What are some of your complicated kidding stories? Births needing assistance, complications, etc. and how you learned from it, I want to hear about the worst of it if you are comfortable sharing!
:run:
:run:
Understood.Ugh I get sick to my stomach even now over my worst kiddings and it's nothing I find I'm willing to share for the sake of sharing. But what did I learn? Crap happens no matter how many years you have under your belt or how prepared you think you are.
I'm so sorry.OK here it goes.
Head back kids.
I had a few but got all of them out, some died, some saved.
On one doe, she had a 180 degree uterine tear low, when I reached in to feel if there were anymore kids, I felt her bladder through the tear.
But at the time, didn't know what in the world it was.
Never felt anything like that in my life.
I called a vet, he said just pull it out. mg:
I told him, I want you to come out and tell me what this is.
He showed up and verified it was her bladder and guided me on what to do, gave her a shot of something, antibiotics, banamine.
Said, we won't give up, she is acting OK and not bleeding out. Try to keep infection and pain at bay. He said it is always grim with large tears and for me to not expect a lot of time with her. She lived for 2 weeks incredibly, more time than if I did nothing.
She loved her buck kid, which was the one with is head back, dearly.
She was so loving with him and he loved her too. So the extra time she had with him was blessed.
It was so devastating, when she got to the stage, she could not get up and stopped eating.
The infection took over at that time, despite all we did.
I knew she wouldn't last long, but it was a miracle how long, she did hold on.
The weird part is, the tear wasn't bleeding out.
We sadly put her down and gave him to a dear friend to care for him.
I had a doe kid with no issues or helping, then found her the next morning dead in there stall.
Mystery, unless she had a tear.
There was no infection.
It definitely hurts when we loose them.
:imok:
Also breed your doe with a boy her size or smaller to prevent big babies, especially for first time girlsHere is my doosey of a story, I apologize for the book ahead of time.
About 2 years ago in September, our girls Grace and Bella were due to have their babies. This was our first time having goat babies and we learned a lot. We knew an aproximate date that they had been bred but we weren't 100% sure when they would be due. Being first timers we looked for signs but didn't really have a good reference or idea of what to look for.
One afternoon, I was the first home from school, my parents were both drivers on bus runs and my siblings hadn't gotten off the bus yet. I went out to look for babies and saw stuff hanging out of Grace, I thought for sure she was in labor. I ran inside to call my mom and started gathering supplies we would need(protip: assemble a baby box ahead of time). My mom got home about the time I was about to head back outside. To our surprise Grace had already given birth to baby Meadow and the stuff hanging from her was her afterbirth. Baby Meadow aas perfect: she was small, had long floppy ears, had a little round ear tassel, and one round neck tassel. We happened to have a 4h family stop by and they took the only pictures we have of Meadow and her mommy. We aren't sure why but Grace's afterbirth would not detach on it's own
We dont know if it was due to birth complications while we weren't home, if it was mineral deficiency, or something else. The next day while my sister, brother, and I were at school my mom went out to check on Grace and her baby. All looked fine, but 10 minutes later she went back out and Grace was half dead laying on the ground. My mom and dad scooped Grace and Meadow into the back of our Suburban and drove to the local farm animal vet. He came out but not much could be done, she passed away there in the back of the suburban not long later of sepsis. They brought Grace and Meadow home, put grace behind the goat shed til we could get home and put Meadow in a large box inside. They are contractors for the district and were bus drivers too so they made sure that one of them arrived home before we did. I had a bad feeling sometime that day during school that something had happened but I didn't know what. When I got home my dad explained what happened, my sister and I had told my dad that there was going to be goat babies in the house. But we didn't intend for it to be like this.
That night my mom and I went out to check on Bella and found her in labor at 1am. All was going well and the baby bubble was beginning to come out. As the bubble came out what looked like an ear appeared. We quickly realized that this was not an ear, but a tail and that baby Hazel was coming breached. I bolted inside to get my dad, he and my sister went out to help while I stayed inside. They ended up calling a friend that was experienced with goats. To make a long and graphic story short my dad pulled her out, however, we had forgotten to bring a nose sucker out. My sister had never gone so fast, she ran in and back out in 30 seconds. Might I remind you that our house is 100 ft long and the nose sucker was on the other side of the house, plus our goat pen is at least that far away from our house. They were able to save baby Hazel, and soon later Bella delivered Nutmeg with no problems.
We thought our problems were over, but Bella didn't want to care for both babies. She allowed Hazel to eat but not Nutmeg. We would have bottle fed Nutmeg inside too if we didn't already have one house baby. So we made her a few bottles of milk a day with Bellas milk.
At the same time, we bottle fed Meadow inside using goat powdered milk formula. One night after a week or so of bottle feeding Meadow she started acting really bad. She was grinding her teeth, acting lethargic, started having scours, and was bleating, we thought we were going to loose her too. We called a bus driver of ours who has horses and he came over with some Probios. This helped greatly, and the next day we called out goat friend who also worked at the farm animal hospital. She prescribed an antibiotic for the scours, and recommended giving her leaves/ forage and making our own milk from whole milk, butter milk, and condensed milk because the mixed goat milk was upsetting her belly. This made night and day difference.
After that we didn't have too many more problems, none at least that were very bad. But that was definitely a learning experience. Tips I can give are: give your pregnant goats mineral blocks to eat, supervise the birth, assemble a baby box with anything you could ever need, give the mama warm water mixed with karo syrup after birth, give the mama penicillin after her birth, if you bottle feed DO NOT use the powdered formula make your own with whole milk, butter milk, and condensed milk(you can find the recipe online), have the number of an experienced goat friend or vet, and do your research, I did a lot of research before hand but the best information you can get is from people who have felt with this before. Sorry for the book.
Bleeding, shock, energy, weak kids.I am relatively new to goat kidings, what is the cayenne for?
I am just trying to wrap my head around WHY you want people to relive some of the worst moments they have had with their livestock. It is bad enough the first and hundredth time you run through it in your mind. But to dredge it all up again by this post.... i am just not understanding why you would consider wanting to do this to others.What are some of your worst kidding stories? Births needing assistance, complications, etc. and how you learned from it, I want to hear about the worst of it!
:run:
Thank you, I do apologize again if the thread's goal was confusing or saddening to some. One hundred percent not my intention!I admit I wasn't getting it either and I don't have anything against you WHAT SO EVER! Most kidding issues are honestly a fluke. The most common being tangled up kids, or kids being in the dumbest position they could be in. That's not something that one can prevent, and we all know what in theory needs to be done. Of course knowing and actually doing is two totally different things.
But speaking for myself and maybe by the sounds of it others too a lot of times bad kiddings end in death and I have had my heart totally ripped out over those. Ideally I know it wasn't my fault, but I still feel like I failed them. So I think that's why this is kinda a touchy subject for some.
But to add to this other then my fast crap happens I think the best advise I ever had was when I was told that kid NEEDS to come out or they are all dead. I know a lot of times I have to remind myself this, not that I was giving up and going to leave a doe with a kid in her but that I need to get a bit more aggressive and get that sucker out by any means if easy is just not doing it.