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Whew, kidding season is over. All five of my pregnant does kidded without incident. Usually, I have some emergency to deal with, but not this year. I did almost lose one kid. I happened to walk in the barn as one of my girls was getting ready to birth her second. She had cleaned up her first all except for the HEAD! Eek! I hurried in there and pulled the sac off it's face. It took one big gasp, but didn't breathe anymore. I don't know how long it was like that. I revived it by hold it upside down and swinging it like I saw my vet do one year, and also rubbing vigorously and trying to clear it's breathing passages. It worked and she's now fine.
BUT, I had a baby with a deformed mouth that couldn't suck. This was my first experience with anything like that. I helped it get on the teat the first time and it really tried, but it just couldn't get a suction. I've always read and it has been my experience that kids won't live more than about 24-48 without nursing. In fact, that the first hour is critical for them to get their first dose of colostrum. So, I was expecting him to pass away fairly quickly and decided to let nature take it's course. Well, this baby was born Saturday night and was still alive yesterday afternoon. He was so pitiful and sad, crying and walking around, but he totally gave up even trying to nurse. I couldn't believe that he lasted that long and it was just killing me watching him suffer. I discovered that he was drinking out of the water bucket, so I tried to get him to drink milk out of a bowl, but he wouldn't do it. Yesterday, I finally had my brother take him away and put him down.
This is the worst thing about farming - making life/death decisions for the animals.
Would any of you goat people have done anything differently? Do you have any insight into what causes the deformity? I've been calling it a cleft palate, but I'm not really sure that's accurate because I didn't feel a "cleft". It's just that his mouth was smaller than normal and his nose was smashed over to the side with just one nostril. His top palate was very thin. The best way to describe what he looked like was a little old man with no teeth, you know, how the lips kind of cave in?
He's from a fantastic Nubian milker dam. But, obviously, even if I'd been able to save him, I wouldn't be able to breed him or sell him and I don't know if he'd be able to eat solid food. I had bought a new Nubian buck this past summer, so this was my first batch of kids from him. I hope it's not something that is in his genes.
BUT, I had a baby with a deformed mouth that couldn't suck. This was my first experience with anything like that. I helped it get on the teat the first time and it really tried, but it just couldn't get a suction. I've always read and it has been my experience that kids won't live more than about 24-48 without nursing. In fact, that the first hour is critical for them to get their first dose of colostrum. So, I was expecting him to pass away fairly quickly and decided to let nature take it's course. Well, this baby was born Saturday night and was still alive yesterday afternoon. He was so pitiful and sad, crying and walking around, but he totally gave up even trying to nurse. I couldn't believe that he lasted that long and it was just killing me watching him suffer. I discovered that he was drinking out of the water bucket, so I tried to get him to drink milk out of a bowl, but he wouldn't do it. Yesterday, I finally had my brother take him away and put him down.
This is the worst thing about farming - making life/death decisions for the animals.
Would any of you goat people have done anything differently? Do you have any insight into what causes the deformity? I've been calling it a cleft palate, but I'm not really sure that's accurate because I didn't feel a "cleft". It's just that his mouth was smaller than normal and his nose was smashed over to the side with just one nostril. His top palate was very thin. The best way to describe what he looked like was a little old man with no teeth, you know, how the lips kind of cave in?
He's from a fantastic Nubian milker dam. But, obviously, even if I'd been able to save him, I wouldn't be able to breed him or sell him and I don't know if he'd be able to eat solid food. I had bought a new Nubian buck this past summer, so this was my first batch of kids from him. I hope it's not something that is in his genes.