Ares...the First Buckling of the Year

Yesterday afternoon, while the boys were having a podeo in the adjacent pen, Lilo was quietly delivering her kids.  I had come out to feed and when I went in the goat pen to grain the girls, I noticed two small dark lumps in the dirty straw.  Icalled to the boys to get J.  I had just bought a bale of straw to replace the bedding - I guess I was a day late - and I needed J to bring it in so that we could get the babies up out of the muck.

As I entered the shelter, I realized that one of the babies was still very wet.  Lilo was licking it, but it was not moving.  It had died sometime close to delivery.  A buckling.  I scooped the baby up in my hands and carried it out of the pen, placing it temporarily in a feed bucket so that the dogs wouldn't sniff around it.  I wanted Lilo to focus on the baby that was alive.

J came out and began spreading straw in the shelter.  I plucked the other kid up in a towel that K brought out and the three of us (K, the kid, and I) walked into the house to dry off.  There was a yellow liquid all over the baby, something that looked a bit like egg yolk.  It was meconium.  There had been some stress in this delivery.  I wondered if it was the circus of pig-riding next door.

I wiped the baby down with a towel, snipped his umbilicus off to about two inches, and poured a generous amount of iodine over the remaining stub.  By the time I was finished drying this little boy off, he was chewing on my chin, looking for his first meal.

While I dried the baby off, I directed K to make up a bowl of warm water and molasses for Lilo.  When we were finished with our tasks, we headed back out to the pen.

I returned the baby to a happy momma.  There she continued to clean him.  I purposely didn't wash the baby completely because I wanted Lilo to know exactly who he was.  I helped to position him up to Lilo's udder and he had his first snack of his life.

Lilo still had some work to do with delivering the afterbirth.  She slowly managed to deliver the placenta and as disgusting as I find it, I let her eat it for the protein.  I had to focus on something else as her teeth chomped through the placental sack with a crunch.

Then the doubt began.  Both bucklings had been somewhat small.  Not unacceptable, but small.  I know that our protein levels have been lower since we haven't been feeding grain consistently, but I was concerned that there might be a third.  Lilo kept behaving as if she were still in active labor.  She would paw the ground.  She would squat and push.  She would lick anything close to her mouth.  She would lie down and then get up again.  The only thing that I could see was what looked like a second afterbirth.  But while she was lying down, I thought I saw baby movement.  I was convinced there was a third.

For almost an hour, I sat with Lilo.  Fed her grain and water.  Pet her.  Comforted her.  She didn't seem to be progressing at all.  I was hoping to see hooves, but all I ever saw was this thick cording that looked a bit like an oversized umbilicus.  I asked J to call the vet to see when we should intervene.

The vet said that two hours was a long time inbetween births and that we should reach in and feel for the baby.  Ok, then.  I had prepared for this moment.  I had watched all the videos, read all the books, talked to all the experts.  But when you are preparing to reach inside your goat and feel around for her baby, you're not prepared at all.

J and I went out to the shelter.  I used J Jelly to lube my hand and wrist, about half way to my elbow - the point that I was willing to reach.  J gently held Lilo's head and I slowly violated her inner sanctum.  It was warm and squishy.  Too squishy.  I felt no hooves, no head, no rear, nothing that resembled a baby.  Lilo contracted several times and I slipped my hand back out.  I was sure that if there were a baby inside, it was nowhere near the birth canal.

J and I decided to give her some quiet time.  We went back in the house.  A friend of mine (my goat guru) called.  She had seen that Lilo had delivered on Facebook and wanted to check in.  We talked at length and she suggested that we check on Lilo one last time.  If she wasn't in diress (panting, pawing, crying) that we should leave her alone for the night.  She was pretty sure that there wasn't a third baby from my description.  So that's what we did.

This morning, the boys went out to check.  Lilo and her handsome little boy, Ares, were curled up together at the back of the shelter.  The afterbirth was nowhere to be seen (and not hanging from her anymore).  And there were no more babies.  It was twins...and while we will never know for certain, Ares looks more Nubian than Boer so Neptune may be his daddy.

We will be watching all of the other does very carefully over the next few days.  It is likely that at least one of them will kid.  Most herds cycle at around the same time, so that babies come around the same time.  My money's on Stitch.  Any takers?