DustyBoot
Loving the herd life
I didn't think I'd need to start this for at least another month, if not two! But Dottie had twin doelings yesterday afternoon, so here goes.
I bought Dottie in early January and was told she was due "in the spring, March or April." I'd been thinking her tail ligaments felt softer for a couple of days, and yesterday morning I couldn't find them. I decided to keep an eye on her but not get too excited -- maybe I was mistaken. When I checked on her in the afternoon she had some discharge and it looked like babies had dropped, so I brought her into the pen. Went to get her some food and water and when I came back she was lying down looking serious about things. She started pushing around 4 p.m., and I decided to go get the kids in spite of some reservations about how things might go. They've seen animals killed by predators, so they might as well see birth too. They came quickly, and very shortly thereafter baby #1 arrived. I made sure she was breathing and alert, then backed off to let Dottie do her thing. She cleaned #1 a little, then got to work on delivering #2. #2 came out headfirst, no front feet, but well before I felt it was necessary to intervene. (Actually, I didn't even have time to start running through my mental list of what I would need to do if it became necessary. Whew!)
In the end, we had twin doelings, both black, one with giant ears weighing 7.8 lbs. (#1) and one with tiny ears weighing 7.0 lbs. (#2). For a split second I thought, "Oh no, they're both black, how will we tell them apart?" Oh, right. The ears.
They got up and nursing pretty quickly and did just fine overnight. Since they're both doelings, I'm working on finding them homes as future dairy goats (rather than raising them as market kids is they were bucklings). I'd be tempted to keep them, but I just don't see how we'd use the output of three or even two milk goats at this point.
So, now it's on to figuring out postpartum care and this whole milk goat thing -- and here I thought I had another month or two before I really had to get serious!
I bought Dottie in early January and was told she was due "in the spring, March or April." I'd been thinking her tail ligaments felt softer for a couple of days, and yesterday morning I couldn't find them. I decided to keep an eye on her but not get too excited -- maybe I was mistaken. When I checked on her in the afternoon she had some discharge and it looked like babies had dropped, so I brought her into the pen. Went to get her some food and water and when I came back she was lying down looking serious about things. She started pushing around 4 p.m., and I decided to go get the kids in spite of some reservations about how things might go. They've seen animals killed by predators, so they might as well see birth too. They came quickly, and very shortly thereafter baby #1 arrived. I made sure she was breathing and alert, then backed off to let Dottie do her thing. She cleaned #1 a little, then got to work on delivering #2. #2 came out headfirst, no front feet, but well before I felt it was necessary to intervene. (Actually, I didn't even have time to start running through my mental list of what I would need to do if it became necessary. Whew!)
In the end, we had twin doelings, both black, one with giant ears weighing 7.8 lbs. (#1) and one with tiny ears weighing 7.0 lbs. (#2). For a split second I thought, "Oh no, they're both black, how will we tell them apart?" Oh, right. The ears.
They got up and nursing pretty quickly and did just fine overnight. Since they're both doelings, I'm working on finding them homes as future dairy goats (rather than raising them as market kids is they were bucklings). I'd be tempted to keep them, but I just don't see how we'd use the output of three or even two milk goats at this point. So, now it's on to figuring out postpartum care and this whole milk goat thing -- and here I thought I had another month or two before I really had to get serious!
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