last night

Well, I went out to feed just the newborns last night at about midnight...and there were two little still-slimey babies outside the barn - one was deposited in the center of a tire that was keeping one of the doors shut...the other was just lying in the mud looking frozen. I found the mama crying in the doorway, looking unsure of what to do.  I put them in a crate and brought them to my hut, got a bottle of colostrum heating, called Michael to come take care of her, then fed the newborns and a couple of the louder older ones...just in case they really were as hungry as they sounded... 

When I got back to the hut, I laid down a couple old sheets, a towel, and got a cardboard box lined with these bed liners Mike's friend got for us to use for the babies when we bring them inside - they're like giant, super absorbant disposable towels.  I pulled the two babies out of the crate, wiped up the more lively one and fed her a bit of colostrum and set her down to relax a bit while I started to rub down the weaker one...

This is the livelier doe: 

The pitiful buck-ling. :(

All cleaned up... 

Adventuring as far as the sheet allowed...

Cuddles with the weak one. Isn't he precious? 

We brought a twin mattress in for their friend to stay on Saturday night, but I'm going to keep it down and covered with old sheets so I have a place to lay down in my hut without having to shower or change...And this way the night-time babies who are having a difficult time can sleep with me... :)

It's ok to be jealous that I get to sleep with goat babies. ;) 

FORTY FIVE! wowzers.

We're going to have more tonight. I'd bet money on it if I were into that sort of thing.

It's been a crazy couple days.  Tons of people out here - 7 on Friday during the day and on Saturday night.  A bit of a shock to go from being basically alone for 2 months to having so many people around - especially at night... But I'm hoping that maybe on a few of these evenings I'll get some good stargazing done, since I'm no longer creeped out walking around here at night...not being alone and all...  They had some friends stay last night who wanted to be sure I relaxed and got rest, which was really sweet of them. They did the midnight feeding and the 2 and 4 am checks on the barn so I could sleep the whole night.  I still woke up, and had several hallucinations - had to touch all my sheets and pillows to make sure there weren't any baby goats crumpled up in the folds... Sigh.

Three scariest moments of the day:
1. I had to hold another mama today who'd been given oxytocin since she was having a really hard time delivering and the water'd already broken...  After she dilated Ed gloved up and reached in to get the kid and  I held her so she wouldn't run away.  The big buck-ling (it's almost always a big buck-ling when this happens...) came out back legs first.  The moment he was out she laid back against me and just sat there for a minute resting.  At that moment as she leaned into me, I was glad that I was there and warm and strong enough to support her...and I wished she was smaller so I could scoop her up and hold her properly.  It amazes me that these mamas seem to know that we're trying to help...

2. I was feeding the babies alone after evening chores this evening and kept hearing what sounded like a crazy big bird...crying rhythmically, but with some serious desperation. I kept looking to the side of the barn where the noise was coming from thinking it was a mama goat, but they all seemed really calm.  A few minutes later, I was leaning down to pick up Saturday baby, and I noticed a little chest visible from under the next pen that was rising and falling in time with the cries... I went over and realized a little baby was being smothered by several other kids piled on top of her!!  They had 8 babies die this way last year - since all the kids pile up to be near the heat lamp...and the ones on the bottom suffocate.  ............................?!  Ok, seriously, Baby Goats - how can you sleep with a shrieking sibling underneath you?!?!!?  They all seemed so calm, and were giving little disgruntled looks as I shoved them aside to pull the victim out.  The little one is recovering, but I'm worried this might happen tonight - I need to be really careful about putting the same sized/developed babies in together - they get mixed up after they've been outside...and then the littlest ones or weakest ones get pushed around by the others - not out of malice - just excitement over milk, learning to wobble...and general enthusiasm for being alive. So heartbreaking that something so tragic could result from these little innocent newborn kids just trying to get warm at night... 

3. During the same feeding I had a bottle that was exceptionally drippy, but I didn't notice until some had collected on top of the heat lamp, run down through one of the holes onto the bulb where it heated and burst the bulb...all over a pen of kids.  !!!!  I picked each one up one by one and checked it for bits of glass and re-assigned them to a new pen.  I know some siblings must have been separated...and I'm feeling badly about that. :( Tomorrow we'll have to scoop it out while all the kids are gone and put fresh straw down... :(  Scary!


And here are some moments of comic relief from the day:

A mama goat was totally bewildered by her labor - I don't know if it was her first time, but the instincts didn't really seem to be kicking in.  When we arrived at the barn, she was chugging around the barn with her hind end slightly lowered...she'd already dropped one baby in a corner and had just kept going...  The second one's head was coming out and she kept moving right along in big laps.  All the other does got out of her way. She dropped the second one and kept on moving for another lap before she came back to sniff and lick the poor thing.  Talk about an abrupt introduction to the world.  Sheesh.  I mean, her pain and confusion isn't funny at all, but the sight of her trucking around the barn with a baby coming out was seriously hilarious...

I had just backed away from the mama who'd had oxytocin and had just delivered and was leaning against the barn...and Dog came up and licked my cheek and then proceeded to rub her head all over my face and neck and torso.  It wasn't like an "i-have-an-itch" sort of rubbing...it was a full on "i kinda like you" sort of display of affection.  She kept sniffing my face and making her mother-baby grunts.  Sometimes I think she thinks I'm one of her babies since I do the little grunts back to her, and whenever she cries when I'm around, I come to her. :P The hair on her head kind of gave me like...stubble-burn...it was so prickly. : p But that experience was worth like...probably ten human hugs. 

Mike was looking for a place to wipe the marker we use to identify new moms who need to be milked, so he got a hold of Panda, and used her forehead and snout. We called her our Warrior Princess the rest of the day.

45 babies - scenes from the day:

I think this one is "Scooter". :P 

Ginger. About to POP. Seriously.  

 Friday/Saturday babies:

 

 This little guy isn't her baby, but since her babies were put in the baby pen, she's mothering him and letting him try to nurse... So sweet. :)

Two newborns - the buck was having a hard time adjusting to being outside his mama, so we brought him in to the red barn to get warm... Brought his brother along for company. 

Beautiful sunset...

 

twenty fiiiiiiiiive...and delerium like woah.

Well, not quiet, but not crazy....so far.  

Well, I'm crazy.  But that's different.  I went to bed right after the last post, but woke up about 4 times in the three hours before nighttime feeding because in my half-awake-half-asleep state I could have sworn there were babies in my room needing to be fed.  Once, I mistook a towel draped on the vacuum cleaner for a little one...also the pillow on the arm chair...my canvas bag in the corner...and twice my heart sunk thinking my two crumpled socks by my bed was actually a decapitated baby kid. I've heard the moms sometimes - very rarely - will kill their babies...like my sister's rabbit, Ebony(?) - I went out one morning when I was 6 or 7 and found the bodies of several babies in her cage with their heads eaten/bitten off...talk about trauma for an obsessive animal lover.  Anyways, there were no kids in my room - just hallucinations. Yikes.

I went to feed the babies at midnight and found two little newborns - one against the north wall, shivering and alone and still partially covered by her birthday suit of slime...a second one near a far corner huddled with its little head leaning against the metal wall.  I couldn't find the mama anywhere - no discharge on anyone that I could see...no placentas either... One of the mamas who has already had her babies was hovering nearby and when I picked the first one up she came over grunting in her mother-speak and touched noses and licked the buck-ling a few times... It fascinates me how some of these does feel the need to mother everyone (including me!  so many times I've had them come up to me grunting and lick me all over my cheek and neck...so sweet. :)! )  and others seem totally indifferent.  Hm.  I had to wake up Michael to help me find the mama...  He came out to search for her - turned out to be Ethel.  She's not going to win any goat-mama of the year awards this year...I hope she was feeling ok and not really uncomfortable or traumatized or anything. :/  Pobrecita.  I'm calling the doe-ling  "annie" - as in orphan.  Maybe I shoudl call the boy Oliver? He was an orphan, right?  Poor things...

After some cheetos, I'm back to bed.  :)  Feeling much better. 

<3

dramatic entrance.

I'm totally exhausted.  And I am 120million% sure that I will never ever ever be a dairy farmer.  Holy wow. 

I got up and did morning chores, fed the babies, and rested for an hour or two...Worked in the cheese room until 11:30ish... At noon, a volunteer came to tell me a mom was standing in the corner of the barn. I went to see her and she was definitely going into labor.  We sat at the far end so we could observe without stressing her out further... She kept standing and laying down...she was discharging very little bits at a time...but she wasn't dilating at alllll...  Another doe was in the barn napping with her sister, she did some head butting with someone else and didn't look at all agitated, but suddenly all the does around her got up and left, she stood up and stretched her back a few times, layed down...grunted a bit and popped out three adorable gray-ish doe-lings!  The first mama had been laboring an hour longer, with no progress, and here this mama next to her just popped them out and was standing their licking them while they bleated and she ejected her placenta.  Mama one, named Claire, labored for over 3 hrs, when Mike and Ed decided to give her some oxytocin (I think that's what they gave her).  In less than 15 minutes she was dilating, and Ed gloved and lubed up, reached in with Kenny holding her head and me standing nearby...and discovered the baby was coming backwards... He got a hold of the back legs and pulled him out, and was immediately followed by two more little ones - all bucks.  Needless to say, Claire was hurting really bad...bellowing as she stretched her neck and head straight out and flat on the ground.  Really hard to see... 

But all the babies are fine - 6 new little ones - 3 does, 3 bucks.  Which brings us to 23 babies. 

I'm going to feed them at midnight again tonight...and I'm really hoping it's a quiet night. My head is pounding.  I think all this concern for the mothers and their babies is even more emotionally draining than I expected.  I've been dreaming about hungry, needy newborn baby goats every night since Sunday's first twins...and when I close my eyes all I see are little kid faces looking up at me with their newborn wobbling.  As much as I love looking at them, I hope this isn't permanent.

Night. <3

three triplets and a lovely recovery

I finished feeding last night around 7:30ish - just the five of them.  Went back at midnight to give another snack and went around to check to see if any does were wandering off alone.  I got a flashlight and went around the side of the barn and noticed Zach and Edison staring into the northeast corner where I discovered a black mama looking really agitated.  I shooed the dogs away because, while they're guard dogs, they also seem to register as wolves when the mamas start going into labor and she was stressed out enough... With them further away, but still looking on, she made a break for the barn... She tried to make it into one of the corners, but the does already nestled down there got up and headbutted her sides until she gave up...So she just stood in the middle of the barn amidst the rest of the herd looking incredibly stressed out.  Her eyes were dilating and her ears were raised and she kept looking around...

I went back to check on her at 2:30am and found her back in that outdoor corner on the south side of the barn... It was really cold and windy, and under her were two little babies, still covered in the sacks they came out in.  She was licking them, so I ran to the milk parlor to get the laundry basket and towels and a handful of sweet feed. I brought the whole new family through the pen to the milk parlor where I milked her out, fed her some sweet feed and started trying to get the colostrum into the babies.  They were incredibly lethargic and cold, and had no interest in the bottle.  I laid a towel down on the cold floor and the mama and I sat there for over an hour - I had them in my lap and she was licking one while I was rubbing the other... The little doe starting trying to stand, and eventually did...and she took a bit of colostrum... But the little buck was basically just limp in my lap.  The mama kept licking and licking and licking, but he was hardly responding, barely opening his eyes..  Really scary, and I ached for her. :(  So I brought the mama back to the barn with a bit more sweet feed, scooped up the babies and brought them into the hut in the laundry basket lined with towels.  I got a bucket of hot water to serve as a hot water bath for the half bottle of colostrum to stay warm, put them in my lap and kept rubbing them down... Honey, what I've named the doe-ling, started taking a bit of colostrum soon after warming up, but the little boy was still limp (he's the brown and white one below...).

I just kept massaging him, and every 20 minutes or so trying out some colostrum again... I decided to call him Attila, so he could draw on the strength of his name, and because it's my nickname for a friend in DC with whom I once had a conversation about how Attila was probably just really a very sweet person, which is why he was called "the Hun".  :)  As in "honey", hence the name of his sister. :)  I stayed up with them until almost 5am when I set them into the basket with the buck wedged between the bucket of hot water and his more lively sister.  I slept for about a half hour...tried to feed them again and then left them to go do morning chores and feed the rest of the babies in the barn.

When I got back at about 7:30, Honey had gotten out of the basket (a first for a newborn of the past few days, usually it keeps them pretty well captured...) and Attila was a bit perkier.  I rubbed him down a bit more, force fed him some colostrum, let him nap a bit, then helped him off my lap where he started actually making some effort to stand up.  :) 

By about 10:30 they were both doing a lot better:

I went back out to help feed and see how the rest of the babies were doing, and as we were there, around 10:30ish a mama named Squirt went into labor in the corner.  She birthed two, seemingly effortlessly, and while we were watching her, another mama barely ten feet away birthed three one right after the other - two beeeeeauuuuutiful little light fawn colored does and a tiny black buck!  She was absolutely silent about it!  We went to help her rub them down, and the next thing we knew, Squirt had given a third one, another little black buck to go with her two brown, white capped does (Fawn & I haven't decided on the other one...hmmm)!  We were cleaning them up, when a third doe went into labor over in another corner...She was grunting a lot, raising her ears, obviously struggling. About 20 minutes had gone by since the birth of Squirts two little does, and they kept wandering over to touch noses with the laboring mother.  They'd wander around her side sniffing her, and we had to keep redirecting them so as not to distract the mama in distress.  They started wandering off in other directions - crossing the entire barn and approaching every doe they encountered with a nose-to-nose hello. I've decided to call them Louise & Clara - like Lewis & Clark, but ladies. :) 

At this point, one hoof was showing, and Lynn was here (thank God)... When the doe contracted again, Lynn slid her finger around the outside of the opening, got ahold of the other hoof, and when she contracted again, gave a gentle pull.  The head appeared, and she helped pull a bit more with the next contraction... The mama was making some pretty serious bellows, but it was over quickly, and the next two came in quick succession.  All three were massive - two light brown bucks and a black doe.  They are the biggest ones of all the babies and are the youngest!  Crazy!  I'm calling them Thor, Hercules, & Athena. 

We'll see if we get any more tonight. So we went from 5 yesterday to 17 total today.  Oofta.  Feeding them takes just over an hour now, though as they get older I'll be able to do two at a time, and then soon onto buckets with little nipples around the bottom... For now, I love feeding them...I set the little ones on my lap on a towel and lean against them so they bump their head just by my collar bone, brace their muzzle against the bottle and share little grunting conversations with them as they suckle.  I'm going to miss them... Less than four weeks left. 

Mom, can I please please pleeeeeeeeeease bring one home with me?  <3 

 Attila and Honey hanging out in their square...

 Fawn... :) Just a few hours old!

Three of the mamas eager to be milked... (tho i suspect this is more about getting the sweet feed on the milk stand while they're being milked...)

Squirt! Louise & Clara & the little black buck's mama. 

 

Fawn's brother...like a pretty calico goat. :) 

I hope it's a quiet nice... it would be nice if we stuck with three 10:30/11:00am births per day from now... : p

I'm feeling a lot better about knowing when to intervene and how to do it least intrusively...and I'm learning some interesting tricks about feeding newborns who aren't all that pumped about the bottle - draping a cloth over their head so they're just feeling for a nipple instead of looking at a red plastic one (I'd be pretty put off by that, too)...They also really like to try to stand up while they're feeding, so sitting on the crate and setting them between my legs so I can steady them with my calves, and when they try to back away the crate keeps them within nipple-distance. :)  The new ones also seem quicker to take it when I lean over them so their head is up by my collar bone and they bump against it while they're feeding...  Kind of fun...I really like trying to ease their frustration with this and make it more natural for them - and less of a multiple-times-per-day force feeding... :(

I'll keep you updated. :)

Bernard....or Beethoven?

Baby #6 was born today.  We saw Dog head to the barn and lay down alone around 10:00am.  I went out and set up a chair in sight of her and the babies' day pen while listening to an audio book.  Around 10:30 she started getting more active - scratching the ground, lifting her tail and head and arching her spine, laying down, standing back up, rolling halfway onto her side and back up again, scratching some more.  Her tail would lift and lower...and we started to see her abdomen contract.  She started pacing a slow path along the wind break on the south side of the barn...standing, laying down, stretching, laying down, standing, scratching, stretching... And then a strong contraction and out comes a looooooong strand of fluid and two little hooves.

At this point I realize that none of us really have any clue what we're doing.  Kenny has worked here for three years,  but never has to make decisions about anything, and while he pays attention, he mostly just awaits instructions...  Bernardino has worked with animals before, so probably has more knowledge than Kenny or I, but still hasn't worked all that much with goats - especially during birthing. We don't even know if the feet are what's supposed to come out first.  I call Michael and he assures us it sounds normal - he had to run into ABQ to deliver restaurant orders for a few hours... So, we watch.  She becomes more distressed... contractions become stronger... At one point she lays on the ground, rolls on her side and cries....then gets up, stumbles into the windbreak (panels of metal stood up between fence posts) and leans her torso into the metal with her legs splayed to the side, lifts her eyes to the clouds (and I swear at this moment she is praying...for instant relief or a bolt of lightning to put her out of her misery).  She stands back up and we call Michael again....reaaaaally?  Is this what's reeeeeally supposed to be happening?  I mean... it looked like torture...?!

The baby's nose appears and we see the little tongue, but then it all gets drawn inside again and we see nothing... She rests...contracts again and we see the tongue and the hooves...  She's acting more agitated - gnashing her teeth, curling her lips, rolling her eyes a bit.  She starts to make more noise...is breathing heavily.  I called a lady who has goats who lives nearby and has recently started working for the dairy and she says, given the amount of time this has been going on, we need to pull...  Kenny and Bernadino had been saying that from maybe 5 minutes in, but I felt like that was an absurdly short amount of time, and while she was obviously in pain, I also felt like....she's built for it.  And she can do it... and intervening so early would be cheating her of something she is fully capable of doing herself... I felt somewhat irritated by their "let's get in and fix it for her" sort of mentality...protective of my sister in distress and her right to see this through.  I mean, she's carried this thing for 5 months...Give her 20 minutes, okay boys?  Sheesh.  And back OFF.  They'd gotten so close so quickly...hovering over her with their concern, and while she didn't shrug off their ear scratches, I felt like maybe she just needed some space and privacy and time to re-energize...Ear scratches and hearing "it's okay, mama" were not going to cut it.  It was most certainly not okay. 

Anyways... After a while, though, I started getting anxious too... And describing the signs of her distress over the phone to a woman who has owned goats for over 15 years, and then being reassured the time had come to intervene, I felt better about it... I knelt in front of her and rubbed her neck and back and she started licking my face - not very common behavior - nibbles? yes, licking? no.  Bernardino puts on gloves and gets behind her, I put my arm around her neck and brace my inner thigh against her chest... As he inserts his finger and slides it around the opening while she contracts, Dog lays all her weight into me trying to get away from him (and the pain, I imagine) and bellows like I've never heard before.  It was one of the most intense moments of my life...She was just absolutely desperate - and this crazy mixture of serious power and heartbreaking helplessness all in one loud cry...Aiya, the ache.  I just held her in place, but all I wanted was for her to be able to break free and run from it all, too...  It only took a couple of these contractions before the head came out and with a gentle pull on the legs the rest of the buck-ling slid out... She instantly turned around, still breathing heavily and began licking him.

Funny that Michael saying, "oh, it all sounds normal, she's fiiiiine" and Kenny and Bernardino wanting to step in and pull it out after 5 minutes both made me so irritated.  I mean, I obviously didn't know what to do, but I felt really deeply that there needed to be a balance between giving her space and respecting her ability to do this, and being ready and able (and knowledgeable/skilled enough?!) to step in and assist her (effectively and safely and compassionately) when the time came... And really, I mean, I'm not a mother.  I have no idea what it required of her to make this birth happen, but I felt really intensely that they had even less of a clue than I did.  Which isn't really fair...pulling the gender card.  But, man, I felt so in it with her...you know? She may not have had any feeling of connection whatsoever, but there was a sisterhood in my heart at that moment...and I ached for her.  I'm still recuperating...obviously. And I feel even more villainous than before separating this doe from her buckling considering what I experienced with her this morning... Ouch.

He is the biggest of the babies thus far...by far.  Within a few minutes he was up and trying to nurse...after 20 he was starting to play around like the Sunday babies are just now starting to attempt - little hops, scratching his chin with his back leg... climbing onto his now resting mother laying in the corner. 

 

Now that he's nursed - just a couple times - he's not a fan of the bottle. I hope that won't complicate things too much...but if so, oh well.  It was worth it to see what it's supposed to be like.  And even while she was contracting to expell the rest of the afterbirth and placenta, she was so focused on him - licking him all over and grunting back in forth in an obvious conversation between mother and son...  I could see the relief in her face. :) 

Because he's so large and was likely saved from estrangulation or suffocation by a wonderful guy named Bernardino, I'm thinking this little buck should be named Bernard...or perhaps Beethoven (remember the never-ending series of St. Bernard movies?)...Plus, he is rather pale. : p

More later.  

Love to you all, 

Julia.

first sunny afternoon playtime!

slumber party!!!!

 

 

G'night, Sleepyheads. <3

more babies...

More videos and photos from today's birth!  First two of the season!


Zack cleaning them up.  He licks the mama and the babies down, eats the placenta, and stays with them until the babies are standing.  Good guard dog. :) 

Mama guarding her babies from the neighbor's puppy...

The scene upon our arrival.  Pretty much all done. :) 

Mama looked dazed all afternoon...and not totally sure about what these little squirmy things were or what she was to do with them...

 They smell good...like goat, but fainter and warmer.

 Mmmmmmm... Placentaaaa.

Just fed. Looking drugged, no?

Kenny holding the doe-ling. :) 

 Reassuring the mama... She was so sweet.  When the dogs came in she'd stand behind me, with the babies in my lap, and put her head on my shoulder and lean into my back.  I was definitely part of the team today. :)

On guard.  Though she didn't seem sure of her feelings for them... she was quite confident she didn't want the dog from the neighbor's to get them...Or anything else that came through that door for that matter. 

So many feelings... For the poor mama out there wondering where her babies are that she so carefully grew inside her, courageously birthed alone in the corner of the barn, and bravely defended against the neighbor's puppy...  These poor little babies laying on my lap...who've had perhaps the longest, most mind-blowingly transformative day of their whole lives...From being in bags of fluid only 7or8 hours ago...to sitting in their sibling cuddle puddle on a human lap by a computer in an electrically heated hut.  They can't possibly know how much I love and adore them, but I feel like they must sense how completely clueless I am to what they need from me...  They deserve so much better than this...and by better I mean to be warm and with their mother on their first night apart from her... Just seems crazy to me...