole thing and it was a good 20 minutes before she'd even look at her baby even when I put the kid right under her nose.
Because Artemis and Athena are sisters/littermates and frequently hang out together when with the herd, I decided to put them in the same large stall to see if it helped Athena relax. Athena actually started cleaning her nephew before she started cleaning her own daughter.
I have now seen both kids nurse off of Artemis (who has no problems with this), and neither off of Athena. If I don't see either of them nurse off of Athena by the end of the day today then I have to decide whether to separate and keep a very, very close eye on Athena and her baby to see if the kid starts nursing off of her own mama, or I'm going to have to start milking Athena and leave both kids on Artemis. I'll play it by ear and do what feels best.
Although we do eventually need the milk for our cheese business, I don't expect to need it until the kids are at least 8 weeks old (we have a really long kidding season this year) so I'm going to leave these early ones with their mamas and occasionally separate at night so we have milk for our own use. Both of them also have the smallest udders I've seen on freshly kidded does so I'm more comfortable with letting the kids nurse for now. I have expressed colostrum from both of them so I know they're producing, but those udders are just so small!
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Sorry for your loss. When my kids were born on Wed I was a little worried about the first one to be born. When I weighed her she was only 1 1/2 pounds, compared to her brother who was 3 1/2 pounds and her sister that was 2 1/2 pounds. But she was the first one to nurse and the first one to stand up. She was also the first one whose poop changed. She's super strong and fights for the teat. From Wed to Friday morning she had gained a few ounces shy of a pound. I'm keeping a close eye on her just to make sure, but she seems to be doing good. I'm going to weigh them again today to see how much since Friday they have gained. How much weight a day should they be gaining? Sorry for your loss again!!
Marin and Deborah, I'm sorry to hear you lost doelings!
Sorry you lost her. Anything less than 2 pounds makes me nervous. The smallest I've ever had survive was 1 pound, 4 ounces. We just had one born a couple weeks ago that was 1 pound, 3 ounces, and she didn't make it through the first day. When I saw how small she was, I took her into the barn office, which is quite warm, but she got hypothermia, so I brought her into the house and put her on a heating pad. Her body wasn't that small, but she really didn't have much meat on her bones, so I don't think she was able to maintain her body temperature. She couldn't suck either, so I had to tube her, and she didn't pee for six hours, so I think she had plumbing problems too. There are so many things that could be wrong when they're that small. This one was one of triplets, and her umbilical cord was as thin as a piece of sewing thread, so she was really deprived in utero. I've never seen an umbilical cord that thin.
You are probably right that Athena was just too immature to realize what she needed to do. We had a dumped cat give birth when she was probably not more than 6 months old, and she basically dropped kittens all over the barn office and didn't clean them up at all.
I know both Athena and Artemis were bred on the same day as the buck broke through the fence into their pen. I didn't write down the date (stupid, I know), but if one was early then they both were and the buckling seems to be doing fine. The mamas are both last year's doelings and I didn't want them bred yet so they kidded at just over 9 months. This makes it even stupider that I didn't write down the date, I just knew they would be due in February if they were bred. I suspect this was Athena's problem. She is too immature and too small.
Athena's doeling actually died on Saturday morning. She was only slightly smaller than her buckling cousin and I know she had been eating (her belly felt full) so I suspect I didn't dry her off enough and she got too chilled at birth. It was only slightly below freezing so I just towel-dried and didn't pull out the hairdryer. Or maybe Athena was just too young to make a strong baby. Or maybe they were early and the buckling is just lucky.
I think I don't err on the side of caution enough. I noticed the doeling was less active than the buckling, but didn't think she was concerningly less active.
First fresheners usually have much smaller udders at freshening than senior does, but within a couple months, they should develop more as their production increases.
Any chance Athena was early? I've only really seen this attitude in does twice -- one was at day 135 (so low hormones) and the other had a very large single that required heavy duty pulling (so hard we took her to the vet because we thought we couldn't get the kid out by pulling). Since you said the kid was small, I'm wondering about the hormone level. You shouldn't have to pull a small kid unless it's so small that the doe doesn't have an urge to push hard.
I would go ahead and milk Athena so her body gets the idea that it's supposed to be producing milk. If you think the kids have had enough colostrum from their auntie, you could freeze the colostrum so you have it on hand for potential emergencies.