Percy had let us know that Alice had kidded while we were away, but we were surprised to see that Gertrude and Velma had also kidded before we got home from Huaral.
That gave me five goats to milk, and I’m enjoying it. The girls have been asking to milk, but so far, I’ve been doing it myself because Percy had not been milking them out completely. That had lowered their production, which I’m trying to get back up by squeezing out every drop.
Percy was amazed at how much milk I got the first morning. He said it was twice as much as he’d been getting. Unfortunately, I’m afraid Agnes might be going dry because of it. She’s only been in milk four months.
We have several more goats to kid in the next couple of weeks, with some of them being very close. Yesterday at lunch, we prayed and asked God to give us more doelings this year. At chore time, Anne found Pearl with twins, and both are does!
I checked the other mamas to be sure no one else was in labor. I didn’t expect to find any because our goats nearly always kid in the afternoon. But I was surprised to find Ruby was kidding, too.
That made me a bit concerned because it was evening. Usually, that’s a sign of trouble. I checked and found legs ready to come out. We waited half an hour with no progress, so I checked again.
There was one leg and a head, but the problem was that the leg was a hind leg. Two kids were trying to come out at the same time, one breach and the other with its legs behind–two bad positions.
With some effort, I was able to push the leg in while grabbing around the head and pulling. Out came a lifeless buckling. I began whacking its chest to get goop out of its lungs and to try to get the heart going. It breathed!
The one leg of the breach kid was still out, so I held the first kid in my hand with its head down to drain out his lungs while I pulled the other one, another buckling.
He was choking, too, so I handed him to China to try to get him cleaned out while I coaxed my little guy to breathe. He was only half the size of his brother and couldn’t stand.
He wouldn’t nurse, so I tried a bottle. That didn’t work, so I tried tubing him. That was unsuccessful. His breathing was getting weaker then he went stiff and stopped breathing altogether. I checked his heart. It beat once more then nothing.
I laid him down on some rags and went to check on the other kid. It was nearly down to freezing temperatures, so I wanted him dried off quickly. He was up and walking around soon. I was going to see if he’d nurse when the other kid gave a gasp and revived!
I decided to take him inside for the night. He was cold through and through. We put him in front of a heater in China’s room and left him there for the night. We tried a couple of times, but we couldn’t get him to drink.
This morning, he was able to stand just a little. He wouldn’t suckle, but I got him to swallow a couple ounces of milk. Once the sun was out, I put him out with Ruby, but she doesn’t want him.
Just a little bit ago, I had Dane hold Ruby’s head while I helped the buckling stand. And he nursed! I needed to fight Ruby for her milk, but he got a number of swallows down. He may end up being a bottle baby if Ruby rejects him completely, but I’m going to try to get her to accept him.
I just walked down the field and checked in the other goats, and one of them is showing signs of labor. We may end up with another kidding today. Hopefully, they’ll be more doelings.
Alice’s buckling, Samwise, we plan to sell. The doeling is claimed by Patron James G. She doesn’t yet have a name because they are still thinking.
Velma is Abbey’s goat. Abbey named her doeling Vanessa. She’s very happy that it wasn’t a buckling again this time.
Gertrude’s buckling, Gimli, we plan to sell, too. The family really wants to keep him because he’s so cute and fuzzy, but we have far too many bucks as it is.
Pearl had two doelings. The black one China wants to buy as her own. She named her Carol. The tan doeling will go to another Patron.
We have not named Ruby’s bucklings yet, but we know that we won’t be keeping them, either. I plan to sell Ruby with her kids in a couple of months. Ruby is pretty old and has a poor udder. Her last kid, Glenda, died, so we will not have any of her descendants here once she goes.
There will be other updates coming along soon.
Juan David 