Why I Had A Goat In My Bed

A couple days ago we worked out in the pasture all day, burning our yearly burn pile. When we were getting ready to head up to the house, Joy walked off towards the shed, and we knew she was getting ready to have her babies.

Her udder looked like it was ready to pop. Poor girl. If your offended by the back end of a goat. Sorry. It's a pretty normal normal thing around here right now.

We checked on her later that evening and still no babies. So that night I headed out before bed to check on her. I carried the big spotlight, so I could shine it around the pasture. When I took a look around I could see she was licking a baby on the ground, and I saw a back leg kick. So I thought things were OK. I tried to walk out to where she was but the whole herd wanted to follow. So I threw out some hay, and then grabbed a couple paper towels out of the shed, before trying to head back over to her. When I looked at the baby it wasn't moving. I put my hand under its head to lift it up expecting a reaction, and there was none! It wasn't moving, breathing, NOTHING! It was limp, and it's abdomen was sloshing with fluid. I felt terrible. If only I had headed out immediately. I decided that I should at least try to revive it, but didn't really think it had a chance. I picked the baby up by its back legs and swung it around, to drain the fluid out. I set it down, and started pressing on its ribs. I didn't have a clue what I was doing. I just pressed a bunch, and pretty fast. Then took a break to take a look at Joy who was on my other side. Then do it again. Joy started delivering her second baby, and it was in the sack. I had to stop to ripe the sack open and off its face, and wipe its nose. Then left it to Joy to continue cleaning, while I pressed some more. I stopped and the second baby started crying to Momma, then I heard a light noise come from the first baby. I put my hand back on it, and could feel its heart beating! Thank you Lord! I began rubbing it vigorously to stimulate it, and help get the fluid out. I picked it up, and swung it around again. That got the majority of the rest of the fluid out. I set it down and rubbed it more with the couple paper towels I had. Once it seemed to be doing OK, I checked to see what it was. A girl! A pretty pure white girl. Then I checked the second baby, a GIRL. Yay! She is white with black markings. 

I ran to the house, grabbed animal towels (We keep a stash of old bath towels designated for animal use), and got my Mom who carried out a baby bottle. We headed back out. My Dad followed all the commotion.  The little girl #1 was freezing cold, and was to weak to nurse. Joys milk was flowing heavily, so it only took me a minute to fill the 8 oz. bottle. We dried her off the best we could, but she couldn't get warmed up. I have had to bring in babies and warm them up before, and give them a bottle, but I was tired and sore. I carried her up to the house (leaving my Parents to situate Joy and her second baby in a pen for the night), grabbed my heating pad, set it on high, and placed it on my bed. Set her on top wrapped in her towel, and curled up next to her. As soon as she got warmed up, she guzzled down the whole bottle. As much as she tried she couldn't stand up. My Mom gave her a Bo-Se injection. About 30 minutes later she was walking around. I took her back out to Joy, who was very happy to have her back. I made sure she nursed, so she would know were things were, and not think all her meals were coming from a bottle. When I headed back up to the house after FINALLY getting her to nurse, my Mom was coming back out to find out what happened to me : ) I got to crawl into bed somewhere between 1-2 AM. But was it worth it. Totally. I love raising goats.

 Girl #1 I wanted to name her Miracle, but some people around here (I'm not naming names) don't like it.

Girl # 2

The next morning I got up, headed out to check on everybody and Daisy was standing in the front of the pasture with this little pure white girl!

She looked at me with a look that said "Isn't she beautiful!"

In the late morning today, when I took my second walk out to check on Hyacinth, she was cleaning off this pretty little girl!

She is banded light tan and white.

And here is Onslow. The proud Father of all these beautiful little girls. He's half LaMancha, and half Saanen. He is still in the process of shedding his winter coat. Please forgive him of his ugly horns. He had been given a horrid dehorning job. I was never able to get a baby picture of him, because his poor head was so messed up.

He is such a sweet boy. We love him so much.

Kimberly