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<\/a><\/p>\nShe is due to kid the first week of May.\u00a0 And as that date approaches, she spends more time down on her knees.<\/p>\n
I assume it’s the extra weight of her kids and her udder.\u00a0 Also, the production of relaxin loosening her intrauterine ligaments, stimulating mammary development, and causing her wobbly front legs to be even more wobbly.<\/p>\n We’re also worried because it’s her first pregnancy.\u00a0 We don’t know how she’ll handle kidding.\u00a0 And we’re wondering if her kids may have leg deformities or defects, too, that make it difficult to deliver on her own.<\/p>\n So we check her constantly.\u00a0 We check her for discharge before we run errands.\u00a0 We put her in the kidding barn if we’re going to be gone for long periods during the day.\u00a0 She always gets put in the kidding barn at night.\u00a0 And I usually check her again before I go to bed.<\/p>\n Last week we gave her a\u00a0 CD&T shot, Vitamin B shot, and selenium gel as we do for all goats due to kid within a few weeks.\u00a0 Unfortunately, that resulted in a short run of diarrhea.\u00a0 Causing us to clean her up with warm water and dry her gently, give her some homeopathic phosphorus, and ensure she was eating and drinking.\u00a0 Every 3 or 4 hours.\u00a0 For 3 days.<\/p>\n It was a bit time consuming.\u00a0 Good thing Angel and her pregnancy was going along fine.\u00a0 As far as we knew.<\/p>\n Angel.<\/p>\n Last doe out of the retiring uber-udder herd queen.<\/p>\n Angel.\u00a0 The kid who squeezed through holes into the feed room so she could have choice of feed.<\/p>\n Climbed over cattle panels to romp in the clean hay.<\/p>\n Broke into the milk room every morning and harassed every milker on the milk stand, fighting to eat grain out of the milker trough.<\/p>\n Angel.\u00a0 The devil in all but name.<\/p>\n Angel.\u00a0 Whose gate climbing and squeezing through holes eventually meant that she ended up pregnant by an unknown buck (luckily her sire does not live here) and with an unknown kidding date.\u00a0 And although the size of her udder let us know she was due soon….maybe….probably….we were too busy worrying about Tina to worry about Angel.<\/p>\n At one point while I was gently swabbing Tina’s udder and drying it with a clean towel, I realized we had failed to give Angel her shots and selenium gel.\u00a0 I meant to do it next time I was out in the barn, but then I forgot.\u00a0 Because Tina seemed so uncomfortable that I decided I should make her a dosage of arnica.<\/p>\n For a couple nights I tried to put Angel in the kidding barn with Tina, just in case Angel kidded overnight.\u00a0 But Tina really didn’t care for that and I thought it was stressful for her to have to butt Angel around the barn so much.\u00a0 After all, she was having to move around on her knees.<\/p>\n Then this weekend and the annual farm tour arrived.\u00a0 Which started out with beautiful weather on Saturday.\u00a0 And although Sunday’s forecast was calling for spotty showers, it was clear and bright when we left for the afternoon to wander through herb gardens, check out the neighbor’s new herd of Kiko goats, and go bass fishing.\u00a0 So we checked Tina for discharge (none), forgot we even owned a goat named Angel, and left everyone loose.\u00a0 And returned several hours later after downpours of chilly, drenching rain.<\/p>\n We rushed out to the barn to feed and water the animals and put Tina up for the night.\u00a0 Which is when we found Angel, standing in the feed room, nursing her kid.\u00a0 And the first thing\u00a0I thought was,<\/p>\n “Oh no!\u00a0 Where is Tina?\u00a0 Did she kid, too?”<\/p>\n Really? REALLY???<\/p><\/div>\n I carried Angel and Pretty grabbed the kid and we quickly deposited them in the kidding barn.\u00a0 Then we located Tina, dry and content, chewing cud next to the hay roll.\u00a0 She didn’t have any discharge or appear to be in distress but we\u00a0 knew she’d have to go in the kidding barn to be on the safe side.\u00a0 Moving her was more of a production.\u00a0 I can’t lift her and I didn’t want her kneeling in the mud so Pretty and I had to heave and carry her together and then we wiped off any raindrops that fell on her during the transport.<\/p>\n Are you freaking kidding me?<\/p><\/div>\n We set up the spare stall for Tina.\u00a0 With an extra heat lamp, hanging trough, fresh water, and clean straw.\u00a0 We figured Angel was fine with the heat lamp, feed, water, and straw that had been used for the past few days for the kids we had been separating from their dams at night.<\/p>\n Please. Don't go to any extra trouble on my account.<\/p><\/div>\n With Tina safely put up, we checked the rest of the critters.\u00a0 We brought the Cornish Cross in from the pasture and gave them fresh bedding and turned their heat lamp back on, too.\u00a0 Just so they could dry out a bit.<\/p>\n By all means, make sure the chickens that you are GOING TO EAT are properly cared for.<\/p><\/div>\n Since last month’s kids were on weaning, I let them have some extra time to forage in the feed room.<\/p>\n Oh, the poor dears.<\/p><\/div>\n While I waited for them, I freshened the water trough because Carmen only likes the freshest water after her grain portion.<\/p>\n I believe my water has 2 dead spiders and a piece of straw in it.<\/p><\/div>\n Then I went back to check on Tina.\u00a0 Make sure she was settled OK.<\/p>\n Yep. Still the gimpy, one-horned freak that she was 5 minutes ago.<\/p><\/div>\n I thought it was ironic and amusing that Tina figured out how to stick her head through the hole in the fence to reach into Angel’s trough for extra grain.\u00a0 After all those times\u00a0Angel squeezed into someone else’s feed, now Tina was returning the favor.<\/p>\n Hardy. Har. Har.<\/p><\/div>\n Satisifed that Tina was OK\u00a0 for the night\u00a0(oh, and Angel, too), we got ready to go inside.\u00a0<\/p>\n “Wait,”\u00a0 said Pretty.\u00a0 “Do you want\u00a0me to\u00a0check and see what gender the baby is?”<\/p>\n Oh, yeah.<\/p>\n It’s a buckling.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>