Our final kidding of the year was Kim, she was about a week after everyone else, due to her heat cycles. She was tiny and was not far enough along when I ultrasound for me to count kids, so I truly expected only one kid from her, but spoiler alert she shocked me with three healthy kids! My parents had taken Avery for the weekend, so we could work on turning over our rental property that was recently empty, the only problem with that plan was, we were planning to pick Avery up on Monday evening after work, and Kim was due Monday...... Come Monday afternoon, I texted my dad, Kim is in labor........ I will be there when she has kidded. As the day progressed, it became clear I would not be leaving any time soon. My glorious husband offered to drive the three hour round trip to my parents and back to get Avery and bring her home while I stayed with Kim to assist with her kidding. We make it a rule to try to be there for all of the goat births. This is for many reasons, one the doe may need help getting the kids out and if you don't know how long she has been in labor or been pushing. Its hard to know when she needs help, and two even if the doe doesn't need help kidding, our does tend to have multiplies so cleaning the kids off, and getting them breathing is a very time consuming task, we do not want to loose any kids because they are stuck in their sack too long or not stimulated enough to breathe, or they get forgotten because mom has three kids within five minutes or so, she may not be able to get them all clean, dry and breathing before it is too late.
So as the day progressed around 7PM, Kim got down to the business of pushing, after about 20 minutes I went in to check and I did not feel hooves, so I immediately got nervous. After our last experience with Trudy I wanted to ensure we had the best chance for healthy kids and a healthy mom, so I ran down to the truck, and started putting puppy pads down in the back seat and called the emergency vet. They were willing to take us, so I raced back into the barn and I noticed Kim had made progress so I got down and before I knew it she gave birth quickly and easily to two does and a buck! The first kid was breech, which caused some of the delay, but she did a great job! I quickly called the vet back and told them false alarm they were all born, healthy and nursed so quickly! Not a few moments later, Rob pulled in with our sleeping daughter and I ran excitedly to tell him, two does and a buck! Kim has proven that she is far more capable as a first time goat mom, than I am as a MANY MANY times over goat midwife!! This concludes our kidding season for the year. We are looking forward to raising healthy kids, showing the does and finding homes for the remaining kids.
For anyone interested we have 4 buck/wether kids and 2 doe kids that still need to find homes before the fall. Please reach out if you are interested! Happy Goating!!!
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