Adele

If you’ve been to Size Matters in the last several months, you’ve likely noticed the friendly and eye-catching Adele. Adele is boarding here because her owner Kelsey is living in town and her search for a farm is taking longer than expected. While here, we decided to breed Adele to the ever-accommodating Vulcan.

Adele has an interesting backstory. She is the daughter of Opus 7 Cinnamon, an unregistered Mini Nubian. Cinnamon is unregistered because even though her owner KNOWS she is a mini Nubian, HER parents’ paperwork was never filed and has been lost over time. However, Cinnamon’s owner Noriko has been so impressed with her dairy character, heavy milk and beautiful udder, she decided to keep her and work her great qualities into the Opus 7 herd. Noriko brought Cinnamon here to Size Matters to breed to one of our first herd sires, Sonflower Ranch’s Jupiter. Noriko just loved Jupiter’s stunning good looks and gentle, sweet temperament. That means Adele was conceived right here! Adele (originally named Tinkerbell) and her brother were born at Opus 7 two years ago, and Kelsey fell in love with Adele at first sight. She was over the moon when she learned that Adele was local to her, and snapped her up.

Kelsey, Noriko and I have been anxiously following Adele’s pregnancy to see if Cinnamon’s udder and dairy character will breed true. Well, we found out last night:

I’ve been watching Adele like a hawk over the last several days for changes to her body that would indicate kidding. She never got that wide, so we expected a singleton (we couldn’t get a good headcount on the ultrasound). On day 150, her promising pre-freshening udder suddenly got a lot tighter and her previously tight ligaments loosened dramatically. At noon, she still had zero interest in leaving the hay bale and was not seeming uncomfortable, but I notified Kelsey and the vet anyway. Predictably, the barometric pressure was dropping and ushered in a nasty mix of rain and snow. Since I had to take my daughter to a piano lesson at 3:30, I put Adele in a kidding stall even though I felt we still had several hours to go. Adele was not amused. She is a particularly social goat and prefers company – goat or human; she isn’t picky. I continued to watch her on camera while we were at piano.

We went about our evening routine, and by 6:30 I noticed Adele was getting up and then laying down about every 2 minutes. I notified Kelsey that things were kicking into gear, and by 8pm she was able to join me. Like many first fresheners, Adele seemed pretty confused by the things that were happening to her. She had wide eyes and was very talkative. At about 9pm, she started pushing. It is my personal preference to check kid positioning before they get too far into the birth canal because if the kid needs to be repositioned, it’s easier to do it early. Kelsey helped steady Adele while I checked. During the check, the first sac of water broke and my heart sank as I noticed it was a bright yellow-brown and full of stool. This indicates that the baby had several bowel movements inside and had likely been very stressed at some point. I checked for positioning, and there was more bad news. This kid was completely upside-down. I had not had a delivery like that before. I explained the situation to Kelsey and took a minute to review my notes and collect myself. In my kidding area, I keep a hard copy of directions for kidding positions – I recommend this for anyone assisting with kidding. My directions said that this kid should NOT be pulled out upside-down because of the risk of spinal cord injury, and that he would have to be rotated 180 degrees by the shoulder.

I gloved up, got plenty of lube and asked Kelsey to hold Adele. I went in about wrist-deep, and was able to cup the front half of the kid with my hand. It took a few attempts to corkscrew him around, but I got it pretty quickly. Once he was successfully rotated, I snagged a little hoof and pulled him out. All of his white fur was stained fluorescent yellow and he was not vigorous at all. He had slow breathing, and although Kelsey worked hard drying and suctioning him, he did not make it. I suspect that between an unknown stressor on the inside and his dramatic delivery, his heart just gave out. Adele was not done, however. To our surprise, she began pushing again! She uneventfully delivered a healthy, live buckling! At only 2-years-old, Adele already has a deep enough torso to hide kids. This little buckling was vigorous and hungry. Kelsey actually had to relieve pressure off Adele’s already full udder in order for the little guy to get a drink. We were thrilled to realize that Adele’s udder is a hand-milker’s dream. Soft, nice-size teats and big orifices.

A little uneven from nursing all night.

Super-smooth foreudder

Adele and her little boy belong to the Happy Hippie Homestead. His name is Patchouli, or “Patch” for short. They will be staying here for awhile, but if you are interested in adding either one of them to your herd, please contact us. Adele is a registered Grade 1 Mini Nubian and her great-granddaughters will be able to enter the experimental herd book. Adele’s size, personality and udder make her the perfect little homestead milker. Patch will not be registered, but would make a wonderful companion wether or homestead buckling.