The Kidding Season Comes to a Close

We had five momma goats pregnant.  Popcorn, the billy, has proven to be quite the fertile fellow.  One by one, they kidded.  Bunny had a stillborn buckling.  But with three healthy baby goats running around the pasture, we were ready for the last one to be born.  It was time for Callie.  Her bags ballooned, letting us know that any minute, there would be a baby.  So far this year we have 1 doeling and 2 bucklings.

Tricia came around the corner of the barn and said, "We have a new baby.  It's a little buck."  Callie already had him all cleaned up.  They say the fruit doesn't fall far from the tree.  That means the offspring are often like the parents.  So is the case with Callie and her little boy.  This is Callie's face:

And this is her little buckling's face...  White, black and brown.  She marked him well.

The little fellow got right down to business, drinking his colostrum to ensure he gets a good start.  Since Bunny lost her baby, we're milking her twice a day and keeping the milk to make kefir and cheese.

We still have a little leftover goat milk that we feed to the laying hens.  They really enjoy it.

But they must drink fast.  Belle, our Great Pyrenees, has developed an affinity for goat milk.  She comes around the corner, chases off the hens, and makes quick work with her tongue of lapping up the goat milk!

It's Kidding Time!

Springtime is exciting!  Hens laying more eggs, grass is growing, foliage on trees is a vibrant green.  And, goats begin to kid.  Tricia keeps close tabs on the goat family.  Agnes seemed to be first in line.  When I arrived in the barn, I was greeted by odd sounds coming from within.  Agnes was in labor, pushing, digging holes in the ground.  She was in obvious pain.  We watched as another contraction came on, followed by another.

Two tiny hooves emerged.  We always check to ensure they are facing the correct way.  We don't want to encounter breech.

It didn't take long for Agnes to push out the newest arrival on Our Maker's Acres Family Farm.  A brown goat!  How does that happen?  The doe and the buck look nothing like that.  I would guess that might be from a recessive gene, but I wasn't paying that close attention back in biology class.

Agnes' motherly instinct kicked in and she began cleaning up her baby.  She diligently licked and licked and gave the little one a proper spit bath.

I lifted up the little goat's legs and exposed two teats and no male 'equipment.'   It's a girl!  A little doeling.  How nice.

We left the barn and walked back to the house to allow the two of them to bond.  The baby was struggling unsuccessfully to stand only minutes after delivery.  She just needed a little time.  When we returned to the barn in 15 minutes, the little critter was up.  Baby goats are funny.  They always try to find the teats, bumping around the wrong end of the momma.  Tricia reached in and gave here some instruction.  Everyone needs a little help sometimes.  She quickly latched on and began drinking the nourishing colostrum which will give her antibodies and a good head start.

She didn't need any help after that.  The little doeling (as of yet, unnamed) was drinking to her heart's content.  We also spotted colostrum-tinged stool, confirming she's getting what she needs for good health.

We have several more goats whose girth is widening.  We'll be on watch for the next to come into labor.  Our goat herd is increasing.  We'll need to sell some of these little ones as they are weaned or they'll eat us out of pasture!

Just Kidding Around

My wife has the due dates for all the animals written down in a calendar.  It is kidding season and so far Callie has had a little spotted doeling named Betty, and Mocha has had a little solid black doeling (with the exception of about 3 white hairs on her forehead) named Blackie.  It was Agnes' turn.  Tricia went out to the barn thinking that it was getting close and sure enough, Agnes was in labor.  You can see the little hooves poking out.

It was a particularly hard labor for Agnes.  She hollered like nobody's business to push this little baby out.  Finally, here she came...

Yes, another doeling.  This one is a completely new color, leading us to believe that the father is Popcorn and not Buckwheat.  Buckwheat is the daddy of all the other goats out here, yielding offspring that is black or spotted.  This little girl is light tan with a white head.  She was up on her feet in 15 minutes after being born and Agnes licking her clean.

She has long legs and is a spunky little critter.  All the other animals are curious about this new addition to the barnyard family, and they come up to sniff her.  She has no fear and it is quite a task to keep her safely away from the cows who could easily step on her if she got up under their feet.

I was just calling her "Brownie," but she got a name change the other day.  I was asked by a family member to name the baby after her, so absolutely, Brownie's name is now Abby.  Meet Abby, everyone:

Tricia loves her little goats, but we are getting too many for our pasture to hold.  Tillie is expecting any day now and we think she's carrying more than one.  Tricia has been milking Agnes and the milk is good and sweet.  She is a dairy goat (1/2 Nubian and 1/2 La Mancha) and is making quite a bit. 

There is a lot of cutting up and playfulness out on the pasture right now with all the little ones.  Kidding time is a fun time!

Kidding Season - Annie's Doeling

Tricia keeps tight records and announced to me that Annie's due date was today, January 17th.  Plus it is a full moon.  Annie is our 9 year old Nubian momma goat.  We happened to be outside when the labor began, and we coaxed Annie to push.  Hooves pointed outward and we see the little face.  Everything seems to be positioned right.

In three shakes of a billy goat's tail, the little kid was on the ground.  We checked it out and it is a doeling?  Healthy, active and vocal.  Annie began licking her to get her all cleaned up.  She scratched the ground all around and threatened all the chickens who wanted to venture too close.

Annie's teats are huge, and as a dairy goat, that is a good thing, except Annie's bags are messed up.  Mastitis in the past have rendered her unable to provide any milk to her offspring.  Therefore we have goat colostrum that we'll bottle feed and then this little doeling will be a bottle baby.

At first, she didn't get the sucking reflex too good, but after a second trip to the barn, Tricia had her draining the bottle.

She has all kinds of interesting markings on her face!  

We welcome yet another kid to the homestead.  Now we have to figure out a name for this new arrival.

The Tale of Cupcake, Our Disabled Goat

On February 27th Cupcake was born to Agnes.  Agnes is part Nubian and part LaMancha.  It was a happy day.  Cupcake was the first doeling born this early spring and was Agnes' first baby.  All seemed good.

Except there was a problem.  Cupcake's two front legs were disabled.  One leg was locked at about a 60 degree angle and the other was locked at a 40 degree angle.  They would not straighten out!  No matter how much we pulled, the tendons were just too tight.  It hurt Cupcake to try to fix her.  I hated to even post about it.  When difficulties arise and problems surface, sometimes it's hard to write about them, so I've been a little silent on Cupcake up to this point.  So Tricia read that this condition is caused by a Selenium deficiency.  We first got Selenium paste and then gave injections.

But here we are 2 and a half months down the road and no progress.  Tricia works with Cupcake daily, doing physical therapy on her, trying to pull the legs straight, but we were seeing no improvement.  All the other goats are out on the pasture, but poor cupcake crawls on her knees and can't join the others.  It is sad and pitiful to watch.  The other goats sense her handicap and are very mean to her.  Even though my wife is very attached to her, she confided in me that we might have to butcher her.  Tricia said, "Let's give it one more try."  

She cut a paint roller in half and used that to make a splint.  Using "Dragon Skin" duct tape, over the course of a week, she was able to move the leg frozen at the 60 degree angle to straight by slowly tightening the tape to pull the leg straight with the splint on either side of the leg!  It is now straightened out (though bow-legged).  The other leg is a different story.  Because it is bent at less than a 45 degree angle, it is very hard to pull it straight, but she's working on it.  Here is Cupcake with her splints on:

Because Cupcake can no longer crawl around on her knees like she was doing, she is even LESS mobile.  It is sad.  She lays in the barn in the corral.  Her momma, Agnes, comes and gives her encouraging words.

"Dr" Tricia and her little patient have a lot of work remaining, but we've seen remarkable progress in a week.  Today, Cupcake was standing on her front splinted leg!  That is a first.  She clumsily was trying to walk on it, but was having difficulty.  If we could get that other leg a little more straightened out, she would be able to get around better.

Cupcake still has a long road, but we feel good about her prognosis now and have taken the slaughterhouse option off the table, I think.  I'll report back on her continued improvement.  I think as she gets more practice, she'll get around great.  Even if the other leg is unable to be straightened, we can just change her name to "Tri-pod" and all will be well.

Cupcake & Popcorn

Just a brief update tonight on the kids.  Annie had a buckling last week that we named Popcorn.  Agnes had a doeling last week that we named Cupcake.  Cupcake was born with trouble in the tendons in her front legs, making her unable to stand.  It has improved slightly, but she has a ways to go.  She'll get better according to everything we read.  For now we hare helping her so that she is able to nurse on Agnes.  That is going well.  We think that she's even finding it on her own now.  Tricia goes out several times a day to make sure Cupcake is getting what she needs to grow and get stronger.

Popcorn is another story.  That little dude is the picture of health.  We named him popcorn because he jumps around like a popcorn kernel in hot oil.  The trouble is with his Momma, Annie.  Annie is a big, beautiful goat (as goats go), but over the years her bag has degraded with mastitis to the point at which this year, no milk comes out.  Her bag is enormous, but there must be lots of scar tissue or things messed up inside that makes it impossible for Popcorn to nurse.

So Popcorn must be bottle fed.  Fortunately, we have a pretty good bit of cow colostrum and milk frozen expressly for this purpose.  Tricia makes up bottles every day, several times a day to feed Popcorn.  Here's her baby:

As a result of not getting a lot of nurturing from Annie, Popcorn has gotten very attached to us.  When he sees us, he knows he'll get milk.  He was sucking on Russ' finger in this one.

I even join in on the action at night sometimes.  Popcorn makes that bottle disappear!

If we can get Cupcake healed up, it would certainly make things a lot easier in the barn.

I'm Not Kidding - But Agnes and Annie Are

Early spring.  It's kidding time.  Buckwheat did his job and bred Agnes and Annie.  On February 25th, Tricia let me know that Agnes would be the first to kid.  Here bag was growing larger by the minute.  Sure enough, in the evening Agnes starting acting funny, making strange noises.  We got her into the barn where she could be isolated from the others.  Soon she was laying in the corner crying.  It's her first kidding and it I can gather from all the racket that it is not a pleasant experience for her.

Soon things started moving, we could see something coming out.  Trouble was, we couldn't see anything.  Agnes was really crying with each push.  It didn't seem like there was any movement in the delivery.  We didn't know if the baby was positioned correctly or if we'd need to pull the baby out.

We've learned to be patient and let things take its course.  In most instances, they can (and will) handle most things on their own just fine, thank you very much.  We saw the head first and could see the tongue moving.  Once the head was out, the delivery progressed quickly.  

The baby seemed to be healthy and Agnes seemed calm and relaxed again.  It was a happy, peaceful time in the barn.  Most times we've had triplets or twins, this time only a single.  And it's a doeling.  We decided to name her Cupcake.

We'll have better photos a little later.  There is a problem with Cupcake, though.  She has a deficiency in Selenium and Vitamin E.  This results in really tight tendons on the front legs.  They are curled and she stands on her knees.  If you try to straighten her bent legs, they are very tight.  Tricia purchased some selenium paste and vitamin E and has been treating her.  This deficiency also contributes to an issue with nursing.  So Tricia is being the country vet to Cupcake and is also bottle feeding her with colostrum we have stored in the freezer.  Cupcake's getting better.  She was nursing on her own today, so Tricia will soon stop bottle feeding her.  We'll have updates and reports later.

Two days later, on February 27th, Annie gave birth to a single buckling.  He is a healthy little fellow, tall and playful, energetic and strong.  We haven't named him yet.  While he's healthy, unfortunately, Annie is not.  Annie is a big goat, a pretty goat - but she has had mastitis issues in her bag over the years.  She is 8 years old and her bag, although enormous, will yield no milk. 

So Tricia is bottle feeding the little guy several times a day.  He is strong.  Sadly, because Annie is unable to provide milk, he cannot nurse and considers Tricia to be his momma.  He's not really bonded with Annie.

Two little goats on the pasture.  You've "goat" to be kidding me!

A Sad Note for a Baby Goat

Annie has been being real motherly with her triplets.  She watches over them and takes care of them.  The barnyard is full of activity with all the animals on our small acreage.  We have 100 laying hens.  three milk cows, three bulls, one billy goat, two mama goats with 5 total kids.  At feeding time, it is quite a circus to keep everyone separated from the others' food and to keep the cows from stepping on the goats or the chickens.  We always have a hen or two that is walking with a limp due to being stepped on.

Tragedy strikes!

Several evenings ago Tricia fed Annie in the pasture.  Her triplets, that were less than a week old, were gathered around her as she ate from her trough.  When Luna (one of our Jersey cows) finished her feed, I walked her out of the barn, through the corral and into the pasture.  Big mistake!  Luna is quite gluttonous and ran straight for Annie's feed.  Fortunately, I was right there and caught her before she could gobble down the goat's food.  I walked Luna farther out in the pasture and held her.

After a time, I looked and noticed that Annie had finished her food, and I let Luna go.  Luna ran to the trough to see if there was any food left.  Annie's triplets were sitting in a group in the shade next to the barn.  Everything seemed to go in slow motion.  Tragically, instead of running to the food trough, Luna detoured and ran up to the barn, directly to the triplets and right through them.  They are too young to know to get out of the way of the large (not-so-smart) cows.

I watched in horror as Luna stepped right on top of one of the babies' backs.  Luna is not a big cow, but she still probably weighs 750 pounds.  The baby goat weighs less than 7 pounds.  The baby goat cried and cried and cried.

Tricia now looks back and tells us that what happened next shows the difference between boys and girls.  Tricia immediately ran to the baby goat, picked it up, and began nurturing it, and showing it compassion.  In contrast, I ran immediately to Luna and punched her.  (I know, not kind, right?) Russ picked up a dirt clod and threw it at Luna. We were angry and impatient with Luna's decision to do that to a defenseless animal.  Ironically, we weren't so kind to Luna, who is also a defenseless animal.

The baby goat that was injured was the doeling, the other two are bucklings.  Things did not look good.  She could not use or move her back legs.  Her hooves turned backwards and she could not stand on them.  We were just heartbroken.  I figured we would put her down, but Tricia wanted to wait through the weekend so "she could work with her."

Status Update and Prognosis:

The doeling (we need to name her, I guess) is nursing on her mom while laying down, unable to use her back legs.

Having her nurse requires putting her two brothers in a cage as she is lame and can't compete with her rambunctious siblings for her mama's milk.  They knock her over.

It is just real sad as she sits on essentially useless back legs.

A silver lining

Tricia has been performing physical therapy on the baby.  In Tricia's rehab center, the patient has shown some improvement!  Each day she is making strides.  She can now get up and stand on her own.  Although one leg looks lame and she just drags it, it appears that she is just beginning to try to take some first steps.

She has a LONG way to go and we still don't know the full extent of her injuries or prognosis, but it looks like we won't need to put her down.  Here is Tricia with the patient.  Tricia has patience and nurturing abilities that I just don't have.

Tonight we walked into the barn and the little crippled goat had gotten up on her own.  That's progress!  Tricia put her siblings in the cage and let the little goat nurse on Annie.  She drank milk while standing on wobbly injured legs.

We're seeing small improvement every day and we'll just have to wait a bit and see how things turn out.  We've learned a lesson through this, though.  We always talk about how it is good to have a variety of animals on the pasture.  Chickens eat what cows don't eat.  Goats eat what cows don't eat.  All eat grass and poop to fertilize the grass, which, in turn, grows more grass.  It is a beautiful cycle that God created.  It does, however, require some management as cows don't have much regard for their smaller brethren.  As the goats get older, they learn to stay out of the cows' way.  We learned from now on to keep the babies away from the cows until they get their 'street smarts.'  We'll keep you posted on our patient.

Triple The Trouble

Annie, our Nubian goat, has had triplets twice before.   She has been growing and growing.  She was so huge that we were sure that she was carrying triplets again.  We have been waiting on her to kid for the last several weeks, every day thinking, "Is this the day?"  Well, Saturday afternoon as I was working in the garden I looked over and heard some grunting.  Annie had given birth to twins!  She was licking them clean - a buckling and a doeling.

Well, I thought, I guess you are not going to have triplets this time, old girl.  Well, I thought wrong.  After a little while, she sat down and promptly gave birth to a third.  My primary job was to stand with a stick and chase off the chickens.  They love to peck at the placenta and at the baby goats' hooves.

It wasn't very long until Annie had them all cleaned up AND had devoured the placenta.  We worked with the babies to ensure that they got to drink the colostrum.  One of Annie's teats was so engorged it almost drug the ground.  After the babies drank, we went ahead and milked it out.  Annie was being very motherly to her offspring.  It is neat how their instinct for caring for their young kicks in.

She has had 9 kids so far!  This time three - two boys and a girl.  Tricia got the kitchen scale to weigh them.  One weighed 5 pounds and the other two weighed 5 and a half.  It was a little difficult to get them to stay still on the scale!

One of the little bucklings has some nice-looking spots.  The other two are mostly black with tan and white markings.

And here is the deadbeat dad - Buckwheat.  He didn't even come check out his kids.  Off in the distance, he just laid in the dust disinterested.  He wasn't interested in helping out with discipline or care of his kids.  I told him that he owes child support, but he just rolled over and looked at me indignantly with his goatee.

While we had the scale out, Tricia walked over and got Salt and Pepper.  They are Oreo's kids and are a month and a few days old.  We weighed them.  Pepper was 9 and a half pounds and Salt was 10 and a quarter.  They are growing!

So we have five babies on the pasture now.  It is quite a zoo we have.  Our plans are to let the kids grow for a bit and then sell them.  We don't have the pasture (or the patience) to keep them all.  They are cute, though!