There are now 6 bouncing baby goats on our place! The waiting and wondering and looking and checking and planning and stressing that goes into baby goats in surreal, and we can only imagine what their poor mama's think! Although nature probably tells them a lot more than it tells us. Three of our four girls went into labor and had their babies no problem, in a matter of just a few hours, and we had no clue! Our poor Fawn though, lost her sweet babies :( No one we have spoken to has ever heard of quite a situation like this one before - she miscarried the first baby, and as she showed no further signs of labor, we assumed she only had the one - THREE DAYS later, she miscarried the second. Poor baby. After a round of antibiotics and boosters from the vet she feels much better, but still seems a bit melancholy when she sees her sisters and their babies.
Boot was the first to kid - I am sitting at work one sunny afternoon when Brandon texts me a picture of baby goats - outside our barn!!!!
Meet Abbot and Costello:
Next came Lemony Snicket - Lem for short. Fawn had actually been showing labor signs that morning, and Lem had not. We go to the barn to check things out, and Lem's first baby decided, while she was having the second, that Fawn was her mama and was over nursing Fawn, who thought this was her baby! Brandon put the little one back with her mama, and Fawn voiced her displeasure to the whole neighborhood. Eventually they all figured it out though. Lem's second baby was small and weak, and Lem left the little girl to die, as nature will do with sickly babies. We cleaned her up, but the poor thing couldn't walk. I held her up under her mother and held a teat in her little mouth so she could nurse, and she seemed a little better. After that my father in law showed us how to work her legs and get blood flowing, and I alternated doing this with holding her to nurse, and in a few hours she was standing on her own and taking wobbly steps!!! She's just fine now, still a bit small but growing and hopping!
Meet Pip and Squeak:
Daisy was the very last to kid - almost 4 weeks after we first thought she was showing labor signs. Words of wisdom imparted to us from our local goat experts - when you think your goats are about to have babies, add a month.
We came home from work one Friday, checked on everyone, and nothing out of the ordinary. We went in and took a nap, and three hours later went to the barn to put everyone up for the night - to find two new goat babies. Whatever Dais, whatever.
Meet Luke and Leia:
