As I eluded to last week Pip and Trudy both decided to kid on the same day. Trudy's experience sadly did not go as smoothly as Pip's kidding, which is somewhat surprising, seeing that she kissed easily a large single doe kid last year. This year after I had Pip all cleaned up it was clear that Trudy had plans for that day , which involved evicting her kids!
Around 3 PM after several hours of solid contracting, Trudy got down to business and started to push. I had an inkling something was wrong because anytime I have a goat that is pushing get up and move and flip to the other side that usually means they are trying to reposition a kid inside.
After a few minutes of flipping around I decided to glove up and check, sure enough I could feel the kid was mal-positioned. I immediately called our regular vet and they were in the process of closing, so I called our emergency vet, and they indicated that they were in the process of stabilizing a dog that could not breathe, and to come in an hour, so I tried my hardest to get the kid repositioned but was ultimately unsuccessful. I reached out to a fellow goat breeder who is a vet, and asked her if she had time for a C- section if needed, but she was out with her children and unable to. We waited the hour and by this time, poor Trudy had been in labor and trying to push for hours. I took my kid puller and we got to the vet, she examined Trudy, and was able to get two legs immediately, but could not get a head, so she went to get an epidural for Trudy to help relax her and some epinephrine to help her not push so hard. She left the room for what felt like ages and came back really to get down to getting these kids out. While she was out of the room, I saw a kids leg move that was sticking out of Trudy, so I told her one of the kids was alive, I saw its leg move, so she really got to work to try to get those kids out!
It took what felt like an hour but in reality was likely more about fifteen minutes of her struggling, pushing legs and kids back in until she was finally able to get the first kid in the head snare, and out. I could tell as soon as the kid was born it was not alive, but we tried to revive it unsuccessfully, sadly it was a beautiful black and white doe kid. She was quickly followed by a lively black and white doe kid and a black and white buck kid that was very sluggish. The vet tech and I worked hard on the kids to stimulate them and get them breathing. We were able to get both of the remaining kids to breathe and live, so the focus was shifted to Trudy, and as I looked around the room I saw we had marked almost every inch of the room with the traumatic birth that just occurred.
The focus soon turned to Trudy, I had put the kids to her face, but after all the pain she was not interested in licking them, so I worried we may have two bottle kids on our hands. Trudy was trying to stand, but with the slippery room and her remaining epidural she was sliding all over the room, unable to keep her hind end together. The vet assured me it would wear off in a few hours, so I went to prepare my Jeep to bring her and the kids home. I lined the back with puppy pads, and the vet gave me a box for the kids and a sheet for my whole back hatch, which was greatly appreciated.
The vet tech and I used a towel to get Trudy in the car, and I quickly got her and her live kids home. Once I got Trudy home I processed her kids, I clipped and dipped navels, gave selenium and got Trudy milked and bottle fed the kids. Trudy was still not accepting the kids or stable enough to stand without falling on them, so the kids stayed in a box in her stall overnight and I bottle fed them for the first day and a half of their lives . I was really concerned that Trudy was not going to accept her kids whatsoever, but on the second day, after some pain medication and some coaxing, she began to lick her kids and I knew we were in the clear.
I will have to say I give all of you that bottle feed kids a huge shout out, because starting kids on a bottle is incredibly frustrating!!! Thankfully, the kids got enough colostrum, and are now nursing well! That is one thing I will suggest, when you have goat kids, either have frozen pasteurized colostrum or powdered colostrum replacer on hand, because having colostrum is key to the health and well being of the goats! Stay tuned for our last kidding adventure of the year next week! Take care and Happy Goating!!!!
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