# First Freshener kidding



## Baileyglynaee (12 mo ago)

Kinda new here so please bear with me. I have a 3yr old FF (Nubian) that is about 148 days today. Her udder doubled in size the past day to the point her teats are nice and firm along with her bag. To my knowledge this morning is the first I’ve seen of a mucus plug from her. Definitely not streaming but I was wondering with the combo of the bag and the mucus if anyone thinks she’s SUPER close. Ligaments are gone to the point I can basically touch my fingers together. I’m just so excited I can’t think straight enough to guestimate when she’ll actually go into labor. She’s always been very active and goofy and she hasn’t started bedding down yet and is still eating like a madwoman. This is my first kidding with goats and I’ve only gone in on one cow to assist with rearranging legs. 
so I guess my main question here is with the combo of milk, ligaments and mucus plug coming out within 24 hours, do you think I should expect a baby tonight? Would you offer molasses water now along with separate fresh water? Do they need it? Anything I should be doing besides sitting on baby watch? I know they’re all different, just wondering if anyone has had a combo like that before?
I do know her exact due date so I know she’s out of the woods on preme delivery. 
Just adding that the other doe is now out of her kidding stall and the baby with the diaper is a rescue that is staying inside until she can maintain body heat for this weather we have here. I only brought her out with me so I didn’t have to stress her from leaving her for 10 minutes lol. Before and after pictures of her bag. I didn’t get to take a picture of her mucus plug because I didn’t have my phone with me when I found it


----------



## goatblessings (Jan 6, 2015)

Yes, 148 days can be quite normal. I would let her have her own kidding space and start baby watch. Only she knows exactly when she will kid.... and they sure can mess with us, but I would keep a check every couple of hours based on what you are telling us.


----------



## Rancho Draco (Sep 29, 2021)

Welcome to The Goat Spot! With her ligaments gone and her udder filling it sounds like she should be kidding within the next 12-24 hours. Every goat is different and they can mess with us quite a bit but ligaments being gone is usually a sign that labor is imminent. Have you seen any contractions yet?


----------



## Baileyglynaee (12 mo ago)

Rancho Draco said:


> Welcome to The Goat Spot! With her ligaments gone and her udder filling it sounds like she should be kidding within the next 12-24 hours. Every goat is different and they can mess with us quite a bit but ligaments being gone is usually a sign that labor is imminent. Have you seen any contractions yet?


Thank you!! I haven’t seen any contractions yet! I’m getting my baby monitor set up insidenow so I can see if she’s doing anything different without be being there!


----------



## Baileyglynaee (12 mo ago)

goatblessings said:


> Yes, 148 days can be quite normal. I would let her have her own kidding space and start baby watch. Only she knows exactly when she will kid.... and they sure can mess with us, but I would keep a check every couple of hours based on what you are telling us.


 Thank you sm!! I’ll probably being going out about every hour to two!


----------



## goatblessings (Jan 6, 2015)

She’s gonna have fun driving you nuts now… best wishes


----------



## Baileyglynaee (12 mo ago)

Well I was only inside the house for under an hour and just came out to a beautiful little baby girl! Thank y’all!


----------



## Rancho Draco (Sep 29, 2021)

Congratulations! We would love to see pictures!


----------



## Jubillee (Dec 22, 2017)

Congratulations!!!!


----------



## daisymay (Feb 13, 2017)

what...thatis so crazy! daylight and everything...


----------



## KY Goat Girl (12 mo ago)

daisymay said:


> what...thatis so crazy! daylight and everything...


She must have not read the doe code yet.


----------



## KY Goat Girl (12 mo ago)

We need to see some pictures of new baby girl! 🥰


----------



## Baileyglynaee (12 mo ago)




----------



## Baileyglynaee (12 mo ago)

It’s been two hours now. She started off cleaning the baby and got it dry. But would not let it nurse. I tried to stay back for about 45 minutes and see if anything changed but it didn’t. She started to get aggressive and even shoved her up against the wall. I tried rubbing some more of the placenta on the baby and that didn’t work. I ended up pushing her up against the wall and letting the baby nurse for a second but she kicked like crazy. I sat back some more and she stayed kind of aggressive. I’m thinking about pulling baby.


----------



## Rancho Draco (Sep 29, 2021)

Cute!


----------



## Baileyglynaee (12 mo ago)

Baileyglynaee said:


> It’s been two hours now. She started off cleaning the baby and got it dry. But would not let it nurse. I tried to stay back for about 45 minutes and see if anything changed but it didn’t. She started to get aggressive and even shoved her up against the wall. I tried rubbing some more of the placenta on the baby and that didn’t work. I ended up pushing her up against the wall and letting the baby nurse for a second but she kicked like crazy. I sat back some more and she stayed kind of aggressive. I’m thinking about pulling baby.


And sorry if some of it doesn’t make sense. I left my fiancé with them to make sure she doesn’t hurt her. I’m running to get colostrum. I do plan on still feeding baby moms milk once I make sure she’s had some colostrum.


----------



## Rancho Draco (Sep 29, 2021)

Sometimes FFs take some time to figure out a baby is theirs. Can you get mom up on the milk stand or tie her to a fence to let baby nurse?


----------



## Goatastic43 (Jun 11, 2021)

What a cutie! Congrats!


----------



## goatblessings (Jan 6, 2015)

If her udder is very full it make hurt for baby to nurse. I would milk some out on both sides, try to put baby back on to nurse. If she is aggressive, feed mamas colostrum in a bottle to baby. I would sit with them for a while, you don’t want her hurting the little one.


----------



## goatblessings (Jan 6, 2015)

Adorable btw- cleaning baby is a good sign .


----------



## Baileyglynaee (12 mo ago)

Mom has gotten meaner the longer it’s been. Now that I’m back she’s head butting her really hard. I did tie her and put her against the wall and I’ve tried milking stand. I’ve tried tying her legs and she’s still kicking at baby badly. Baby is starting to shiver. I’m going to mix up this colostrum real quickly.


----------



## KY Goat Girl (12 mo ago)

goatblessings said:


> If her udder is very full it make hurt for baby to nurse. I would milk some out on both sides, try to put baby back on to nurse. If she is aggressive, feed mamas colostrum in a bottle to baby. I would sit with them for a while, you don’t want her hurting the little one.


I agree. My FF wouldn’t let her baby nurse because her udder was very tight and full and it hurt for him to latch on at first. I just milked some out and helped him nurse and then she realized he felt good to let him nurse.


----------



## Baileyglynaee (12 mo ago)

I wish it would let me post a video. I’ll definitely try to milk her out some. Now she’s doing more of a rearing up head but. She’s scaring me to death.


----------



## Rancho Draco (Sep 29, 2021)

Colostrum from mom is best for the baby. Hopefully she will do better once milked out a bit


----------



## NigerianNewbie (Jun 6, 2018)

Baileyglynaee said:


> Well I was only inside the house for under an hour and just came out to a beautiful little baby girl! Thank y’all!


Surprise and congratulations, seems that she was incredibly close.


----------



## Rancho Draco (Sep 29, 2021)

Video can be uploaded to YouTube and then a link can be posted


----------



## NigerianNewbie (Jun 6, 2018)

Baileyglynaee said:


> I wish it would let me post a video. I’ll definitely try to milk her out some. Now she’s doing more of a rearing up head but. She’s scaring me to death.


Baby will need that first milk from the doe and it could be offered to the newborn in a bottle. The doe may be too uncomfortable to allow nursing, so relieving the pressure by milking the doe down some would be a win, win for both the doe and baby. Has she passed the placenta yet and are you sure there isn't another kid or two in there? The doe could still be in labor and/or having contractions and the birthing pain could be unbearable to the point she is not being quite herself. What is she doing that has you scared? Is the rearing up to head butt directed towards you and/or the newborn?


----------



## Baileyglynaee (12 mo ago)

The rearing and head butting is toward the baby. She’ll sling her and knock her down. I just milked mom down as much as I could and it seems she has no colostrum. It’s like regular goat milk. White as can be and thin just like regular milk. I got colostrum down the baby. She latched on beautifully and is very strong and healthy to me.


----------



## goatblessings (Jan 6, 2015)

If mom is that bad I would remove baby and keep her in the house with you. Try to get as much milk from mom as you can - that is best for baby. You can try taking baby back every two hours with you, but if mom is still harmful to her, you may end up with a bottle baby…


----------



## KY Goat Girl (12 mo ago)

I wonder why she doesn’t have colostrum?  I agree with @goatblessings, you might just have to completely separate and bottle feed. I was fixing to ask if you had any colostrum frozen but then remembered this is your first kidding.


----------



## Feira426 (Dec 11, 2019)

Yikes! Goats sure can be weird sometimes. I'm sorry you're dealing with that. Based on stories I've heard from other people on the forum here, there's still a decent chance you can get her to accept the baby. I guess mama goat hormones can make them act really strange, but MOST of the time they can eventually sort out what they need to do. I had to hold Suki last year a little bit because she was really freaked out by nursing, but I tried to be really gentle about it so as not to make her associate nursing with bad things, and just firmly held her and talked to her and told her this is what she needs to do, and eventually she calmed down and got the feeding the kids thing down.

If yours just won't have it at all, it might be better to take the baby and bottle feed - you'll have to make that judgement based on what's going on. 

Weird that she doesn't have colostrum - I've never heard of that. The milk isn't yellowish at all?


----------



## Cedarwinds Farm (Dec 2, 2019)

Congrats on the adorable baby! I hope you can get the feeding situation figured out soon. Not all colostrum is thick and yellow, so what you're milking out should be fine to give. Please keep a careful watch to be sure your doe passed her placenta and that it's all there (no ragged edges or small pieces).


----------



## Elbee (12 mo ago)

Cedarwinds Farm said:


> Congrats on the adorable baby! I hope you can get the feeding situation figured out soon. Not all colostrum is thick and yellow, so what you're milking out should be fine to give.


Yep, get that milk from mama down her. It may not have that yellow thickness, but it's still going to have the antibodies and probiotics that baby needs.


----------



## Baileyglynaee (12 mo ago)

Thank y’all. I’ve gotten about 6 ounces of her moms milk in her. And placenta did pass beautifully. I did bump and I didn’t feel any more babies.
This is the only picture I took of it before it fell completely out and I took it and burried it wayyy out behind the pasture. The first big glob with all the clear and weird stuff had already hit the ground. Do those little chunk thingies look normal?


----------



## Elbee (12 mo ago)

Those are cotyledons and perfectly normal. 👍

Glad you got that milk in her too.


----------



## wheel-bear-o (Jul 6, 2020)

One trick for attempting to graft a rejected baby comes from Caldwell's "Holistic Goat Medicine." Basically you take the kid and rub her bottom (gently) against the doe's bottom, then put her back in front of the doe. If the doe is stimulated to clean the kid off again, she'll smell her own scent again and have a second shot at accepting the kid and letting them nurse.


----------



## Feira426 (Dec 11, 2019)

Best of luck to you!! That’s a beautiful kid!


----------



## Cedarwinds Farm (Dec 2, 2019)

Glad things are ok! I have had 1 FF initially reject her kid. She cleaned him but wouldn't let him nurse. I worked with them for about 2 days before she got the idea. I have never had one that was actively violent toward her kids, though. I think you're making a good choice. You don't want baby getting hurt.


----------



## toth boer goats (Jul 20, 2008)

Use your best judgement, if the baby is being abused, remove it and bottle feed.


----------



## NigerianNewbie (Jun 6, 2018)

How are things going with the newborn and the doe? Is the baby eating well for you? Has the doe done well since kidding?


----------



## toth boer goats (Jul 20, 2008)

How are things?


----------



## Baileyglynaee (12 mo ago)

Sorry for just now updating everyone! Baby and mom are doing great! I do have baby inside taking a bottle and the little turd is running bouncy bucking, the whole nine yards. I tried three times a day for three days after kidding to let baby nurse off mom and she still wasn’t having it. She’s finally letting me milk twice a day with out throwing a fit. Baby loves her milk and she’s currently making enough to feed both of these two bottle babies.


----------



## Baileyglynaee (12 mo ago)

Oh and I got to weigh her at 3 days old and she was a whopping 10.8 lbs. I’m having to control her eating because she’ll happily take more than 30 ounces in 24 hrs if I let her.


----------



## Rancho Draco (Sep 29, 2021)

Glad to hear they are doing well. Look at the legs on that baby! They go on for miles!


----------



## Feira426 (Dec 11, 2019)

What a pretty baby!!! Glad the mom and kid are both doing well. That sucks that she doesn’t want to take care of her baby, but goats are like that sometimes.


----------



## Goatastic43 (Jun 11, 2021)

What a gorgeous little girl! I just love her ears! ️


----------



## Lamancha Lady (Dec 13, 2011)

Beautiful baby, Legs should be her name


----------



## toth boer goats (Jul 20, 2008)

So cute.


----------

