The gory side of goats.... kids!

   Now in the last post I mentioned that Esther was pregnant and due in August. Naturally she gave birth on July 26th. I'm thinking that the previous owners didn't really keep track of their breeding appropriately. I write everything down in my planner, I also write them down on my animal binder and put a reminder on my cell phone. Family teases me saying that I have OCD, well surprise I am actually diagnosed with OCD so that's not as funny as everyone seems to thing it is. I just like things to be organized and I like to be able to plan ahead for the health of my animals. There is nothing obsessive about that. It's just good animal management. Luckily because of my OCD I do check my animals constantly through out the day, almost obsessively so and its really bad when they are pregnant. I do constant pooch checks, belly checks for kicks as well as udder checks to see how well everything is filling out. 

   Remember, I am not a professional nor have I ever done any sort of veterinary classes. I'm just a lady who has google and a library card and really likes to research things. I've read a lot on goat births but since I've never actually seen any birth (other than birthing my own children) in person I don't consider myself an expert. A few days before the blessed event (I think about 4) there was a stringy white goo coming from her vagina. It was maybe a little yellowish colored but more like egg yolk. I am sorry if this grosses anyone out I'm just trying to provide information for the curious. I wish now that I had taken pictures because her pooch was certainly swollen and her anus was lowered towards it. There were no tail ligaments at all that I could feel so even though I had been told her due date was August I was pretty sure things would be happening sooner. The morning of the 26th there was a bit of rust colored discharge. It didn't look like blood, it was too brown in color. Everything online told me that it was most likely a rupture of the amniotic sac or losing the mucous plug. I told Hubs that I thought today would be baby goat day and he just rolled his eyes at me and went to work, nerd. Of course, that meant that I had to quadruple the amount of times I checked on her. I think I was checking about every 10-15 minutes. 

   I went up dutifully not expecting to see anything but as soon as I got there she had a contraction. With that contraction out popped a tiny nose and two little hooves. Of course, I had forgotten my phone this time so I started screaming to get my kids' attention. All my kiddos came running. My biggest boy brought my cell phone but they all obediently waited outside the goat yard hoping to catch a glimpse of the new baby. Esther was not a first time mother and she went into the goat shack to have her baby while I sat in the door way to keep our other curious goats out of the way but still be close enough to help if she needed it. I grabbed some 7% iodine since that's what all the goat books say to use, scissors, alcohol wipes and water so I had the basic medical supplies for goat delivery. By the time I got back, the little goat's head was sticking out. I quickly cleared some of the goop away from her nose and mouth. Next contraction, Esther pushed her out and I gently guided the baby to the ground. It was pretty much a perfect delivery. 

   Honestly, Esther did just about everything by the book. I was so thrilled that she had a little girl. We had our fingers crossed for a doe. This is Hannah. It took a couple days for us to decide on a name. 

Then I couldn't tell if there was another baby in there. Her last time having babies, she delivered twins. In the goat world twins are more common than singles. So being a panicky new goat mom I did the only thing I could think of. I called the people we bought Abigail from. I figured they had two goats this year that had twins. They'd know how to tell. I probably sounded like some sort of psycho. First questions she asked me was Esther having any contractions still? Well yes of course she was but she hadn't expelled a placenta before and even human people still have contractions until the placenta is out. Then she suggested I 'bounce' momma goat's belly. You gently hook your hands under her belly and lightly bounce. I didn't feel anything. We assumed there wasn't another until something else started coming out. I didn't know what it was so I sent her pictures.

   What the heck was that hanging out of her backside? Was she prolapsing? Was another kid coming out backwards? Nope. That is what a goat placenta looks like on its way out. Some sort of nasty bloody water balloon. Gross. Technically after the placenta is delivered a goat can still deliver another kid but its not really that common. Sometimes twins or triplets have their own but from my 'studies' they seem to commonly share one. 

  I even sent the poor lady a picture of the placenta or bloody water balloon when it was all out. I wanted to know if there was anything missing or anything to worry about. Come to think of it that's probably why she doesn't want to hang out with me huh? Now one last cute baby picture to wipe the gore from your mind.