After all of the joy of Zoey's kidding it brought back a very fresh memory of my first attempt to have a doe kid. Ivy was the first Nigerian I bought on my own as an adult and she hails from Myers Mischief Manor. She is a beautiful silver doe with a long level top line. I spent hours reaching out to local buck owners to find the perfect buck to breed her with in the fall of 2017. I settled on an all white buck named Platinum that was more than an hour away with awesome confirmation and even better bloodlines. The owner was nice enough to provide me with a buck rag and a piece of his beard to aid in heat detection.
I started tracking Ivy's heat cycles in August of 2017 so I understood how long they were. When October came and I noticed Ivy go into heat, I loaded her and Chloe into my truck to make a date with the buck. Everything went off without a hitch and I was hopeful she would settle. Unfortunately, November rolled around and I noticed she was in heat again, so we made the trek again to visit Platinum. All seemed well after her 2nd service visit and I did not notice her going into heat again.
We had a planned vet check in early January for health certificates to attend the PA Farm show. While the vet was at our farm I asked him to Ultrasound Ivy. Although it was early, she was only about 45 days bred, he felt that she was pregnant. We were overjoyed and could not wait to have baby goats! This being the first time we were expecting baby goats we were very anxious to meet them! So we discussed with another member of our goat club and arranged for another ultrasound to understand how many kids we would have. She ultra-sounded Ivy and determined there were at least three kids in there! By this time it was early February and Ivy was due in May.
Time passed quickly as the weather warmed and we anxiously checked Ivy each day for signs of impending kidding, but something felt wrong to me. She was not developing an udder and I could not see or feel babies moving. Finally, on day 154 I called the vet explaining how I was 100% sure of the breeding date and how concerned I was. I thought we should work to induce her. I was very concerned that the kids had passed in utero. He performed an ultrasound and showed me three sacs with what he claimed were beating hearts. He suggested to give her more time and I reluctantly agreed.
On Mothers day 2018 we were having a dinner party for my parents and grandmother when we decided to spend some time on the front porch to enjoy the warmth and fresh air. Ivy was laying in her favorite spot, the love seat on our front porch and I noticed a significant amount of clear blood tinged
fluid that she had released. She also seemed very uncomfortable and we noticed what looked like contractions. Thinking this was the beginning of her labor we got our kidding kit and waited with her. After several hours she had not made any progress, so I decided to go in and check her. I was met with a closed cervix, which concerned me greatly. Our friends Jodi and Amber came over to assess the situation and were also concerned.
We called all of the vets within a two hour radius that would see goats, and nobody would come out to see her or allow us to bring her to them. (Our vet was on vacation) We decided at 8 PM to load her up and drive her to Ohio State to be seen by the emergency staff there. After a three hour drive we arrived and were seen by the emergency vets at OSU.
Come back next week for the shocking diagnosis!