The last time I checked Oreo was 3 AM, she is 6 y/o and her labors tend to be pretty fast...so I crawled out of bed at 5 AM, dragged myself down the barn and ducked into the kidding pen where Oreo gave a final push and deposited a kid at my feet.
No way that's a doe, I thought, as I started drying it off. I cleared the sack off his head, confirmed that it was indeed a buck kid, finished rubbing him off and handed him to a sibling.
I slipped out of the pen to check on Emerald and found she was much, much worse than last night. It was obvious she was in a lot of pain and she was now very weak. Her previously infected eye was completely dead now and it didn't look like there was much we could do for her. That was extremely discouraging as the previous day we'd had a very positive vet visit and she was alert, happy and still eating. Our vet gave us a lot of hope for her, as we hadn't been too sure she'd pull through from whatever was going on. We aren't sure exactly what all was going on with her, I still have no idea what it was(most likely a combination of things) but never in my life have I seen a goat go downhill so fast. Just yesterday afternoon she jumped into the van and stood up the entire way to the vet and all the way home. Last night she hopped eagerly on to the stand to be milked. Now she couldn't even sit up and was in terrible pain. From what, I don't know.
I had checked Oreo and found another kid not too far in, but she hadn't started pushing yet, so I ran back and forth between Oreo and Emerald's pen, keeping an eye on Oreo and trying to make Emerald comfortable.
Finally she started pushing again, so I grabbed a towel and caught the next kid as it shot out. I dried off a second large kid(not a surprise from Oreo) and groaned as I realized it was another buck. Really Oreo, at least one doe would have been nice after all that and shivering my way down to the barn every 2 hours all night long to check you.
But no, she had twin does last year so this year just had to be twin bucks. I checked to make sure Oreo wasn't hiding any more babies and then found someone to take the second kid while I went back to Emerald. I propped her up, made her comfortable, gave her some Banamine for pain and stayed with her, holding her head up and and keeping her calm.
My brother came and took my place with Emerald so I could go milk out Oreo and feed the boys.
As usual Oreo gave a LOT of colostrum. It's good to have her in milk again and I would have enjoyed milking her had I not been rushing to get back to Emerald.
I filled a couple bottles and set them in hot water to warm them up a bit then turned my attention to the new kids. As much as I wished they were does I couldn't help admiring what nice kids they were. They'll make someone nice herdsires someday. The first kid is a really pretty broken chamoise, he was the biggest and weighed in at 10 lbs. His brother is also very pretty, he's colored like Tansy's doeling, Dancer, which I think is a very pretty color. He was 9 lbs, so a little smaller than his brother but a pretty good size. I got colostrum into them and gave them to my younger siblings while I went back out to Emerald.
I stayed with Emerald until the end, and she passed later that morning.
RIP My beautiful Emerald:( You can read her post here, I don't want to try and put anything else about her into this post, but I'll post some happy pictures of the newest additions!
I had names picked out for them but the younger kids were insistent that they be Boromir and Faramir so that's what they are. It fits them anyway!
Boromir, the oldest one.
And his brother, Faramir
So, for the most part a sad day:(
But it is nice to have new babies around. And although they are both boys, if there is one thing I've learned to be grateful for in the past couple months it's quick, easy kiddings with no complications!
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