Sugar's buckling
#1
Sugar kidded yesterday - on day 147.  She's a first freshener.  She was restless the day before and I just had a "gut feeling" so I put her in the kidding pen for the night.

Little Man has been in the barn & paddock with her the past week as her buddy.  His 1/2 of the barn is on the other side of the gate from the kidding 1/2 of the barn so they can see each other. They slept next to each other on opposite sides of the gate all night.  I love barn cams!

At 7:45 am yesterday morning I went out to move Sugar back into the main area.  She was slow to get up.  When she did I instantly saw a long stream of mucous membrane hanging from her vagina.  Yup, we were going to have kids!

Little Man had a front row seat - lying in the feeder and watching the activity!

   

Sugar was in labor and doing well.  At 12:08pm she started contractions.  Having had kids myself I always empathize with the does.  Everything progressed well.  The front hooves were peaking out.

   

She was having trouble with the head.  My friend, Debbi, was with me so she held steady pressure on the legs and in between contractions I gently worked on enlarging the opening.  At 1:05pm out popped the head and shoulders.  Another push and out came a buckling.  He was so hairy he looked like a soaking wet Yeti!  I put him on a pad and gave him to Sugar.  She fell in love with the first lick!  She was talking up a storm to him!

   

   

We waited for more contractions and another kid but there were none.  We sure thought there were 2 in there from her size.  After she'd bonded with the buckling for a bit we got her up and Debbi "bounced" Sugar.  She couldn't feel any more kids.

We gave BoSe to Sugar and the buckling and treated his cord with iodine.  Sugar passed her placenta at 2:42pm.

The buckling was immediately trying to get up and within 10 minutes he'd latched on and had some colostrum.  I'm not sure I've ever had a kid be up and nursing so quickly.  Sugar did everything she could to position herself for him to nurse.  Yesterday he was nursing on both teats.  She's been an excellent Mom.

Mom!  I can't walk with you licking me!

   

His sire was polled and I think this little guy is, too!  I'll know for positive in a couple days.

Unfortunately, with only one kid they tend to choose a side to nurse.  This little one decided he wanted the left teat.  This afternoon I milked Sugar (oh my gosh that girl has fantastic teats and orifices!) out on both sides and taped the left teat so he'd have to nurse the right one.  After a few days of switching which teat is taped my hope is he'll nurse both.  We'll see.

This afternoon his left ear decided to flop over.  I think Sugar has "licked it into submission!"  It should stand back up.  The cartilage is really weak right now.  It gives him an endearing look. Smile

   


I had 2 buckling reservations so this little guy already has a home when he's weaned.   I don't know what his registered name will be.  The new owner gets to name him with the prefix of Sageland JS  (my herd name and the sire's initials).
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#2
Not sure what happened to my post. 

Good news though! He’s a cute little guy, glad it went well
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#3
Oh my, what a precious little guy! What a marvelous mama he has too! Congratulations and pass the cigars!
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#4
Shock and sadness hit on Sunday. Sugar was fine after kidding Friday but by late Saturday wasn't eating or drinking. I treated her with everything I had for everything I thought could be wrong. By Sunday morning she was sliding downhill rapidly. She was in pain, grinding her teeth and moaning. It was horrible. The vet did a full exam and gave her more CMPK via IV. I'd given her some orally before he arrived. She never rallied. I made the decision to euthanize her.

I chose to do a necropsy to see if we could figure out what went wrong. The vet went through everything and there was absolutely nothing wrong he could see. The rumen was completely empty but all of the other organs were normal. We buried Sugar next to her dam, Fuzzy.

My friend, Debbi Otta, was instrumental in helping me with Sugar. She had a doe in early labor while I was working on Sugar. We live about 3 miles apart and she would go back and forth to check on her doe in between helping me with Sugar. Her doe began having hard contractions just before the vet arrived so she didn't get to stay for his exam and the necropsy.

I'd milked colostrum from Sugar on Saturday morning so have been feeding that to the buckling. This afternoon I began mixing it with goat milk.

No more breeding does for me. I'm just going to enjoy my packgoat wethers.
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#5
Taffy. I am so sorry. What a heartbreak. She did a good job getting the little buckling on the ground.
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#6
On Taffy, I'm so sorry! What a devastating thing to happen. It's even harder that you don't know why. I know you did everything you could and baby is going to get lots of love. Poor Sugar. It's been a hard weekend for a few of us i guess. Sad
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#7
I am so sorry about Sugar.  I wish more people wanted to keep wethers as packgoats.  Yours will be lucky indeed to have a home with you!   Hugs! Heart
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#8
Oh no. I'm so sorry about Sugar, not having answers makes it that much more difficult. We lost Yukon this past summer and never got any answers, we are still grieving his loss. After that, and our first kidding resulting in 1 DOA and 1 weak kid that required tubing I was sure I was going to give up on goats as a whole. Truth is, I still feel that way sometimes. I guess what I'm trying to say is that I relate to the just sticking with pack wethers.
Today we stroll the neighborhood, someday we'll climb mountains together..  Heart
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#9
How's baby doing, Taffy?
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#10
Baby is doing great.  I'm SURE he's not spoiled! Tongue

He has a playpen in the living room and sleeps in a tub in my room at night.  The weather has been really nice so I've been sitting outside a lot while he explores or just sleeps in the sun.  He already loves to climb on the rocks in our landscaping.

   

One of his ears has come back up from Sugar "licking them into submission."  She was an awesome and attentive Momma.

Our bottle feeding routine is every 2 hours except for two 4 hour stretches at night.  I take him outside to potty just before feeding him.  Knock on wood he hasn't had an accident in either the playpen or the tub!  Wouldn't it be great if he was house trained!

He knows when we come back in I give him a bottle.  When I feed him I always sit in one particular chair during the daytime.  He'll run in, jump up onto the chair and begin looking for his bottle!

   

He's going to get used to riding in a truck.  I can't drive into town, do running around then get back home in 2 hours.  So far he sleeps while riding in the truck.

He still doesn't have a name.  I'd love to come up with something to honor Sugar (her registered name was Sageland SS Sugared Eclair).  Nothing has really come to mind yet so he gets called Goat.  Not very original!
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