Just one?!

Guava is by far the biggest doe that I have ever owned.  She's a fantastically milking Saanen, and this year she was bred to an Alpine-Saanen-Oberhasli with great milking genetics. 

Yesterday was day 151 of her gestation, and it found her in labor most of the day.  Finally she started to progress, and a foot popped out.  Then she'd find herself needing a different position and the foot would slip back inside.

I realized pretty early on, that this was going to be a long slow road for Guava.  She progressed very slowly, so inbetween checking on her and my little girl who was playing indoors, I raked the wet goat poop off the snowy icy path in front of the goat shed.  When I looked in on her awhile later, there were two feet and a nose poking out.

It took a good lot of work for her to finally push the head out.  It was pretty cute to see those long white ears flicking back and forth while he took his first breaths.

But quickly I began to worry, as she wasn't progressing near as fast as I would like to see, and the baby's head started to turn purple.  So I tugged on one leg and then the other, but still he was stuck.  Then I pulled down on his neck, and it took a good amount of steady force to release him from the pelvis.

The little guy had had a long rough trip, but he still managed to try to get on his feet quickly.  It's always amazing to see how active they are from the moment of birth.  I fully expected that Guava was carrying twins, so after an hour I decided it was time to inspect her, in case the next baby was having a difficult time getting into position.

The first time I examined her I felt a sac of fluid as big as my fist, and thought it might be another kid.  But when I went back in for another feel, all I could find was the placenta.  I'll admit here that this was my first intrauterine inspection, and it's not something I'll likely ever forget.  Such wonder.

At this point I brought Guava and the little one into the cabin, to get him good and warm and feed him some colostrum- since we hadn't been able to get Guava dried off before the kidding.  She was still giving almost a 1/2 gallon a day.  

We had colostrum frozen from Ginger's birth, and it didn't take but a few hours for the kid to suck down 3/4 of a pint.  So we pulled out the 2nd day colostrum from Licorice's kidding, and even that 3/4 quart didn't last the little sucker through the night. 

He spent last night sleeping on the floor next to my Mom's bedroll, and today he's roaming the cabin.  Guava has come in several times to lick and nurse him, and let me tell ya... he's got a big voice.  

This buckling has the blockiest head and shoulders I've ever seen on a new kid.  Add that to my belief that Guava has a narrow pelvic outlet, and we're lucky he wasn't more stuck than he was.

I think he's going to be a moose, hence, his name.  Bullwinkle.  I haven't figured out yet if we'll have any suitable does for him, but for now, he's going to stick around for awhile.  Goats are great!

Comments

[Margie]

You did a great job with the pictorial. Better watch falling in love with all the goats that are born, you will have more bucks then does if you don't!! hehe. It's hard especially when you know the milking genes in them.

Congratulations on a job well done..

[Linda]

Oh my GOSH! He is huge isn't he? Glad everything turned out well.

[Aunt Krissy]

He's very cute. Mine does are due May 5th and May 10th. I will be a nervous Nelly by May 3rd!