Having just been through a very busy week of bottle feeding Rosie’s boys and trying to nurse her back to health, on Sunday April 15th Connie delivered her babies.
This time it went like it was supposed to. I had finished bottle feeding Big and Rich and gave
I first knew she was having her babies when I looked out the window and saw this.
Rosie her shot then massaged her infected udder with hot towels. I have been checking the other goats to make sure they were OK and had gone back into the house to get a cup of coffee. Alex and her friend came over to see if Connie had her babies yet and I teased them about skipping church. Alex asked if Connie would have her babies that day and I explained all of the signs I was seeing and ended with “it’s very likely”.
Alex and Carly went home and I had come back into the house to refill my coffee, when I looked out the kitchen window and saw Connie cleaning off a little brown fuzzball . It was about 11:00am, I believe my exact words were “You have GOT to be kidding me!” It had happened that fast, with no drama. by the time I grabbed my phone(camera) and got back out side she was pawing the ground and looking for a place to “drop” the second one.
And boy #2 makes his entrance into the world
She delivered him while I watched, again with no fuss or drama. So opposite Rosie’s struggle one week earlier. Connie cleaned him off, and by this time she had an audience of herd mates and people. The other goats were warned off by her nipping at them, but the people were tolerated. I thought it was interesting that the women were so concerned about the babies ability to stand up and find the right end to nurse from . There was quite the celebration amongst the human crowd when each of these “milestones” was achieved.
I have a video of the second birth posted on my google+ page if you care to see it. It is not as graphic as the warning makes it sound, I just thought it would be better if there was some warning.
It actually took about a day for the babies to find the correct end of mamma to eat from and in the meantime I milked her out once each day to try and avoid what happened with Rosie. that lasted about 3 days and then the boys started keeping up with Connie’s milk production. I had kind of planned on using Connie’s extra milk to feed Rosie’s boys, but now I’m not sure if it will happen.
Good news! Rosie seems to be recovering quite nicely. Last week, when I went onto the Vet.’s office to get more syringes for her shots, he seemed surprised that she was still alive. After hand feeding her, and getting her water and covering her on the cold nights and everything that goes with nursing her back to health. Rosie is now standing and walking around and eating and drinking on her own and all signs indicate a full recovery. I think she is even nursing her babies a little bit. To help things out I gave her a hoof trim yesterday. She really needed it, but in her weakened state it appeared to be quite the ordeal. I still need to “hot pack” her infected udder and she may never milk on that side again, but she can care for her babies and I will just take what comes and be thankful.
Next up is June Carter Goat. My original estimate has her kidding on 4/27/2012. Loretta Lynn GTO’s date is 4/30/2012. I hope they follow Connie’s example and not Rosie’s. Stay tuned!