First-Timer (me, not the doe) on Kidding Watch in the "barn"

[kayzee]

Spot is my 5-year-old Nigerian Dwarf. Her due date is the 11th, but about an hour ago my son and I went out to check on her and she was lying down, panting, with a very definite bulge back there. I spread her vulva a little, and could have SWORN I saw a little pink nose....at which point, the humans dissolved into panic. Everybody's calmed down now, and she's bedded down in the garage (a new place for her) and acting like we're a bunch of ninnies, walking around poking her nose into things, having little snacks, but mostly sticking to me like glue, resting her chin on my laptop keyboard.

The "bulge" retreated but it reappears about every 10 to 15 minutes....I'm assuming these are contractions.

This is her sixth kidding, however, she does not have milk in her udder. She has swelling ABOVE her udder, but nothing down in the "bag". I am an idiot and don't have colostrum on hand. Does it ever happen that they don't fill their udders until they actually deliver? Tearing hair out here!!!


***last two contractions were four min apart

 

[kayzee]

And now she's pawing out a nest....

 

[kayzee]

She WAS lying down in her nest, and I looked down and saw something protruding....something pink and about an inch in diameter. I took a deep breath and got down there....then Spot stood up, things slid back in, and she's munching hay! Wait....now she might be pushing again....I see a tiny bit of it....she gives a might heave and...pees. Sigh..

 

[zzGypsy]

sometimes late in gestation they'll get a little prolaps when they lay down... happens especially in older animals. it'll appear when they're down, then retract when they stand. could be labor, or could be that things are losening up and she's pretty near term. sometimes they're so full of kids that when they lay down they don't have much room left for lungs so they breathe shallow and fast and pant and grunt...

watch for real contractions where they bear down hard, sometimes rolling their lip up, followed by panting. watch for noses and hooves. watch for breaking water. I have one large sheep who'll be in this reclining prolaps with panting and grunting for about 2 weeks before she actually lambs...

anyway, hope it's kids tonight!

 

[kayzee]

Yup, I posted a description on another forum and they directed me to a pic of a small prolapse--that's EXACTLY what it looks like.

No doubt at this point that she's in labor, but I think she's getting tired, poor baby. Now she's lying down with her neck and chin stretched flat on the ground, straining forward and taking fast hard breaths and holding her breath in between.

 

[kayzee]

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kidding 2012.waiting by Eccentric Aesthetic, on Flickr[/img]

Here is Spot, all bedded down and ready for a long night of kidding. Her companion is Audra Belle a doeling out of last year's quads. We bought them together this September. These kids are from the same buck as Audra Belle, who is quite a little beauty but not much interested in posing for pics right now.

 

[zzGypsy]

wide as a house!

 

[kayzee]

I had a terrible dream that she had sextuplets. In fairness, she's kind of a wide girl even when she's NOT pregnant...

We're going on about five hours of labor here....probably two or three where she's been digging out nests, stretching and straining and getting really serious about it, and she'll do that for maybe an hour at a time, and then just pop up and have a wander around and a mouthful of hay and set her chin on my lap for a snuggle like there's nothing much going on. I think she's just trying to trick me into leaving, or at least into not shining that darn flashlight at her lady bits every few minutes...

 

[sunny]

She's still positioning kids. You're probably not tearing at your hair and babbling enough to please her yet (doe code).

Does she have any kind of discharge?

 

[zzGypsy]

I had a terrible dream that she had sextuplets. In fairness, she's kind of a wide girl even when she's NOT pregnant...

We're going on about five hours of labor here....probably two or three where she's been digging out nests, stretching and straining and getting really serious about it, and she'll do that for maybe an hour at a time, and then just pop up and have a wander around and a mouthful of hay and set her chin on my lap for a snuggle like there's nothing much going on. I think she's just trying to trick me into leaving, or at least into not shining that darn flashlight at her lady bits every few minutes...

yeah mine are always waiting until i take that bathroom break - then down they go and pop out tripplets...