Frenetic Friday...

Friday dawned chilly and the work calendar for the day was full. I went outside to feed and water all the animals and one look at Bliss told me we would have more babies on the way, too. I got everyone taken care of and Rachel and I started our grooming day. Every 30 minutes or so I went out to check. Bliss was pawing the ground, lying down, getting up, chuckling to her unborn kids. Nothing much happened until around 10:30, when I helped her deliver a very large doeling, who came out backwards. It seemed we were not to have much in the way of normal kidding this season. Bliss and I cleaned off her new baby, and I hustled back inside to help Rachel finish up the standard poodle we had on the table.

I very much wanted someone to be out monitoring Bliss, and wonderful Chris volunteered. He is working from home, but took an early lunch break and dove right in to the project at hand. I feel I must mention now that deep in my heart I believe that left to his own devices, Chris would live in a condominium in Florida and not have as much as a house plant. Yet here he is, on a farmlette in Maine, finding himself on his knees in a goat stall, awash in amniotic fluid. He is amazing. The most wonderful help mate of all time. Rachel and I got to work on a lovely Australian Shepherd, and Chris became a goat midwife. He called us, "I see an amniotic sac, should I break it?" We told him not to, and he waited. He managed to capture this incredible image of the next kid as she emerged into the world.

"She was looking all around," he later told me, with awe in his voice. A second doeling was soon taking her first breaths, and Chris helped dry her off.  The customer/friend who owned the dog we were grooming had worn boots, because I told her we might have kids arriving. She went right out and helped Chris, bringing him extra towels, and taking some nice photos of the kids as they arrived. Bliss paused in her cleaning efforts to deliver a third kid, another girl. I have someone wanting to buy all the girls I will sell them, so having three new doelings arrive, live and healthy, was cause for relief and celebration.

But meanwhile, I was worried about Spirit. She was acting as if she were in pain, shifting her weight from leg to leg, pressing her head into the wall, not wanting to lie down or move much. I was in contact with my amazing veterinarian all day. My marching orders were to inject her with pain medication, vitamin B complex and penicillin. I was also to give her some probiotics and calcium. I didn't have all the necessary medications, so had to borrow some from farm friends, and Chris made a run to the feed store to pick up other supplies when his work day was done.

After we made the Aussie clean and pretty Rachel went out to make sure each kid got a turn at the milk bar. She is particularly good at this, and it's trickier than you might think. Once again a team effort got the new kids off to a good start.

Once the last dog was groomed and sent home, and dusk was gathering, Chris, Rachel and I went out and raked up all the soiled shavings from the goat room, then spread clean ones out. We put the kidding partition up and settled each doe and her kids into their half of the room with buckets of clean water and plenty of hay. I injected Spirit with the prescribed medications, poured calcium down her throat, and rewarded her with a bowl of goat grain. We had a heat lamp rigged up over Bliss and her little family. I finally had time to get a good look at her new babies, and was sad to see that one of them has a significant spinal deformity. Her neck is short, her shoulders humped. She has trouble nursing, and seems uncomfortable. We are supplementing her with a bottle several times a day, but I suspect she will not survive. The vet is coming out tomorrow and will give us her opinion. This has cast a pall of sadness and worry over the joy of the triplets arrival.

Meanwhile, Spirits kids provide smiles with their sweet antics.

When I went out to check on everyone later, Spirit was lying down and sleeping peacefully, her kids tucked up against her. Bliss and her new babies were snuggled under the heat lamp. We all slept well after that frenetic Friday.

(Note: Spirit is now feeling perfectly fine after her treatment.)