# Stalled labor



## gwith (Aug 12, 2014)

We have a doe that is in labor. I think she is 2 weeks early, my son disagrees. She pushed out 2 baseball size sacks of abiotic fluid. The sacks aren't broken. She isn't really pushing. Tendons are gone, milk full. She is moaning a little. Second kidding. How long do i wait until i help?


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## gwith (Aug 12, 2014)

Well. One water just broke. I guess it is happening.


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## Honey21 (Jan 26, 2014)

I give the mom 30 mins from the start of pushing before I get involved. If she has busted her water and still no baby u might need check


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## CountyLineAcres (Jan 22, 2014)

If there are no babies on the ground right now, you’ll need to wash, lube, and glove up!


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## Suzanne_Tyler (Jul 19, 2014)

How is she doing?


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## gwith (Aug 12, 2014)

I pulled 2 babies. They are early. The eyes are closed. The first one was gasping for air. The 2nd never took a breath. The second had brownish color on the back half. It looked like iodine. The first is still alive, but it doesn't look good.


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## CountyLineAcres (Jan 22, 2014)

So sorry to hear! Make sure to take its temp and keep it in the 101.5-103.5 range. If the kid is cold, fill your sink with very warm water, put the kid into a garbage bag with its head OUT (don’t suffocate it), and submerge without allowing water to seep into the bag. A wet kid is more likely to get chilled, so this helps warm them without having to dry them quickly.


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## Honey21 (Jan 26, 2014)

I'm sorry to hear that . all my early deliveries never made it so good luck


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## CBPitts (Jan 29, 2020)

I’ve had them up to 10 days early and live but never earlier than that. Best of luck!


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## gwith (Aug 12, 2014)

The second one died at about 3am. They were 16 days early.


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## CBPitts (Jan 29, 2020)

I’m so sorry.


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## GoofyGoat (Sep 21, 2018)

I'm sorry, you're having a rough go this year again. I truely hope it gets better!


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## Trollmor (Aug 19, 2011)

Sorry for the losses. How is the doe doing now? Well done of you to know the true date so well!


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## 21goaties (Mar 13, 2018)

:angel:


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## toth boer goats (Jul 20, 2008)

I am so sorry.


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## gwith (Aug 12, 2014)

The doe just took a turn for the worse and died. I am not sure what happened. My thought is either a donkey or cow kicked her and caused internal damage that caused the babies to come out early and eventually kill her. I am about to have her looked over to see if the cause can be determined. The kids came out about 8-9pm yesterday and she died about 3:30 pm today.


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## Iluvlilly! (Apr 6, 2019)

I'm so sorry for your loss:hug::angel:


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## toth boer goats (Jul 20, 2008)

:hug: :imsorry:


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## Trollmor (Aug 19, 2011)

Oh, what a hord of losses! *Well done* if you can find out the reason.


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## gwith (Aug 12, 2014)

Ok. I have some information. I turned this loss into a learning experience. My son is on his high school vet tech team and he travels around the state competing. He placed 3 out of 220 for our district competition a couple of weeks ago. He wanted to work on her, so we did it together. He took pictures to report back to his teacher. 

Graphic description. Don't read further if you can't handle it. 

We were thinking our issue with her death came from the delivery. She also was 2 weeks early. She did not bleed after delivery. She did bleed a lot right before she died. She also became extremely anemic (eyelids). She did not deliver her placenta either. The cervex was very small and tight when we delivered. There was also tissue that blocked the cervex and made it difficult to get the kids head out. One kid was over the other kid in different compartments. 

We started at the reproductive organs. We gently removed the skin and opened the abdomen making sure not to cut into any organs. We immediately saw a HUGE uterus. It was blown up like a balloon, but it felt like it was full of fluid. It had a very purple appearance. There was some blood pooling in the abdomen. I put a little pressure on the uterus to see if there was a hole in it and blood shot out of two dime size holes near the tip of the left uterine horn. I could put my finger all the way into the uterus. This was the location of the second kid that never took a breath and had iodine colored slime on his back half. We removed the entire reproductive organs. We drained the blood. Both horns were completely full of blood. There was about 3/4 of a gallon of blood. We inspected the entire thing inside and out. The right horn had one hole near the tip. The uterus was two completely separate compartments (horns)all the way to about 4 inches from the exit. I don't remember a septum coming this far in previous animals I have inspected. Both sides still had the placenta attached. 

So we have holes in the uterus. They were in the location of the back feet of the kids. Maybe they kicked through. 

My boy wanted to learn more about the anatomy, so we kept going. We looked at the appendix, small and large intestines. These were removed. We fond the spleen and removed it. We removed the liver and kidneys. The liver looked more gray than normal. We cut away the diaphragm to get to the heart and lungs. I removed the heart and lungs as one unit. We noticed the right lung was full of blood. The left lung was clear. The heart was fine, but gray. Because of the right lung being full of blood, we looked at the inside of the ribs. There were about 4 ribs that had the cartilage broken between the long and short ribs near the 13th rib where the long part attaches to the short part. They were all buckled inward and purple. 

So from what we saw it looks like the goat bled out internally. This may have been caused by a trauma to the right side of the ribs/abdomen. The trauma may have also caused the doe to go into labor. 

What are your thoughts about what we found?


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## Damfino (Dec 29, 2013)

I'm so sorry this happened! Because of the broken ribs, it does sound like a blow caused premature labor. I don't know why she had holes in the uterus but I don't think it could be caused by the kids kicking. They simply are not strong enough. However, her own contractions could have been strong enough to rupture the uterus on the kids if the cervix was not yet open enough to allow them to come out, or if they were jammed against each other. Or is it possible the ribs could have punctured the uterus when they broke? 

The iodine-colored stuff on the one kid's back end was excrement. It happens sometimes when a kid becomes stressed during birth and they poop in their sack.


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## Trollmor (Aug 19, 2011)

Well done to do all this together with your son! To me, it seems as if that donkey caused the problem. Almost 4 liters! Oh dear. I do not believe in kids kicking that violently, neither. I think we all have learnt something from your loss, thank you for sharing!


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## gwith (Aug 12, 2014)

Would those holes cause all that bleeding?


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## Sfgwife (Feb 18, 2018)

gwith said:


> Ok. I have some information. I turned this loss into a learning experience. My son is on his high school vet tech team and he travels around the state competing. He placed 3 out of 220 for our district competition a couple of weeks ago. He wanted to work on her, so we did it together. He took pictures to report back to his teacher.
> 
> Graphic description. Don't read further if you can't handle it.
> 
> ...


My thought... get the donkey and cow away from the goats.


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## Damfino (Dec 29, 2013)

gwith said:


> Would those holes cause all that bleeding?


Holes in the uterus do cause a lot of internal bleeding. Broken ribs can also cause a lot of internal bleeding depending on what internal organs they hit (sounds like she punctured a lung). The poor gal never had a chance.


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## toth boer goats (Jul 20, 2008)

I have to say, in many cases, does can bleed out from uterine holes or rips. 
So we can never say, it never happens.


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