I have a wonderful 2nd freshener who is due Monday (2/20). Yesterday I moved her into the "barn" (corner of our garage) because she SO badly wanted to come in, and didn't mind being away from the other goats (gave her chances to go back out & she didn't want to). That was around 4:00 p.m. Once in, I thought for sure she was in early labor, because she would stand, lay down, stand, etc. and was constantly slightly groaning / grumping ("errrrrrrr, errrrrrr, errrrrr" sound). Her vulva area protrudes a fair amount but there has been no discharge at all. I put a heat lamp out there &, since last night, she has been settled underneath it and stays there constantly (except for very short-term standings), continuing the grumping noises.
She threw three kids as a first freshener. She herself was one of five kids. I don't know if multiple kids is genetic or not, but I'm concerned that maybe something is wrong (like maybe she has 4 or 5 and she is in distress?). She didn't lay around and grump like this the first time around. At the same time, she did eat last night (didn't look like she ate this morning) and she is pooping/voiding like normal.
WWYD?
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Well, she kidded Monday night. It was a rough one, so it's taken me a couple of days to recover, as it has Mama Goat. Babies (all 3 of them) have bounced back much quicker, lol!
To make a long story short, it quickly became apparent that something wasn't right - big ole amniotic bag hanging down and one hoof slightly sticking out, upside down & sideways. I waited a bit to see if things would work themselves out, but eventually went in carefully and found....a mess. A tangle of legs, seemingly nothing but legs and then I had to keep going in....and in....and in....to find something that felt like either the back side of a head or a butt, couldn't tell which. Eventually ended up having to call the vet out (why do these things always happen after hours??).
I felt a little better after the vet came out, because it took her quite awhile to sort it all out, too. Basically, there were 12 legs, all facing in toward the center together and 11 of the legs were facing mama goat's head, and all babies were breech. Not a good situation for birth!
Fast forward 90 minutes or so and all babies were out and alive. Mama goat was too weak to stand for quite awhile (basically until yesterday), so had to bottle feed colostrum. Babies are cute as can be, but all are boys....AGAIN. I've had two does kid a total of three times (one doe twice, one just once so far), have had 8 babies, and all of them have been boys. I really want to grow the herd from the does I have and it's not working out so well so far!!
Anyway, thanks for your help Deborah. Enjoy the pics!
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I find that when my goat are all together, and there is competition for food, they usually eat all of the hay. But when I put them into kidding pens, and they have a hay feeder all to themselves, they sometimes leave as much as half of it. Drives me crazy!
Good luck! Let us know when she kids. And post pictures! :)
Wow, that was a lot of very useful information! Thank you for sharing all of that.
Still no babies! And she did finally eat and drink a fair amount this morning, and she continues to poop/pee, so she can't be too bad off. I think she is just miserable, so I go and scratch her as often as I can. I am going to guess 4 babies...she is huge. I seriously hope it is only three and certainly not five.
Thanks again!
If a goat is truly not eating or drinking, that's bad. The fact that she got up and walked away from you, however, does not sound like a sick goat. It's hard to believe that a goat would do that if she hadn't eaten or drank in a day. Something else to look at -- If she is chewing her cud, she's eating something. Most goats are very picky eaters. It's not unusual for me to have to remove hay and give them fresh hay every day. The "old" hay goes to our pigs and cows.
Let's just run through a worst case scenario here .... assume your goat contracted some type of infectious disease that caused the kids to die. There is nothing you can do about it. At some point, she is going to go into labor, as her body tries to get rid of the kids. She will be screaming and pushing at that point. I know a woman who did actually have this happen to all 15 of her goats, and every one of them went into labor and gave birth to either dead kids or kids that died at birth. This is very rare though, so it's not something to lose sleep over.
Lip curling is a goat's way of trying to smell something better. It's called the Flemen response, and other animals do it also. It's normal, which is a good thing.
The day that she gave birth last time doesn't tell you much. I haven't seen much consistency for particular does from year to year. About 95% of them give birth between day 145 and 150. The other 5% give birth within a day or two outside of that. Your goat is within a normal window, assuming your dates are right, so the kids are full term.
She has not been drinking at all (since late yesterday morning)....her condition is unchanged since yesterday. She is at Day 142 now (last time she gave birth at Day 144). Still lots of groaning and lip-curling. I took her a bowl of warm molasses water this morning and she was so disgusted (normallly she loves that) that she lumbered to her feet and turned her butt to me.
She also hasn't eaten since yesterday afternoon, but I'm not really worried about that.
Should I worry about dehydration at all?
Thank you, Deborah, for the quick reply. I feel better now.
Yes, I have a baby monitor (and, yes, I've borne two children myself, the first requiring two final weeks of bed rest due to gaining 20 pounds of water weight in my legs - within 3 days - so I remember the "errrrr, errrrrrr, errrrrr" feeling!)
I will listen to her breathing when she is next up, but she is not screaming bloody murder, so I will also relax! Thanks again.
This sounds like a doe that's tired of being pregnant. If you've ever been pregnant yourself, you can sympathize. Some of them get pretty lazy by the end. They love nothing more than laying in front of the hay feeder and eating. And if they're carrying multiples, they can have trouble breathing when they lay down. I had one that sounded like Darth Vader for the last week of her pregnancy. Totally freaked me out until I realized that when she stood up, her breathing was quiet.
A goat in distress is screaming bloody murder. My motto is, "if the goat's happy, I'm happy." Your goat sounds happy from what you've described.
Multiples is genetic -- it's a gene for throwing lots of eggs. Sounds like she is a prime candidate for lots of kids, but don't worry too much. They can torpedo them out so fast that you can barely dry them off before the next one is out. But don't worry if she doesn't do that; be thankful. Hopefully you have a baby monitor so you don't spend too much time out there.
Note: she kidded at day 144 last time.