It’s been a very exciting time here at Goat-O-Rama. My horse, Dusty, had a foal on February 24th. It has been a joy and delight to watch little “Firefly” as she grows and learns to navigate her world.
Snowball was due on March 20th, but since Snowball always kids about 5 days past her due date, I wasn’t really watching her yet on March 19th. But lo and behold, I looked in the camera at around 11:00 p.m. and she was down to business! Wouldn’t you know it was 20 degrees outside and the shed wasn’t cleaned! I’d been planning to clean the sheds on Tuesday, but hurricane winds thwarted my plans. Wednesday was so cold and snowy I decided to put it off until Thursday, thinking I’d get away with it. But nope. Snowball had to go and kid a day EARLY, late at night in freezing weather in a wet, dirty shed! She had uddered up so much I had already predicted triplets and I was right. By the time Phil and I made it out to her she’d already birthed one and was working on the next.
That first little baby was freezing cold and only partly cleaned off. I feared at first she was dead, but as I began to rub her she started to twitch and shake her head. Still, something felt “off” about her. Her belly was distended as though she’d already had a full meal. But there was no time to worry about that. More kids were on the way, and they would have to be dried as quickly as possible. Luckily Snowball had the other two in short order. Phil and I whisked them all into the basement and quickly set up a makeshift pen near the wood stove.
The first little doeling was normal size but was a bit lethargic and took a while to warm up. She wasn’t hungry, but she seemed alert so I didn’t worry too much. The other two babies were teeny-tiny! The second one was only 4.25 lbs. and the third was a teensy 3.5 lbs. We’d never had such itty bitty babies at Goat-O-Rama. The littlest was having trouble holding her head up, but she had a tremendous appetite so we didn’t worry about her too much. The middle child was bright, active, and hungry, and she looked like Cuzco! We’ve never had a baby that looked like Cuzco, and Phil was calling her “Cuzquette”.
The first kid never did get off the ground. She was strong, but she was pot-bellied and lethargic with no appetite. She reminded me worryingly of poor Marmaduke, who we lost two years ago. She made it through Thursday but by Friday morning I knew we were losing her. My vet friend took her to the clinic to see if she could do anything for her, but they lost her in the afternoon. It turns out there was nothing we could have done. My vet friend’s daughter is a veterinary student and took the opportunity to perform her first baby goat necropsy. There was a short section of bowel that narrowed so that nothing could pass, which accounted for the full belly and no poops. An enema had relieved the meconium, but nothing more could come down the pipeline. It was sad to lose her on my birthday, but it was a relief to know that there was nothing I could have done to save her. And the other two were doing just grand! They were a little slow to start, but they had great appetites and looked like they’d catch up in no time! We named them Kodachrome and Prism.
Little Prism had a problem getting her legs under control and spent a lot of time laying like a frog. Sometimes, alarmingly, she would lay on her side because she had trouble holding her head up, but she was always fine once we propped her back up!
It’s a little female Cuzco!
Prism.
Kodachrome.
