Goat Babies!

Back in the beginning of December, we rented a boer goat buck so we could breed two of our does.  Goats are usually pregnant for around 150 days, but anywhere between 140 and 155 days is normal.  One of our girls' date was April 30th.  We had to be out of town on the 26th and 27th so the children thought for sure she would have them when we were gone but she didn't.

Tuesday the 30th, she was acting normal. Huge but normal.  She did not show any signs of going into labor.  I had told the children I would take them to the movies on Wednesday to see Endgame but it started raining really hard Tuesday night and Wednesday morning  and we were supposed to get another 3-5 inches.  I wasn't sure I wanted to drive all the way to Texarkana in the downpouring rain.  Then Anthony woke up with a headache and Christian had a sore throat so I told them we would wait to go the movie and I'm glad we did because if we had gone we would have missed seeing the goat babies born!

I checked on Jessie in the morning and she seemed fine, nothing unusual when I fed her breakfast.  At lunchtime I sent Alex to go out and check on her.  When he came back he said there was something leaking out of her.  So off I went to check her out (not that I really knew what I was doing other then what I read online.  It was our first time for goat babies!) 

The rain was slowing down thankfully (and stopped a bit later) and yes she was leaking an amber colored liquid which according to what I'd read meant labor was imminent.  The boys and I cleaned up her pen as best we could (it was a mud bath out there from all the rain!) and put down fresh bedding under the shelter where they sleep and in the pen too.  Even though we knew something was going on we still weren't sure how long it would take.  I watched her for awhile about 30 minutes.  She was very uncomfortable and her milk bag so swollen she could barely lay down. 

When she started acting like she was pushing I went and told the children to come out so they could watch from outside the pen, but I told them they needed to be quiet and not disturb her, and that it could take awhile (an hour or so) before they actually saw a baby.  When goat babies are being born the first thing you see is a bubble.  The children were a bit worried because we could see the bubble and then it would disappear then we would see it again and it would disappear again.  I told them it was all normal.  Inside the bubble is the baby goat hoof first then the head and rest of the body.  After about 30 minutes we had our first baby, a red boy who looked just like his daddy!  The mama goat did a great job cleaning him off and after only a few minutes he had stood up and was trying to walk!

About 20 minutes after the first goat was born we could see another bubble.  The second baby was born much faster then the first.  When he came out and was on the ground his sac was still intact and covering his mouth and nose.  Alex was in the pen and had gloves on just in case we needed to help so he was able to pull the sac away from the goats face and we wrapped him in a towel and rocked him back and forth and he was breathing fine thank goodness!  Mama goat took over and started cleaning him up.  We watched and waited to see if there would be another but she only had two.

After we had supper when I went back to check on the goats I noticed that the mother goat was paying lots of attention to the red goat but walking away from the white.  We closed them up in a stall for the night hoping that close quarters wouldn't allow her to walk away.  That night we had bad storms in the middle of the night that sent me out to check on them. The white goat was by itself and a bit chilly while the mama and red goat were snuggled up together.  I got him warm and did get her to feed him when she was feeding the other one and settled them altogether.  A few hours later I went back out and she was doing everything she could to stay away from the white baby.  Emmie and I headed into town to buy some supplies for bottle feeding, but while I was gone Alex warmed the baby up with a towel and when she was nursing the brown baby got the white one latched on.  And that is what we have had to do ever since.  She doesn't seem to recognize it as her baby and will not take care of him though she is very attentive to the other one. We are getting him latched on to feed every couple of hours during the day and twice during the night.  They seem to be doing well and are so cute when they play.  Just like puppies!

One of our other does should have her babies in about two weeks.