Jumbo Sized

Remember my tiny little dancing Gypsy girl?  She kept ending up spraddle legged until I made a little elastic device to help her keep her legs together and build muscle.  Well, Clover’s Jumbo boy had the same problem.  Kind of.  He also was so cramped and folded in there that his front hooves were folded under.

Poor Jumbo had problems on both ends, but I made a jumbo-sized orthopedic device for him.

He’s already doing much better!  We can’t forget his not-so-little sister, Janelle.  It’s no wonder he couldn’t move around in there.

Janelle, Clover and Jumbo

If Clover thinks she’s tired now, wait until they start running all over!

Fully Baked and Out of the Oven

Cookie’s official due date was this coming Tuesday.  I didn’t think she was going to make it that long because she’s huge.  I’ve never seen her look so big before.

Cookie Blackboer

This afternoon her timer went off and the babies were done.  She had a hard time getting the first one here.  He’s awfully big, but we finally got him out.

Buckling No. 1

Her second boy was a lot easier.  They are both doing well.  So is Cookie Mom.

Cookie and Buckling No. 2

That just leaves me three more goats to have kids this year–twin sisters, Pistol and Vinnie.

And Pistol’s girl, Clover.

I’m ready for all the kids to be safely here.

Tequilla and Midnight Margarita Drinking Problems

Last night when the goats came up for the evening, I noticed Maggie had really dropped and her udder was completely full, so I wasn’t surprised when she was in active labor at my bedtime check.  So much for bed.

Maggie

She was having a lot of contractions, but she wasn’t pushing, so I finally did a quick check.  Her cervix wasn’t fully open, but I could tell there was a baby right there.  I waited for a bit longer, and when the baby’s bag broke, I checked again.  She still wasn’t fully dilated, but I could feel teeth and no feet.  I called the vet and continued trying to work on getting the kid here.  After working to get her cervix open I finally found feet, but I could not get him pulled.

I think my moving the kid and getting him positioned correctly helped because she finally started pushing.  I kept checking my clock and it was about twenty minutes after I talked to the vet at 11:54 pm that I finally got her big boy out.  He was about enough “to-kill-ya”.  He was slow to start and very weak after that long ordeal.

The vet arrived just a couple of minutes later, and I told her what was going on and let her know she got to deal with whatever else Maggie had in there.  She gloved up and I held Maggie while she went in.  It’s never good when she says, “That’s probably part of the problem.  Yuck.”  She pulled out a dead rotting fetus.  She went right back in and said the next one felt more normal in size.  She brought out a living dark little girl just after midnight.

Maggie and kids

I present to you Tequilla and Midnight Margarita.

Tequilla

Midnight Margarita

Unfortunately their long difficult birth was hard on them, and neither one seems able to figure out the nursing.  I did milk some colostrum out of Maggie and put in a bottle.  I finally managed to get them to take a good bottle of the colostrum.

Hopefully Tequilla and Margarita will start drinking strait from the jug and get past their drinking problem soon.

I hope you’ll come back to join me for Friday’s Hunt.  I have this week’s items at the top of my side bar.