# Lessons learned by waiting



## tripledranch (Jul 13, 2013)

Hi, I have had approximately 58 kidding under my belt. I had a third timer go last night. She was a 4 yr old boer doe and had been laying in the pasture rolling around after eating like she had early bloat. I knew she was days from kidding. I brought her in and she would stretch out her hind legs like a seizure or something. I got the water pail and as I round the barn door, I see that amber bubble from her vulva. Pop it goes. I wait for 55 minutes and no pushing. I am watching her pant and her eyes roll back. She is now wailing and moaning. She give 5 big pushes and all I see is a white tail. Oh no I am in the barn with only rubber gloves. So I go in with gloves on and no feet are close. The doe keeps screaming so I push in by the side of the goat but and latch on the the hip areas and pull... it out. He is gasping so I clean him up. Now the doe is rolling and pushing her head into the wall of the barn. I now have a second bubble and it is very large. like a musk melon. No body or feet. It breaks and I scream for my husband who thinks all goats should just deliver naturally, He says just wait and they have been delivering in fields for centuries without help before this, He says just let her go!!!.. Next a head pops out but no feet. So I go in again and pull it out as I get one foot forward. Wipe it off and it is now breathing. I have a hoarse crying goat that seems to be pushing without a break. and a pool of fluid gushes from her bottom. I put the glove in to feel one lonely hoof in about 3 inches, I go deeper and the goat is still pushing and the head is back, pointing as if he is looking at her face. I am now rolling this kid inside to finally have the head up over the pelvis bone and she give on big push and I wipe off the kid and he is breathing. The doe is lying and panting and drinks water but not eating. She lays her head back and I did all the care and got them to nurse on her. This morning she is sitting up eating grain and alfalfa. I learned that even though my doe kidded without help three different times, There is always the time they will need you so know when to worry about your doe.. Thanks and here's a picture of the family with the last one in a blue towel. So had I waited this wouldnt have ended with this picture! Happy kidding


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## ksalvagno (Oct 6, 2009)

Glad it all worked out. There is never an absolute guarantee that you will have a perfect kidding no matter how many kiddings they have had. Yes it is very important to be able to distinguish a normal birth vs one that needs help.

Very cute kids!


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## milkmaid (Sep 15, 2010)

Glad everyone turned out okay! Congratulations! 
As a matter of principle I am always certain to be there when my goats kid. Better safe than sorry IMO. 
But I am also of the very strong opinion that general health/diet is by FAR the biggest factor in easy kidding.
According to Pat Coleby, giving apple cider vinegar during pregnancy makes a HUGE difference in how easy the kidding goes. Something about the potassium. I've seen evidence of this in my own experience (so far the only difficult kidding I've had was when mama failed to dilate and I had to help. I had only been giving her ACV during the last trimester instead of through the whole pregnancy as usual). None of the 14 kids my goats have delivered has been malpositioned.


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## nancy d (Oct 5, 2007)

Excellent job, Triple D, whew!! Beautiful babies too.
Sometimes no matter what or how they are fed a mal position can happen anytime.
My girls always have ACV H2o in front of them.


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## Little-Bits-N-Pieces (Apr 7, 2013)

Excellent job! Glad everybody is ok!  Congrats on the babies! 

I have experienced this so many times, I can't even count! Really makes you wonder how they all even got that far in the positions that some of them are in! 
I've had the babies coming tail first, head first (no legs), one rear leg, one rear leg with the kid upside down, sideways with the ribs first and the kids are bent in there like tacos, one front leg, heads twisted back under their other leg, just every way imaginable. Most of the kids make it, but sometimes, by the time I get them out it's been too long (like with the does that kid in the pen that I didn't catch in time).


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## Cactus_Acres (Sep 24, 2013)

I also have a side thing to add, maybe someone can give some input on it. When my doe kidded in February, she had two healthy boys that measured somewhere around 10lbs. Anyway, as soon as number two was on the ground, she flopped out flat on her side for a minute or two, not looking around or anything. She was already laying down at this point, but she went flat as a pancake. I passed off the baby I was cleaning to my husband, and immediately focused in on her to make sure that she wasn't having some issue. It freaked me out, quite honestly, because I thought she was acting like she was in shock or something. Within a minute or two, she was checking out her boys. Shortly after their birth, i did get her some molasses water.

I did grab the feet on the first one and did a gloved finger sweep around his face as she was taking a little long to get him out. About 45 minutes of pushing, and I was about to go in when his feet started coming out. He was just a big boy. Her second was smaller, and properly presented.

Do does react that way frequently?


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## tripledranch (Jul 13, 2013)

Thanks so much. Sad thing was she had been getting apple cider vinegar in her am water and vit e caplets in her grain which was klassie milk goat mix with Boss 2 cups in am and at night. She had run about on 10 acres so I chalk it up to a God thing and that is why I was there. If this had been her 1st kidding, I would have contemplated selling her due to this. But she had been such an easy keeper before this. Will just give them losts of love and give her a year or 2 off of kidding.


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## ksalvagno (Oct 6, 2009)

Every goat reacts differently. Your goat just may have been hurting or exhausted and just needed a moment.

This is nature. You can do everything right, their diet perfect, all the right minerals whatever and still have a dystocia. You have no control on placement in the womb.


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## happybleats (Sep 12, 2010)

Good Job..we need to always follow our gut!! My hubby used to says leave them be..they will be fine..and most times he is right...then one day ( my early goat days) Gretchen went in hard labor....baby was stuck.we could see hoof tips and a nose...I had to pull that boy out...he was 12 + pounds..single nubian buck...hubby held mom while I pulled and mama screamed...it was horrible, I cried the whole time while hubby kept encouraging me through it.....mama died the next day in my arms!! (I know now it was hypoglacimia)...He now never tells me to leave them be....and I always make sure Im here for them!!


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## tripledranch (Jul 13, 2013)

*Nature..*

Thanks for all the support. I agree sometimes it is out of your control, but the majority works out just fine. And a little luck!


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