Last week was a whirlwind!!! The rest of our does kidded and we went from a small herd of 15 to an explosive herd of 30!!! Each of my 5 does bred graced me with 3 kids each so I cannot complain!!
This post is about Ziva, my lovely first fresher, she went into labor quickly last Tuesday, I knew she was close with a loss of her ligaments the day before, however, when I checked her in the morning she was not showing any pabor signs, but by mid afternoon she was in full blown Labor, really getting down to business around 4 PM.
She easily passed her first kid a TINY black buckling with blue eyes. He is perhaps the smallest kid here, at less than a pound when he was born and still about the size of my hand at a week old!! He is doing well other than less energy than the other kids, eating well and seems like he is going to grow and catch up. The next two were stressful a black and white buckling with blue eyes and significant roaning and a chocolate and white doeling with blue eyes were trying to come at the same time!! There were three feet as the buck kid was trying to be delivered, one set of fronts and one back legs. I had to go in and push the doe kid back while I pulled the buck kid. At this time Ziva was not happy and I can't say I blame her.... She was screaming and Avery who had been watching got scared so Rob took her out of the barn so I could work. After what felt like an hour but in reality was just a few tense moments I was able to pull the buck kid and a healthy doe kid followed!!
Ziva quickly recovered, passing her placenta and getting up to nurse her kids. She proved her mothering capacity and has been attentive, kind and a wonderful doe to milk and handle. I could not ask for more from her. I am very excited to see how she turns out when I udder her for our first show in may.
Stay tuned for the rest of the blogs that cover the other three does that kidded, not all of them went this smoothly!! Hope you all have had a wonderful kidding season and spring!! Happy Goating!!
