Update on the Kids
Here are the details about yesterday's kids:
Sparky (Sparque as she prefers it) delivered two bucklings yesterday afternoon at about 2:00 in the afternoon. As Jeff predicted, she waited until the weather turned and it was the most inconvenient moment. It had turned cold and rainy and we were expecting company at the house. I guess she decided that middle of the night wasn't inconvenient enough since I have been sleeping int he goat house since Tuesday anyway.
The delivery went well. Both bucklings came out front hooves followed by noses in diver formation. The first one spent a while coming out and going back in, but the second one didn't fool around. We did get nervous about the after birth. Last year Sparque had a retained placenta and it was unpleasant. We had oxitocin on hand this year and when Sparque hadn't passed the afterbirth two hours after the delivery, I intervened. She passed the after birth shortly after that. The oxitocin triggers the contraction of the uterus. It can also be used to induce delivery. It's possible she would have eventually passed it on her own, but given her history, I was glad to have it.
I did get to try my bounce technique out to check for additional kids after the first. It was quite obvious there was still another body in there, I could feel the hard parts moving around in her belly.
All in all, a good delivery. Nobody died and no reachin' in. The delivery was later than we expected and we were starting to get a little on edge. Last year, she was a day early, so this year we have been prepared since Tuesday and expect it by Thursday. She had gone into a false labor the Thursday prior. It does seem like we got a lot of rare bad experiences out of the way last year with two poor presentations, a retained placenta and a still born. We are hoping we have paid our dues for a while.
We are pretty sure we are done for the season. Our other doe that we bred does not look pregnant. But she still has nearly 1-1/2 months to go if she is, so it is possible.
Whealt, it's been a long day of over due equipment work and I still have to go out and check on the kids...
Sparky (Sparque as she prefers it) delivered two bucklings yesterday afternoon at about 2:00 in the afternoon. As Jeff predicted, she waited until the weather turned and it was the most inconvenient moment. It had turned cold and rainy and we were expecting company at the house. I guess she decided that middle of the night wasn't inconvenient enough since I have been sleeping int he goat house since Tuesday anyway.
The delivery went well. Both bucklings came out front hooves followed by noses in diver formation. The first one spent a while coming out and going back in, but the second one didn't fool around. We did get nervous about the after birth. Last year Sparque had a retained placenta and it was unpleasant. We had oxitocin on hand this year and when Sparque hadn't passed the afterbirth two hours after the delivery, I intervened. She passed the after birth shortly after that. The oxitocin triggers the contraction of the uterus. It can also be used to induce delivery. It's possible she would have eventually passed it on her own, but given her history, I was glad to have it.
I did get to try my bounce technique out to check for additional kids after the first. It was quite obvious there was still another body in there, I could feel the hard parts moving around in her belly.
All in all, a good delivery. Nobody died and no reachin' in. The delivery was later than we expected and we were starting to get a little on edge. Last year, she was a day early, so this year we have been prepared since Tuesday and expect it by Thursday. She had gone into a false labor the Thursday prior. It does seem like we got a lot of rare bad experiences out of the way last year with two poor presentations, a retained placenta and a still born. We are hoping we have paid our dues for a while.
We are pretty sure we are done for the season. Our other doe that we bred does not look pregnant. But she still has nearly 1-1/2 months to go if she is, so it is possible.
Whealt, it's been a long day of over due equipment work and I still have to go out and check on the kids...
posted by MMP at
5:44 PM
1 Comments:
Lovely! Well done. Love the 'no reaching in' part. I'm hoping to have easy pregnancies/deliveries too since it will be my (and their) first time at this.
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Anonymous, at 5:27 PM
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