Penny is right in her delivery window based on the breeding I think took...
This morning I put her out to pasture and she just stood around hollering. I went to see her at the gate and it looked like her tendons were gone. Plus she wouldn't graze, just hollering. So I cleaned the stall quick and brought her in and she started laying down, pawing, getting up, baa-ing etc. I was sure she was about to start pushing them out at any second. Then my farrier showed up to trim the horses's hooves and she got quiet.
Ever since, she's been basically lying in the corner looking uncomfortable, making uncomfortable noises every so often, sometimes she'll go over on her side and look at her belly ect. Or stand up and look miserable for a minute then lay back down in her nest.
I noticed her hollering in the pasture at maybe 10:30am. Maybe a little earlier. It's now after 3. is that too long? Is she okay?
Could she have put it off because the farrier showed up?
I don't think her water broke yet but I have not been with her the whole time.
When do I start worrying? (ha ha I'm already worrying)
Replies
We will have our first kids in April, this discussion has been wonderfully helpful! Thank you! and I hope your kids are doing well :)
Congrats!!
Well Deborah, I can just say that come summer, you'll be the happy one, not me. Our winters are delightful but the payoff is the miserable summer plus predators that rival the African savannah. We constantly joke that we live in Jurassic Park, gators, panthers, bobcats as big as my shepherds, 6 or 7 different varieties of deadly poisonous snake, coyotes and maybe worst of all hordes of stray dogs (mostly pitbulls) or dogs that do have a home but still roam.
And just for fun there is an exotic animal refuge the next street over where they retired circus and roadside zoo animals that have been abused and neglected. They have lions and tigers and bears (oh my!) and we hear them roaring and coughing every morning, plus three farms down has some wolf-dogs that howl every night. It's a trip, let me tell ya.
Okay, I won't tell you what our weather is like, but it'll be a couple months before I let my babies out. Yours will be fine in a small fenced area in sunny Florida. :)
Yes, I meant they should be able to co-exist with the other doe. They may try to nurse off her, and she'll butt them away, so it's kind of sad to see, but so far, I've never had a kid hurt. I usually keep them separated from everyone else for a week or two, but here they're going in with a group of two other adult does and 6-8 other kids.
Sounds like you have a good plan!
Hold their own as in put the other doeling back in w/ them?
We are in SW Florida and it is 80 and sunshine most days. Hubby says let them out in the barnyard tomorrow, so I probably will. It's just a small yard with some grass where the chickens go...better make sure that bad rooster doesn't attack them lol. Boy he's mean. But he does keep the hawks away. I can put the doeling in the pasture next to them so momma doesn't get upset. Maybe a few days I'll put them all back together in their usual pasture but I think I will move the horses to another (they have been sharing) in case they got stepped on or something.
Deborah Niemann-Boehle said:
Within a few days, the babies should be able to hold their own, but it can vary from goat to goat, so you just have to try and see what happens. As for when to let them outside -- that depends upon where you are and what your weather is like.
One more question... Penny has been living with a 6 mo old doeling (not hers) who was in the stall with her throughout the birth. She did not mind Truffle (the doeling) being there. They are the only 2 girls I have so they stay together 24/7. After they were up and about, Truffle got a little excited and tried to play the head butt game and knocked on of them down so I put her in the adjoining stall. A little later, Penny was sending jedi psychic death threats through the fence panel at Truffle when she showed interest in the babies.
When might I expect Penny to be comfortable stalled/pastured with Truffle again? And how soon to turn the babies out to pasture during the day?
No, there is only one placenta. It's almost all red. It's like a big membrane, and it had flat, round, red blobs in it. Does that sound like what you saw the first time?
So I found a globby sack on the floor that I thought was the afterbirth, which I burried with the rest of the messy straw hoping we don't draw in our jurassic predators tonight... (at any rate they are locked up right behind a 5' wall with hotwire at top and bottom)
Then when I went in, I was gonna wipe off her legs and stuff, she now has another bloody sack hanging out of her. About the size of my fist. Does she have an afterbirth for each baby or what?
If I leave her like that for the night she is okay, or should I go back and try to clean her up after she passes it?
Thanks so much for all the advice!
Congratulations! Cords hanging out of the back end is normal. You usually see that after the last kid is born. It can take 2+ hours for the placenta to pass. If you're not out there constantly, however, she can pass it and eat it, and you'll never see it. It's good that she has the cords hanging out. If you go out there and don't see them, then that's what happened (she ate it already).
-
1
-
2
of 2 Next