I finally took a video, but I've been having trouble figuring out how to upload it in-text. It's on YouTube, so I guess I'll just copy the link?
Anyway, I keep thinking I see labor well on its way, so I'm hoping for expert eyes. My Goat TV cam is on the fritz & so is my baby monitor, so I'm extra anxious about knowing what I'm seeing. Ligament checks have gone on all day today, and I have lost them (whether Maple has, I do not know). ;-)
Hoping this might help others as well as me! Link BELOW... "Maple Contraction?"
Cheers,
Charity
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I saw on the other thread that she kidded, so yay! Congratulations! I realized I should have been more precise in my first response. For some reason I thought I'd asked how often she was doing that, but apparently I didn't. So, now that we know she's kidded, I'm assuming it was every few minutes, which would indicate that she was really in labor. However, does might do a similar movement randomly within the week or two before kidding, so if someone sees a doe do something like that two weeks before her due date, I wouldn't necessarily worry that she was going into labor. In fact, there isn't one single thing that tells you a doe is in labor ... other than a doe that's obviously screaming and pushing. Figuring out early labor can be quite a challenge because you're looking at a bunch of little things that would mean nothing by themselves, but they all add up.
We spent so many nights in the barn before we had a baby monitor. And a video monitor is even better because some are very quiet right up until the minute they start pushing. If someone asks me what one thing they should buy for kidding, I'd say some type of monitor.
I know! My technology is laughing at me!! :-D
And I'm SO driving myself crazy! Hahaha. I don't think I'll be able to calm down during kidding season for several more years now. I can't even wrap my head around what that feels like! ;-)
Too bad your camera wimped out on you. At this point, I wouldn't be eating dinner in the barn, but I wouldn't stay away for more than a couple hours either. Based on what you're saying I wouldn't be surprised if she gave birth in 6 hours ... or 3 days. It's nothing definitive. Usually when they do little thing like this, they are not regular, and they don't continue for very long. I remember driving myself crazy like this the first few years we had goats. There were goats that kept me guessing for days!
Okay, cool. Thanks so much, Deborah!
At this point, she seems to be "contracting" regularly, and she is vocalizing differently. Little horse-like soft nicker sounds.
When I just went out to check her, she was lying down doing the same contracting looking thing with her vulva bulging a bit (enough to show the inner pink area a bit).
Going back out in a few.
She looks pretty happy and normal. How often are you seeing her do that? It is not what I would call a "normal" part of labor. In other words, you don't normally see that when they're in early labor. You do see stuff like that for a week or two intermittently before kidding.
Typically when goats are bred twice, five days apart, it's the second breeding that is the real one, so she's still a little on the early side.