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Cypress Grove Homestead Births (so far) 2019!!!

572 views 6 replies 7 participants last post by  PetLover 
#1 · (Edited)
Hey Everyone,
I just thought it would be fun to share what has happened so far on our homestead this summer regarding the births of our little goat babies. 3 of our 4 Nigerian girls have delivered their babies and we are anxiously awaiting our last girl to drop her babies somewhere around the 18th.
Two weeks ago last Thursday Gingersnap, one of our first fresheners and daughter of Pip (who is coming up next), had a beautiful little girl we call Zazzy. Her labor started around 11 am (loss of the plug) and Zazzy was born at approximately 8:15 pm, weighing 2 lbs 6 ounces. (I am going to try and load the pictures in order to their birth, so hopefully Zazzy's pic will be first below.)
On the next day, Gingersnap's mom, Pip delivered TRIPLETS! One girl and 2 boys. Pip is a second freshener and just like last year, she had no time to dawdle about with a lengthy labor. She started showing signs that we noticed around 9 am and by 10:45 am she was delivering the last of her 3 babies. The first two babies came into the world head and hooves first, but little brother was breech. Pip is a champ though and with a couple of Herculean pushes, out came baby boy, butt first with his back legs up by his ears. Her first, a pretty little doeling is known here on the farm as Skittles (2 lbs 2 ounces), and her two brothers in order of birth, are Ziggy Stardust and Major Tom (2 lbs 8 ounces and 2 lbs 14 ounces, respectively).
This past Sunday, more than a week after the other girls, Binky, our herd queen and "benevolent" overlord (at least in her own mind) started into labor around 12 am. After a very long night of waiting and watching, we realized that Binky was having some difficulty and around 11 the next morning her contractions stopped and labor seemed to stall. We decided to feel and figure out if there was something wrong. Our wonderful mentor and "goat Auntie" who had been in communication with us almost throughout, suggested checking to make sure there were no issues or mal presentations. After prepping and going in, we found that a baby was indeed presenting, but with its head and one bent front leg, and what we thought was the hoof of a sibling up behind the head of baby 1. Being the first time we had ever had to assist, we gently tried to push the "second baby's" hoof back while also trying to feel for baby 1's other front leg. All this is going on inside the birth canal mind you. In the meantime, the additional pressure from my fingers must have jump started Binky's contractions again because she started pushing in earnest (before I forget, even though her labor started at midnight the night before, we never saw her actively pushing, which is why we held off intervening until we did. We thought it was just taking a long time to maneuver the babies into position because she was as big as a house.) After about 10 minutes of difficult pushing, Binky finally got the baby's head and one leg out but it was clear this baby was stuck. We ended up helping her by holding the baby's head and pulling gently with each contraction. Finally, after what felt like 8 hours, and after I was sure I was going to pull the poor little creature's head off, I finally felt a shoulder pop free and with one more push, the biggest baby I had ever seen (in my not so extensive 2 years as a goat dad) slid into the world. We grabbed it up, discovered to no surprise it was a buckling, and took him to towel dry while keeping an eye on Binky. I was anxious for her to start pushing again to get the other baby I had felt out and into the world. However, after 45 minutes and no signs of pushing or contractions, we took some time to go wash up a bit and grab some coffee to revive us and molasses water to revive Binky. When we came back out half an hour later, we found that Binky had delivered the placenta, letting us know there were no more babies coming. What I THOUGHT was baby 2's leg was actually one of baby 1's back legs that was up by his ear and had apparently entered into the birth canal with his front half!!! Thank goodness I had gotten it pushed back in and out of the way. Talk about a crash course in assisting a delivery! We kept him in a box by our bed the first night because he had a difficult start in life and being a week+ younger than the other babies, we wanted him to get some rest and extra attention before being introduced and subsequently trampled by the baby goat stampede. Baby boy is named Linus because the first night, the only way we could keep him from crying so we could get some sleep was to cover him up with a blanket. He was 4 lbs 14 ounces at birth.
I am going to try and post pictures of these first 5 babies, and I will describe them as best I can, but please let me know those of you with much more experience than me in describing baby goat colors and patterns if you notice something I don't. We are still learning and I already had to get help from our amazing mentor (who I am sure is going to change her number so I stop bugging her LOL) with coat colors, because... well, yeah, everyone knows what chamoisee means, right?!?!? :) I definitely did not.
So to put an end to this babbling post, and without further ado, welcome to the world: Zazzy-a lovely little gold doeling with a white poll and minimal white on her body, blue eyes, and wattles (in photos, baby #1)
Skittles-a beautiful little chamoisee with white belting, a white poll, moonspots, blue eyes, and wattles (in photos, baby #2)
Ziggy Stardust-a striking chamoise buckling with extensive white, a white poll, moonspots, blue eyes, and wattles (baby #3)
Major Tom-a charming little cream buckling with extensive white, a white poll, moonspots, blue eyes, and wattles (baby #4)
Linus-an adorable buckskin with moonspots and blue eyes (baby #5)

Mamas are all recovering nicely and babies are thriving! We will keep you posted on Snickerdoodle's birth. She is Gingersnap's twin sister (although they couldn't be more different in terms of looks or personality), making her Pip's daughter as well. We expect her to deliver around August 18th
 

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