O2 kids...without me there!

Kidded on:  February 23rd, 2011

As I was coming home from picking up 20 bales of hay at a friends' house, the thought of O2 kidding didn't cross my mind at all.  A storm was headed our way and I had money in the back of the truck, so I was focused on getting home.  Me and my family had planned to leave early in the morning for a whole day at an auction, so I had this big plan of what I was going to do when I arrived at the house (at 11:30 p.m.)

When I got home, it was work time!  I told my younger sister to just peek in at O2, after she was done checking on her bunnies.  So, off she went to the barn and me to unload and stack hay!

As the last bale was unloaded, and the truck pulled away, we heard someone screaming from the barn, saying something...but it was so far away and muffled that I thought she said "Bada is dead in the fence!" (Bada is one of our junior does).  I jumped off the truck, and ran, stumbling toward the barn...in the dark of course, yelling "what??  Bada is dead?!!!", and then I heard more accurately, "kid on the ground!".  Then I proceeded to ask (as I was running), "Is it alive??  Is O2 ok??!!!), of course the only response I got was stuttering and shouting!  I finally stormed in the barn and there laid the pure white, ball of fur...it was a beautiful, healthy buckling, all dried off and laying near his mom.  I was floored and really...just astonished at the size of him!

As we pulled the big buckling away from mama goat, she cried and screamed...it was very sad (he's a bottle kid, which means we feed him by hand, that way he'll be more people friendly).

She was still HUGE and I was sure she had another baby in there, so my sister went ahead and stuck a couple fingers up in there, but felt only the placenta.  About 15 minutes after that, she flawlessly dropped the whole placenta and there was hardly any blood.  She still looked really big to me, so me and some of the family stayed down at the barn until about 3 a.m., when...I decided to just give up watching her :)

Then yesterday (the day after birth, February 24th) at noon, still nothing, after about 24 hours...and that's when a bit of concern started to creep in.  I was worried that it was turning out like another Indy case (you'll know what I'm talking about if you read the previous blog post), with a dead kid up inside.  I didn't want to stick my fingers in there, as she tore in 3 places when she gave birth to the buckling, just for her comfort...her stress level was already sky high.

Today, as I went out to milk, I peered into her stall and saw a big brown something in the corner.  My heart jumped (as I thought it was a kid)...but as I went closer, I saw that it was a BIG goat patty, lol!  That's why she was so huge, so now her belly is pretty small.  Since that, she's pooped a couple of those big goat patties.

So, what's the lesson from this experience?  Always be prepared for a doe to kid in kidding season and consider constipation as a factor when you think there's a kid in there 24 hours later!

Thanks for reading!
-Hannah