I need a vacation!

We almost brought kidding season to a close this weekend, 4 does kidded Saturday and Sunday, leaving just one straggler in late March, Catalpa.

It was a mix of good and bad this weekend, unfortunately. First Marigold, who is just huge, surprised us with just a large single buck kid. I would've put money on twins, at least. Time for Jenny Craig for Marigold! She is doing great, appears to have bounced back well, I had some concerns due to the episode of hypocalcemia she experienced last year after kidding, but so far so good.

Late night / early morning, Magpie wasn't making much progress and I was already concerned about her size, so I did an exam to see if there was a malpositioned kid impeding her progress. I felt a head and one foot, the kid didn't feel overly large, but she was pushing hard with no progress. On furthur exam, I was able to sort out that the head and foot didn't belong to the same kid. The kid presenting head only had both front legs back and both back legs forward, in addition to one leg from the second kid. As I pushed the second kid back in, she gave a huge push and delivered the head and one rear leg up to the hip joint from the second kid. The first kid was breathing at this point but was obviously in distress, it also became clear that the second kid was already dead, with some hair loss and swelling. After a lot of maneuvering I finally got the kid out, she was very weak with a lot of lung congestion. Gave it a valiant effort, goat CPR was a first for me (no pictures, sorry friends looking for blackmail :-)), but she expired about 10 minutes later. We gave Mag a little rest and slowly worked out the dead kid who was breech with one rear leg out, one forward and spine to the lower left. Immediately behind it was a healthy looking sac (yay!) and out came Matilda, a black and white pied doe. Great markings, a white nose freckle and small goatee. After a 10 minute rest I didn't see placenta so I went in again and felt another breech kid trying to present spine first. He was easier to tip given things were considerably less crowded in there and he was delivered without difficulty. It was a very small cou blanc buck kid who was also extremely weak and having labored respirations. He was warmed up, tube fed twice and would intermittently perk up but unfortunately he died this morning after about 8 hours of working with him. Matilda is hanging in there, active and walking, needed tube fed once but took a bottle late this afternoon. Her respirations are still a little shallow and rapid but she appears to be doing ok at this point. We'll be watching her closely. Magpie is doing very well so far, given this ordeal.

Naturally, as I was working on kid #3 with Magpie, Camille decided to plop down and start pushing in the neighboring stall. Thank goodness for good friends! Sue was able to run in and catch 2 lovely girls, one sundgau, one cou blanc, who were up looking for food within about 3 minutes. They are both beautiful and large! Surprising as Camille hardly looked pregnant.

By this time, it was nearing morning milking time and Stella was starting to nest in her stall, so I took a 30 minute nap in front of the goat cam on our TV. Morning chores done, more friends dropped by to see the babies and as if perfectly timed, Stella started pushing and delivered a super cute doe and buck. The doe is petite and is a solid rich chocolatey cocoa brown with white hooves and dew claws.

She is terribly cute, sooooo tempted to keep an experimental now.... her brother is Togg type with a white belly slash on one side and something resembling a white puzzle piece on the other side. Both are doing well and eating like champs, Stella did great for her first freshening and first milking experience. 

So it was another loooong night, keeping up hope Matilda will pull through. Unfortunately had some losses, our first experience with quads is not one I want to repeat anytime soon!