Know your goats and trust your gut is the moral of the story here. Layla is a goat whose ligaments I have always had trouble assessing. They are hard to feel on any day, let alone when she is close to kidding. She has a large, barrel shaped torso (even when not pregnant), so dropping isn’t particularly noticeable, either. On the morning of day 155, I noticed a behavior change. She is a goat who eats like it’s her job and spends most of the day up to her shoulders in the hay feeder. Pregnant with triplets, she ate round the clock. On this morning, she was a whopping 3 feet away from the feeder. Hmmm. I gave the girls their alfalfa pellets and she chowed down. Her right side appeared maybe a little less distended. Her udder was maybe a little more full. No discharge. I wasn’t seeing anything that would convince me to separate her from the herd and put her in the kidding stall, but I made a mental note to check on her frequently throughout the day. I took my daughter to school and son for his weekly visit with my parents. I checked on Layla when I got home and low and behold, she was in the polydome pushing! I hustled her into the kidding stall between contractions and took a look at her rear end. I saw another rear end. For those who don’t know, we prefer to see two little hooves and a nose). There wasn’t enough room for me to maneuver the kid’s legs out and I didn’t want to push him back in for repositioning because I knew there were more waiting to come out. I gripped his butt and pulled with Layla through 2 contractions to get him out. She began to clean him off and started pushing again. This time, there were 2 feet presenting. Unfortunately, they were hind feet. Apparently Layla was growing them backwards. Because of the foot presentation this boy was easier to get out, even though he was bigger. I handed him off to Layla to clean, and she started pushing again. Finally! Two little hooves and a nose. Predictably, it was the girl who knew which way to come. After that, it was easy-peasy. I finished drying off the kids, trimmed their umbilical cords and dipped the cords in chlorhexadine. I gave Layla a snack and some molasses water, and let her get to know her babies. We will be retaining the girl for our low-generation project and finding homes for the boys. If you are interested in an F1 Mini-Nubian buckling or wether, please Contact us.
