I made mistakes with a kidding yesterday and thought I'd post so that others may learn from them. This was the first kidding of the year, but the 6th kidding at our farm so I'm very new to it but it wasn't my first.
I have a doe that I purchased bred last fall, Cedar. The breeder pen breeds so was unable to tell me when Cedar was due. I've been keeping an eye on her and based on her udder knew that she was due soon. Yesterday morning she was dripping (but not streaming) mucous and I expected kids within 24 hours. I had a doe kid last fall who started dripping one evening and delivered the following afternoon so I didn't think things were too close. I checked on her every 1 to 1.5 hours yesterday and at 3:30 she seemed fine, just chewing her cud happily. The glob of mucous that had been hanging from her had dropped and there was no fresh stuff. I thought she'd be kidding late that evening. When I went back 1.5 hours later there were three kids on the ground. One was trying to stand, one was squirming and one wasn't moving. I grabbed a basket of towels and rushed them all inside to dry off and warm up. They were all alive and tried to nurse off my arms while I was drying them.
I could tell that their ears had frozen and probably their hooves. The frozen part of the ears will likely fall off, but I'm going to have to wait a few days to find out about their hooves. If they froze completely then I'll have to have the kids euthanized.
I had them all dried off and saw all of them stand and nurse, but the smallest of them had died when I checked them before bed. I didn't think he was extremely weak and thought he'd be okay (potential hoof issues aside).
I have messaged Deborah about it and she has said that once you see the mucous that it's best to stay with the doe from that point on.
I guess my point is that I don't know enough yet to assume things. Make sure you have your towels out in the barn so you don't have to run back to the house for them. Mucous means kids soon. And when in doubt stay with the doe.
It really sucks that these kids had to suffer from my lack of knowledge.
And now I have to head back out to the barn. I have a doe who isn't due for another 3 weeks (I know when she was exposed to the buck and she was in crazy raging heat at the time) who is the size of a house (way bigger than any triplet kidder I've had) and who is making the small noises in her throat that she did the last time she kidded (Fall 09) and being very affectionate with me. Her ligaments are barely there but I'm not good at feeling those yet, and her udder is big but not tight. I'm really hoping I'm wrong because 3 weeks early is much too early, but I'm going with my "when in doubt stay with the doe" rule.
Marin
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Marin Waddell said:
I'd be paranoid too! I've had a few does that are very big and uncomfortable towards the end. And some get very talkative the last couple weeks, which used to keep me in the barn a LOT the first few years. They'd be perfectly happy when I was sitting with them, but as soon as I'd get up to leave, they'd start screaming. Having the baby monitor helped a lot with those kind of does, because I learned that they'd usually shut up within a couple minutes after I left, so I knew they were just hoping I'd come back and give them some more attention.
Keep us up to date on the hoof situation. I've never heard of that before, but it makes perfect sense that it's possible -- and it's not something I'd hear about at a show or whatever if the kids hooves were frozen and you had to put them down. Every once in awhile you see a goat with short ears.
Marin Waddell said:
The surviving kids seem to be doing okay. They are walking around but the information I have on frozen hooves suggests that it can take a week or more for severe freeze damage to show. The bottoms of their hooves are looking pink and a bit swollen so I do think there is some damage, however I will admit that I've never had reason to closely examine newborn hooves so I'm not sure what's normal. They're nursing well and spending most of their time in a warming hut that my husband built for this year's kids.
The doe that's due in three weeks is the same. She's muttering to herself when she lies down, but when she's standing up she's pretty much normal. She was out of the barn checking out the remnants of a hay stack this afternoon. I'm suspecting that she may just be really, really uncomfortable. She's huge. I think I'm just a bit paranoid after yesterday's kidding.
I said for years that I would never pen breed for winter, but I know someone in Alaska who does, and she makes it sound like it isn't a big deal. I don't know what I was thinking, because I'm in the same boat as you now, Marin. I've got three does with no due date, other than I know it could be anytime after the first of February. One doe has had soft tail ligaments for a week already, so we keep checking on her every few hours, because they can go from soft to gone in an hour. She's a Sherri daughter, too!
I'm really sorry for your loss. Mother Nature can be a cruel teacher. I know how sad it is to lose those cutie pies, but it happens to all of us. All we can do is learn from each birth and hope that as the years go on, we make fewer mistakes.
As for the doe that is still three weeks out, I hope she's not close, because I don't think I've heard of kids living that early, regardless of what you do. We saved a set of premies that was two weeks early, but that's about the earliest they can go. My son made a video of them that's posted on here, if you want to see it. They were so weak, but they made it. The mama, however, had no hormones yet, so she looked at them as if they were aliens and never really produced any milk. We couldn't even cover the bottom of the bucket when tried to milk her.
Hugs!
The first birth at our "farm" is coming around the 23rd and she's a first timer also. Should be interesting, I'm hoping it warms up a little although we do live in Vermont so she'll probally deliver during a snow storm.
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