Rough Kiddings

I have a goat who loves to kid on the coldest days of the year. Her first kidding was in March 2021 on a single digit day… and it probably had a negative windchill. She did it to me again this year. We had a beautiful string of weather and I was watching her like a hawk, willing her to kid… but, low and behold, she kidded on a zero degree day, not including the windchill, when I was still recovering from Covid, on a morning we had to close on our new land.

I was down at the farm around 7am and she had had her first kid. He was doing great. She had dried him off and despite the cold he was doing well. I dried his legs, put a coat on him and got him to nurse. We had to sign our loan in Ellsworth at 9am so I left her for a bit, went back to house to get dressed and ready. Then checked her again before we left at 8:30. She had delivered her placenta and seemed to be doing well. So we rushed out. I knew it was risky to leave her, but I didn’t have much choice.

When I got back about an hour later, she was still in labor, the next babies sack was partially out and I thought, ‘great. I didn’t miss this one.’ But as I sat down there with her I started to notice some concerning things. She was very needy, leaning her head against me, which isn’t really unusual for a goat in labor, but the leaning was more of a pressing and she was grinding her teeth… which is concerning. Goats grind their teeth when they are in pain. I expect a level of pain, birth hurts. But, the extent of her grinding and pleading for help made me put on some shoulder length OB gloves, lube up my hand and check what was going on in there. My doe, who had been on her feet the whole time, went down almost immediately. She was in so much pain and so tired.

Ever since I have had children of my own I have a new appreciation for labor on the farm. I try to take what I can from my own experience and use it. I have had a hand inside of me when I am having contractions and that pain is like nothing I have ever experienced. As I felt for the baby, her contractions squeezed down on my arm with immense strength. And with every contraction I stopped what I was doing, just as my midwife had for me, and waited for her rest. I felt the baby almost immediately. It was in her birth canal, but I could only feel what turned out to be its chest, and at first I wasn’t sure what I was feeling. Only working between contractions slowed everything down a bit, but trying to do anything during a contraction was almost impossible and honestly, I didn’t want to put her through that. I was finally able to figure out what I was feeling and get one leg freed up. The baby’s head was turned back almost to its hip and slightly twisted and I was having a hard time freeing up the other front leg. I had pressure externally on the baby to try to keep it from advancing but I wasn’t able to get enough leverage on the kid. I gloved and lubed my other hand. Apologized profusely to my doe and pushed the baby back in as much as I could while trying to get the kid’s head in the correct position. My doe is not very big, only about 95 lbs, so this was a huge struggle. I was sure that kid was already dead and I knew I just had to get it out before my doe died too.

Finally, I was able to free the head and the second leg. The baby’s neck had a crick and kept trying to turn back so as Alice gave her final push I gently helped pull it out keeping the babies head straight. I grabbed a towel and started drying, suctioning and resuscitating the kid, who to my surprise cried out after a few moments. Alice was still down, I was checking her and drying the baby. I honestly wasn’t sure if I had caused her any damage and her getting up was almost urgent.

Once the baby was dry I ran up to the cabin, got warm water and Molasses to help replenish Alice. When I got back down to the barn she was up, checking her babies and ready for her tea. The first born was still curled up in blankets and I decided to move them all to our shop for more warmth and Alice passed her second placenta about an hour later.

I made frequent trips to check on Alice and the kids. Newborn goats need to get colostrum within their first few hours. The colostrum will be produced over the first few days but the initial colostrum is the thickest and has the highest concentration of antibodies from mom. It is very nutrient dense. The bucking did really well once he warmed up. He was excitedly nursing, wagging his adorable little tail and wandering around the enclosure. The little girl had me worried. She wasn’t able to stand on her own without falling over and her poor little neck was still cricked. I had started her off by giving her colostrum by syringe, once she perked up a bit I was able to put her on her mom. I was holding her up to nurse but when she latched she did well.

This is where I made my second mistake. Our shop is attached to a house and what I should have done was spent the night at the other house. But I was still recovering so I went to my bed after checking them a final time, at 10:00pm. The little girl had been nursing well and I thought she would be standing on her own in no time. The little boy looked great. I planned to go back down first thing in the morning.

My two adult does were bottle babies. The farm I got them from uses the milk for their business, so my girls are lacking some of the motherly instincts. They had both had single babies last year and did pretty well, Alice not as well as her sister, Augusta. I did not think about what having two babies would be like for her. So when I went down in the morning, my healthy, frisky little buckling was dead, and my doeling was in lateral recumbency. I thought she was dead too until I touched her and she slowly moved. I got her up and tried to get her to nurse, she still wasn’t standing on her own and she didn’t seem to have any gusto to nurse. No bumping or tail wagging. I put my finger in her mouth to get an idea on her temp and her nursing reflex. She was colder than I would have liked and had very little suckle response. Kids need to be warm in order to digest their food. If they’re too cold they won’t have the energy to nurse and could aspirate on their milk.

Alice was anxious and agitated, I assumed because she was away from the rest of the herd. So I made the decision to put her back on the farm and bring the baby inside to bottle feed. I put her by our stove and when she was warmer I tried to bottle feed. It was not going well, so I did a quick search on how to tube feed a baby goat. Syringe feeding is not my favorite method, it has to be done very carefully as it is really easy for a baby goat to aspirate. I had never tubed a goat and it was a little intimidating, but I knew I had to try. I was in a ‘last ditch’ place with this kid. I was able to get the tube placed and tested it. I knew it was in the right place but quickly realized I needed a larger gauge red rubber to allow the colostrum to flow more freely. I’ll make another post about tube feeding a baby goat later.

I repeatedly syringe fed the baby, but decided her best option was to keep running her down to mom every 2 hours. Not ideal, but I didn’t want Alice to reject the baby in the long run. The baby did well in the house throughout the day but she never laid down. She also stood up all night long. The only time I saw her lay down was when I brought her down to feed and she would lay in the hay, which was so heartbreaking because obviously she just wanted to sleep with her mom.

I gave the baby a dose of BoSe along with a dose of Thiamine hoping to perk her up a bit. I was also concerned with how the baby was breathing, her lungs sounded a little junky and I was worried she could have Pneumonia. Just to be on the safe side I gave her a dose of Penicillin. I had also given Alice a dose to prevent infection after such a difficult labor. I don’t medicate my animals just for the hell of it, but when you have to put your hands inside the animal it is better to be safe.

During our many feeding sessions I was seeing some very obvious differences between her and other kids. She didn’t butt at her mom’s udder, she would just awkwardly try to get the teat in her mouth and when I would try to hold it steady and help her she would refuse it. I was so close to breaking down at this point. I had worked so hard to get her out. I had lost her brother. And now, getting her to eat was a huge struggle. I thought she was blind. She wasn’t reacting as I expected her to. She did have some damage to one eye, without the ocular tools, just looking with my bare eye it seemed she had an ulcer. I treated both of her eyes with some left over Erythromycin I had and hoped for the best. I do NOT recommend treating your animal’s eyes with anything your vet has not prescribed for that animal specifically. But what was more concerning, I was starting to think she had some deficits from the hard labor.

The next day she was doing much better, still slow but she seemed so tired. The weather had improved so I brought her down for the day. I checked her every couple of hours to make sure she was nursing. Everytime she struggled to latch but once she did she nursed well.

Here comes mistake three. I had been keeping Alice’s doeling, Lo, from last year with her so she wasn’t alone. I thought more body heat would be good for the kid and Lo was gentle with her. But when I went down for an evening check, the baby, who I had started calling Tipsy, was down, flat on her side. I rushed her back up to the cabin, got her warm, failed again at bottle feeding, syringe fed her some warm milk and decided to keep her in for the night again.

But, at 1am she was crying non stop, which didn’t stop after I syringe fed her. Again, she refused to lay down. So at 3am I put her coat back on and brought her back to her mom, where she, for the first time, head bumped her mom's udder.

She is almost a week old now and has been doing well with her mom.

**Edited to add: Tipsy passed away at 8 days old. I had gotten busy and didn’t finish the article in a timely manner but I hope my mistakes will help someone else.