# Newbie waiting for first kiddings



## Clear Crescent (Feb 26, 2011)

Hi all! This is my very first thread on the site ...

We got our two Saanens last April after they kidded, and this will be our first kidding. I've never seen any animal birth (except for me, twice, at home :greengrin: :thumb: ), but I have been reading like crazy. First up is April May, 150 days on Mar 31st. She is always wide anyway, with her large rumen, but she is looking extra wide right now! Second is Aoife (sounds like "ee-fuh" ... we didn't name her :shrug: ), 150 days on April 20th.










April May (feeders have been knocked down by our new donkey ... waiting on hubby to fix it!)










Aoife


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## toth boer goats (Jul 20, 2008)

Welcome to TGS.... :wave: we are happy to have you here...you have a very pretty Doe there.... can't wait to see the babies... :thumb: :greengrin:


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## milk and honey (Oct 31, 2010)

Well, those girls are just beautiful!!! Welcome from Washington State! I experienced my first kidding this month.. and all the reading and postings on this site were VERY helpful... Some of the girls and guys here at the goat spot have barn cams set up.. so you can watch some of the kiddings! I also watched some on youtube, and on various websites. I have to say that I felt well prepared for the kidding.. I had prepared a kidding kit, and pretty much followed most of the recommendations I could find...(thank the Lord for the internet!) and when all was said and done... my doe pretty much did all the work herself!!! (almost like she didn't even need me??) But it was a great experience, and I could tell that my own doe felt better having me there with her.
Good luck and have FUN!


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## maple hill farm tina (Mar 14, 2010)

Hi, and welcome to The Goat Spot! I'm glad you found us. There's TONS of information here on kidding and everything else you could need to know to keep your girls happy and healthy. I agree with milk and honey. If you have the opportunity, watch as many videos of goat births as you can (you tube has several). Even if the type of goat is different, you can get information on what to do with the different birth presentations. With a home birth, you're trained how to make sure your own child is in the right position. (I'll be having my fifth home birth, third water birth, in July). Too bad we can't teach our goats how to sit on a birth ball for a couple of months before giving birth... :wink:


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## Clear Crescent (Feb 26, 2011)

Sooo ... it looks like Aoife is at the same gestation as April after all. We pasture bred, but it looked (to us first-timers) like she didn't take the first heat. Or maybe neither one is close, I dunno. Here are some pictures, let me know what you more experienced goat midwives think. (Please excuse the very mucky ground ... it has been raining here for days).

April, my very wide girl.










Close up of April's girly parts - she had a little string, a bit dry-ish looking, that had looped up around itself.










Another view of April










April with stiff back legs?










Aoife (we shaved nearly her entire body. Why? I have no idea what possessed us. We won't be doing that again ... she is miserable and cold, poor girl)










Rear view of Aoife










Aoife's girly parts










Another view of Aoife










So, soon, right? I don't have a barn cam or anything like that. How often should I be going out to check on them? Should they be penned or left to graze?

I thought I was ready, but now I am a bit overwhelmed. :?


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## Clear Crescent (Feb 26, 2011)

Aoife is most certainly in labor. Looks like we will have kids today or tonight.


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## toth boer goats (Jul 20, 2008)

:hug: :leap: Happy Kidding.. :thumb:


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## liz (Oct 5, 2007)

Aoife's udder was looking very full there...nice and wide at the top too! Hope to see your new herd members before too long and don't be surprised if April decides to go too.


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## lissablack (Nov 30, 2009)

If you have a baby monitor it helps a LOT. In addition to checking on the a lot.

Welcom to TGS, and also to GOAT BABIES!

Jan


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## Calico Patch Farm (Mar 8, 2011)

So...any babies yet? Hope all goes well!


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## HoosierShadow (Apr 20, 2010)

Awww I hope everything is going great! Can't wait to hear about it!


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## iddybit acres (Feb 18, 2011)

Welcome to TGS!!! :wave: Beautiful goat's!!


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## Clear Crescent (Feb 26, 2011)

Wow. That was even worse than I could have imagined. Thanks, RunAround, for giving me some guidance and support.

Everyone made it through, and we have :kidred: from Aoife.

Now to sleep.


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## hallsthirdacrefarm (Mar 30, 2011)

I'm a newbie waiting too..mine are 148 days today (nigerian dwarfs). Looks like you're gonna get kids before me though! lol...good luck. And for the cold doe...I've made quick blakies with a towel or cheap drugstore fleece throw and some tarp clips and bungees or rope. Just wrap the "blanket" around, connect six tarp clips in pairs with rope or bungees & use to fasten twice under the belly & once infront of the brisket...or you can use an old jacket on backwards with or without the sleeve cut back...the zippier goes along the top of the spine...just ideas Good luck on kiddos!


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## Clear Crescent (Feb 26, 2011)

Our doeling looks like she is very weak ... she can't stand on her front legs very well. They keep buckling under her. We are in middle GA, and we were right on the cusp of the selenium line between deficiency and sufficiency from what I read. Is it normal for the legs to buckle (about 6 hours after birth)? Or should she be able to stand by now? 

I made sure she got some colostrum last night before I went to bed, but I don't know how much. I held her close to Aoife's udder and squeezed the teat toward her mouth, and she turned and latched on, but she only suckled for probably 30 seconds? She did that probably twice, and then she wasn't interested anymore. She laid down in the corner, and I left Aoife and the doeling.

This morning I went out and held her up again (she was a bit stronger this time, but still couldn't stand). She suckled for maybe 2 minutes, a bit on both sides. I held her and supported the teat so she could nurse, until she wasn't interested anymore.

So help me, experienced goat breeders. Am I doing the right things? Should I get some BoSe? Is that an oral supplement? Is that something I should give to my other pregnant doe right now? She is due anytime.

I know I need to help the doeling get milk until she can do it on her own. Aoife is being great about it, very patient and still and talking to her doeling the whole time. How often do I need to make sure the doeling is eating?

Also, I had to go in to Aoife and help her. A lot. The doeling was breech with both legs completely forward from the waist (stifle? flank?). I did not buy antibiotics as part of my birth kit (stupid), so I need to get that from the feed store, too, right? 

There was another very strange thing (to me at least). When I entered Aoife, I felt little hard objects in the bottom of her. After she passed the amniotic sac (which broke while I was inside), there were what looked very clearly to me like little bones. About the size and shape of small chicken drummettes, and also what looked like spine bones. Was that from a twin that died early in the gestation? Is there anything I could do to prevent that from happening next time?

Thanks so much for the help.


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## RunAround (Feb 17, 2008)

Congrats on getting her out, sorry I wasn't as helpful as usual, I was a bit sleepy. lol

Sounds weird about the bones... do you have a picture? I've never had that happen, had a mummified kid once, but never just bones. 

I would get some BoSe if you can and get the mom on antibiotics asap. Pen G 1cc per 10lbs for 5-7 days or LA-200 1cc per 20 lbs for 5 days.


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## Clear Crescent (Feb 26, 2011)

Thanks! I wanted to get a picture of the bones last night, but it was 2 am and I was tired and wanted to wash all the birthy stuff off of me. Then my husband went to the dump this morning, so the birth waste bag is already gone. But they looked exactly like the bones from little chicken wing drummets, and some that looked like vertebrae, maybe 1" across and sort of stackable. Very strange.

So I called our local feed stores this morning, and one of them gave me 5 oz of an oxytetracycline injection (didn't have penicillin). Before I could inject it, a reputable goat person from my area returned my call. She advised me to take the 5 cc and mix it with about 50 cc of warm water, and give Aoife a uterine lavage with that antibiotic solution via a weak kid syringe. So that's what I did. Do I still need to have her on a full course of antibiotics? Before I went in, I washed, scrubbed with betadine, and used an OB lube that supposedly has antiseptic properties also, if that helps.

The doeling wasn't suckling very well after the first feeding this morning, so I milked some from Aoife and fed her about 5 cc in a bottle. Then just a few minutes ago my husband and I got her to suckle and eat a bit from Aoife's teats.

The kid is a bit stronger. I couldn't get a hold of a vet that sees large animals this morning, and all the vets only work half a day on Saturday and not at all on Sunday around here, so there is no way to get the BoSe injectable until Monday at the earliest. My local supply stores didn't have any selenium products at all, and the closest was an hour away, and they only have selenium powder to sprinkle on the food, not the selenium/vit E gel. I ordered some gel online, so it will be coming soon hopefully. Is there a window of time that it has to be given in?

Most of the time she is laying down:










Sometimes she gets up, but her legs are still pretty crooked/lame in the front you can see:










And down she plops again after several seconds:


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## liz (Oct 5, 2007)

She appears to be alert and healthy, until you can get the Selenium though, try splinting her legs with some vet wrap and tubes from paper towels, it may help her gain strength in them as well as help straighten them.

She is an adorable baby...and Mama deserves a big hug for being so good even after you had to go into her!


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## jglfainters (Jan 10, 2011)

She's very cute. I have no idea about the bones. Very strange!

The last doeling I had born, was walking on knuckles like that. I thought I had BoSe and was wrong and had to wait on the selenium gel. Her legs actually got stronger on her own after a couple days and now she has selenium gel/vitamin e on board and she's my wildest, craziest kid running all over the place!

I hope your little girl recovers. She looks very healthy otherwise!


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## goat luver 101 (Jul 19, 2011)

I had a kid that did that for the first day of life too. We gave him an injection of BoSe and he was fine an hour later. We had to get the BoSe from the vet, we couldn't get it from the feed store. very cute baby. Big too!


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## HoosierShadow (Apr 20, 2010)

Awww she's so cute! I am sorry she is having issues, I hope the BoSe takes care of it.

For future reference, if you don't have access to BoSe or Selenium E Gel, then go to your local pharmacy and get some selenium tablets and vitamin e gel caps. You CAN use those <but I don't remember the dosage>.
Our first kidding last year we had a buckling that was showing signs of deficiency about a week and a half old, didn't have any gel yet, so I gave him the tablets/gel cap and he bounced back pretty fast.

We weren't able to get the gel into the other mom's who were due afterwards in time to make a difference so we waited until they kidded.
We had a kid born with no sucking reflex and he couldn't stand up at all. I took him in, gave him the gel, syringe fed him colostrum from mom, and within 5 hours he was strong enough to be back with her, but it took a few days before his legs started to straighten out normally and him not be a clumsy baby.

Since then I always gave the gel 4 weeks before the does are due, then give the doe/kids some after they are born.
We just bought BoSe, so we'll see what happens this kidding season. I really do like the gel, I just can't remember to order it when I need it lol


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