Checking in...

I just can't get into the habit of blogging.  There are lots of things I want to write about, but never remember to do so.

I suppose one thing any goat owner looks forward to and dreads at the same time, is kidding season.  Sometimes kidding season is smooth and disaster-free, sometimes it is one disaster after another.  Most years it is a mix of the two.  This year was a mixture.  Our first kidding of the year was in mid-February, and it was a cold night.  Little Bit had been laying around for several days, eating hay and chewing cud but only getting up to drink water.  When she finally went into labor, nothing happened for several hours.  When I went in to check her cervix, it was completely dilated and I could feel a kid's butt.  No feet.  Not good.  I ended up finding hind feet and pulling a live doeling, after which Little Bit immediately started pushing again.  This time two front feet presented and silly me thought this kid would come on out with no help.  Nope.  Her head was back, behind her front leg, almost on her chest.  I had to work really hard to keep the feet in front, find her head, pull it straight and finally pull her out.  She had been kicking and had a pulse while I re-positioned her, but by the time she was out she wasn't moving or trying to breathe.  Attempts to resuscitate her proved futile, so we concentrated on saving her sister.  Lots of very warm water in the sink in the house later, she was stable and is alive and healthy today.  We brought her dam inside, to our bathroom, to keep them both warm and in ear-shot for the night.  The next morning the dam was dead.  Autopsy showed she had torn internally and bled out into her abdomen.  Her daughter was named Chilly.

And it's time to go take care of goats and rabbits and horses so that's all the kidding stories I have time for today.