Stripes and Spots

Early Sunday morning the weather man said we would get a couple of inches of rain.  So Saturday we got a lot done in the garden in anticipation of the weather event.  As we were doing chores in the evening, I told Tricia that Jane's bag sure was swelling up.  Jane is a Nubian goat.  She is Annie's daughter and one of the triplets that Annie had two years ago.  Jane surprised us by turning up pregnant.  We knew that she had been exposed to Buckwheat, the buck, but we weren't sure that successful breeding had taken place.

Well...  Sunday morning, I headed out to the barn to milk.  It had rained an inch and two tenths over night.  There was water flowing in the ditches and limbs were down all over the yard.  I didn't hear any of the weather overnight, though, as I was sleeping soundly.  As I walked toward the barn, I peeked in the goat barn and saw a fresh placenta on the ground by Jane.  In the corner, I saw a little kid.  At first I though it was dead, but it soon got up.  Annie had delivered a little buckling during the storm, so we named him, "Thunder."

Our Nubians are spotted, but Thunder has MANY spots.  His spots are unlike those on our other goats.  His hind legs, however, are white.  He is unusual looking.

Except Thunder has not lived up to his namesake.  He is not loud and strong.  He is kind of weak and has the "failure to thrive" thing going on.  He also had scours.  Tricia mixed up an egg with some of Jane's milk and fed it to him in a bottle and it seemed to clear up the loose stool. 

The other thing about little Thunder is that he is not aggressively nursing.  His loose stools are bright yellow, so we know he got colostrum, but at least for the first day, he didn't nurse with 'gusto' like the other animals do.

Here is a photo of Jane next to her little Thunder.  You can see how different the spot patterns are.  Jane is more solid with a few spots.  Thunder, on the other hand looks like a dalmatian in reverse.  Jane has a striped head and has a spotted son.

Thunder has required some special care, but after a couple of days, he is doing much better.

His spotted pattern sure does catch your eye!