Goat load of trouble

The mama goats have been birthing like crazy the past few days. But we still haven't worked out the kinks that have been plaguing us. The goat mom (pictured on the left) had triplets early this week and accidentally suffocated one on Friday. Then, that same mother looked like she was ready to give birth again, she was so bloated she looked like she was carrying lopsided basketballs. Ken thought she might have eaten too much corn which is very dangerous because it can either cause acidosis or bacteria to multiply too much. We forced some Maalox down her throat to help with the bloating. Another goat had twins and one died. And Lady, our little bottle baby has pneumonia. We started to give her penicillin. Her nose and eyes were mucousy and she wasn't drinking her bottle.

On Friday I gave a newborn kid a shot of BO SE (selenium and Vitamin E) as a precaution. Just in case the feed we give the goats is deficient in selenium. The kids need it for muscle development. It was my first time giving a shot and I was a little nervous I might hurt them but it wasn't bad at all. Kids are far tamer than piglets. When we castrated the boys (using crimpers) they cried out initially but then were silent as we counted out the three minutes (we basically crushed the cord leading to the testicle.) We put one of the boys down and he was lying on the ground almost convulsing. Worried we asked Cale if the boy was alright. Cale said something like " yeah he's fine, he just got his balls crushed."

Today I went in for chores and found two more twins had joined the goat crew. They were sporting blue snuggies, so I knew something was up. One of them was hunched over and both of them were not interested in taking the nipple or the bottle. Apparently their temperatures had crashed last night. I gave them each 1 cc of penicillin. I grabbed one of the goats to give her a shot and knelt right into a fresh pile of turd. I had just washed my overalls yesterday!

Things were looking up for the bloated goat mama and Lady. The mama looked much slimmer today and Lady came right up to me, eager to take the bottle, while wagging her little goat tail.

In the afternoon when I was checking on the snuggie twins I heard the sounds of crying kids, I looked up and saw two new babies outside the pens. I put the kids in a pen and tried to get the mom to follow but she ran away. I spent the next few minutes chasing her around and trying to coax her into the pen where her babies were. She could hear them crying but did not immediately locate them. Eventually I pushed her in their direction and she went in. I checked her tit to see how her milk was ( a little low) and checked to see if the kids could stand on their own (they could) and one of them started to milk.

The kidding season is well under way. I can only imagine what it is going to be like with all the kids running around the aisle in the barn!