Fiona wrapped up our Spring kidding season with a picture-perfect delivery of healthy little twins. After I told everyone that Fiona “ALWAYS kids on day 147”, she held them in until day 150. Starting at day 145, I diligently checked her udder and ligaments several times a day, but there was no change. There was no change when we got an overnight snowfall, no change with the full moon, and no change with a sudden barometric pressure drop on day 148. Finally, on the evening of day 149, I noticed a slightly fuller udder and possibly softening ligaments. I went to bed that night and dreamed that I missed the delivery. I checked on her this morning and she definitely had a full udder and NO ligaments. However, her response-to-cookies (RTC)* time was too swift to indicate labor. I continued to gauge her RTC throughout the day, and around 1pm, she started to be a little slower, so I put her in the kidding stall. She was perturbed to be by herself and I prepared myself for the type of long, vocally dramatic labor that Fiona usually has. However, Fiona decided to change things up this year. She fussed about her kidding stall for a few hours, and settled into a regular contraction pattern. I happened to check the monitor at about 5pm, and noticed she was quietly pushing! By the time I got in there, she had a foot and a nose out. I cupped the baby’s jaw and pulled the presenting leg. She came out easily with a contraction. The little doeling looked quite a bit like Fiona – medium brown with moonspots and a sweet face. Her ears are long, but with a fair amount of control. She did get her sire’s blue eyes as a bonus. She weighed 5lbs, 12oz. I am pretty happy because Fiona is my personal favorite and I wanted another one of her cheerful, petite girls to retain. Fiona busied herself drying off her baby while pushing out baby number 2. He delivered easily and also looks quite a bit like Fiona. He has long ears that will stick out a little comically. I know he will be a charmer like his mother. He got her white poll and brown eyes. He weighed 4lbs, 12oz. Both kids were up and nursing in record time and Fiona is tending them like veteran mama she is.
*RTC is a very unscientific, yet fairly accurate way to gauge stages of goat labor.