rachels.haven 2026 kidding,lactation&farm journal

[rachels.haven]

Riker didn't eat the kid, but he did get very aggressive and weird about blood, fluids, and cleanings and took the kid, likely smothered it like a rabbit, may have bitten it but not broken the skin. Then he threw a looooong tantrum and barked angry and upset by himself in the pen corner both after I took the kids and then his doe (checked for more kids and there was nothing). This morning he's totally different, which I'd imagine is not better. It's a few steps above taking newborns for himself in intensity. I need to stew some more. Shame on me for not just buying an actual 12 week old puppy like Cookies in both cases instead of taking what was there (I wish we had a breeder like Cookie's breeder in TN)

The funny thing about the other dog, Dogo, is that his breeder had him off on his own "because he didn't protect his food from the other animals". She had her whole property fenced and poultry and goats and dogs running everywhere with a few of her dogs penned up (probably for our visit because they didn't look like heat pens). I did not put two and two together there and that maybe she had a bad situation going on and she was forcing the dogs to make up for it and breeding the more aggressive, sucessful ones. He was still mentally a submissive puppy then. He is what she bred him for now. Food makes him kind of enraged towards other animals. As long as he wasn't violent the buck pen is the best place for him because the bucks don't care about dog food. IDK what to do with him.

I will stew.

Today we're still snowed in because we (specifically the men) need to dig the short distance to the driveway. I am too busy and sore. I'm going to run a hose out to the troughs and fill them, drain and put away the hoses, and then milk and feed. That will take a few hours with the snow slow down. Then I'll feed kids again and go rest of the rest of the day.

I froze the boys snow pants yesterday to get the stink bugs out of them. That worked so I'll be washing them and then booting them out with Dad someday. Or we'll just stay snowed in forever and I don't care.

 

[rachels.haven]

I'm starting to wonder if trying to cure Clover is worth it for both of us. I may need to figure out how to dry off an "ever-milker". She's sensitive and she is starting to spit out white fleshy clots with blood vessels now. I don't think her hard side is going to shrink.

Spoiler

Oddly enough the other doe i got back with Clover and I treated for actual cultured mastitis and dry treated at dry off has not come into milk yet after her colostrum. Between them that is seven kids out of the eleven with no doe putting it in the bucket for them.

 

[Baymule]

Why all these problems with udders? You work so hard at your goats and this is so discouraging. I sure hope things get better for you and your goats.

 

[rachels.haven]

Not sure. These two did spend some time in someone elses' systems, although neither was having issues at the time.

Maybe its time for outside does to stay out from now on.

 

[rachels.haven]

Last night when I went to milk at about 9-10 I discovered Nigerian dwarf Bri, one of two that I locked into a stall, with a front leg up to the elbow sticking out of her. Incorrect. Last year she presented with a mass of out of the sack doelings I couldn't make heads or tails of and had to call the vet for, so this is her last breeding.
The kid was totally out to the elbow, mashed hard against the left side of the canal, no retrievable head. The leg moved though so it was alive. First I assumed the head was back. Nope. Then I decided to try to find the other leg. Nope. After enough suffering from the doe I got frustrated so I decided the position was totally unacceptable and unworkable so I decided to put everything protruding back in the doe kind of like shaking an 8 ball...and then I realized I could use the bent leg/shoulder/front I did have and what I could feel to slightly turn the kid so it was lined up with the doe's pelvis. And then I found the other leg bent/down on the side I previously couldn't access. And then I parted the two legs and found the neck snaked down and bent at a harsh angle between the legs so I had to kind of mush the kid back while trying to work the neck farther and farther down until I found the skull and I mushed that into the canal (mush is totally what I felt like at this point and I'm sure Bri felt the same). So I hooked the bent leg and the skull together and had them all in my hand and the original leg was back extended so I popped all that past the pelvis and delivered the kid, which was a doe.

Usually when a doe gets a kid in that bad a position out that badly she's been working for a long time and Bri was tired so I went back in and found another sack, got into it and quickly pulled another out rear feet first and the kid didn't breath (buck). Then I went in again and found a bag with tiny feet that I grabbed and pulled and wasn't sure the kid was alive vs a mummy because it was so small but it was a tiny living doe. Then I pulled a buckling in a normal position and went back in to feel around for any more water balloons amid the cotyledons. Nope, thank goodness.

Bri was spent at the first kid and did not react to the other kids being pulled after trying to push herself apart getting the sideways kid out. She didn't want the kids (good with me) but did want to clean up her fluids and drink molasses water so I took the kids in and let her be. At this point it was after midnight. Time seems to speed up when you're elbow deep inside a doe. Poor goat.

It's very cold right now, and like last year Bri did not bag up much so I left her for the night. She's a self sucker so I'll milk her, but I don't mind if she doesn't come into milk full. She is a wonderful hand milk though so it will be a little sad. She was shocky last night but this morning she is ready to hit the stand.

I think a lot of my does are not going into milk because of temperature. It's single digits at night, every night and we're lucky to get above 20. Bri is old, Elsa was thin (she was gaining when bred and I was hoping she'd keep gaining but instead she wasted it and used her resources to give me double the number of kids she usually has). Clover bagged up as much as she was going to before the cold hit. Basically if they didn't bag before this cold spell, they don't seem to want to bag much or come into milk. I just keep feeding and watering them and maybe something will work.

This weather is supposedly abnormal for here, but if this is the new normal I'm going to change some things. Supposedly we're not supposed to get any snow and it isn't supposed to get very cold.

I'd want a barn to lock them all up in all winter with hay bunks and something to clean the barn out with...you know, fantasy, but this is too cold for a big 3 sided shelter. Stuff we would think about if we weren't chipping away at a mortgage.

 

[fuzzi]

Last night when I went to milk at about 9-10 I discovered Nigerian dwarf Bri, one of two that I locked into a stall, with a front leg up to the elbow sticking out of her. Incorrect. Last year she presented with a mass of out of the sack doelings I couldn't make heads or tails of and had to call the vet for, so this is her last breeding.
The kid was totally out to the elbow, mashed hard against the left side of the canal, no retrievable head. The leg moved though so it was alive. First I assumed the head was back. Nope. Then I decided to try to find the other leg. Nope. After enough suffering from the doe I got frustrated so I decided the position was totally unacceptable and unworkable so I decided to put everything protruding back in the doe kind of like shaking an 8 ball...and then I realized I could use the bent leg/shoulder/front I did have and what I could feel to slightly turn the kid so it was lined up with the doe's pelvis. And then I found the other leg bent/down on the side I previously couldn't access. And then I parted the two legs and found the neck snaked down and bent at a harsh angle between the legs so I had to kind of mush the kid back while trying to work the neck farther and farther down until I found the skull and I mushed that into the canal (mush is totally what I felt like at this point and I'm sure Bri felt the same). So I hooked the bent leg and the skull together and had them all in my hand and the original leg was back extended so I popped all that past the pelvis and delivered the kid, which was a doe.

Usually when a doe gets a kid in that bad a position out that badly she's been working for a long time and Bri was tired so I went back in and found another sack, got into it and quickly pulled another out rear feet first and the kid didn't breath (buck). Then I went in again and found a bag with tiny feet that I grabbed and pulled and wasn't sure the kid was alive vs a mummy because it was so small but it was a tiny living doe. Then I pulled a buckling in a normal position and went back in to feel around for any more water balloons amid the cotyledons. Nope, thank goodness.

Bri was spent at the first kid and did not react to the other kids being pulled after trying to push herself apart getting the sideways kid out. She didn't want the kids (good with me) but did want to clean up her fluids and drink molasses water so I took the kids in and let her be. At this point it was after midnight. Time seems to speed up when you're elbow deep inside a doe. Poor goat.

It's very cold right now, and like last year Bri did not bag up much so I left her for the night. She's a self sucker so I'll milk her, but I don't mind if she doesn't come into milk full. She is a wonderful hand milk though so it will be a little sad. She was shocky last night but this morning she is ready to hit the stand.

I think a lot of my does are not going into milk because of temperature. It's single digits at night, every night and we're lucky to get above 20. Bri is old, Elsa was thin (she was gaining when bred and I was hoping she'd keep gaining but instead she wasted it and used her resources to give me double the number of kids she usually has). Clover bagged up as much as she was going to before the cold hit. Basically if they didn't bag before this cold spell, they don't seem to want to bag much or come into milk. I just keep feeding and watering them and maybe something will work.

This weather is supposedly abnormal for here, but if this is the new normal I'm going to change some things. Supposedly we're not supposed to get any snow and it isn't supposed to get very cold.

I'd want a barn to lock them all up in all winter with hay bunks and something to clean the barn out with...you know, fantasy, but this is too cold for a big 3 sided shelter. Stuff we would think about if we weren't chipping away at a mortgage.

So, did I read that right, she had four kids? Three survived?

 

[rachels.haven]

Yep. Last year she also had quads.

 

[Baymule]

Tough night but you saved Bri and 3 of the 4 kids. A barn is on my wish list too.

 

[Ridgetop]

Riker didn't eat the kid, but he did get very aggressive and weird about blood, fluids, and cleanings and took the kid, likely smothered it like a rabbit, may have bitten it but not broken the skin. Then he threw a looooong tantrum and barked angry and upset by himself in the pen corner both after I took the kids and then his doe (checked for more kids and there was nothing). This morning he's totally different, which I'd imagine is not better. It's a few steps above taking newborns for himself in intensity.

An LGD will sometimes take a DEAD lamb or kid away and eat it. Erick says they do this to clean up anything that would draw predators. Two of my LGDs did that last year but the others don't bother. Probably because we remove any dead lambs right away.

I think a lot of my does are not going into milk because of temperature. It's single digits at night, every night and we're lucky to get above 20.

It is possible that they will not milk as heavily because of the temperature. With the cold more of their resources are going into keeping warm but they should be milking something. In very hot summer my does used to cut their production back a bit too. On the other hand, the does that you said don't come into production for a week, or don't produce colostrum should probably be weeded out. Do their daughters also do that? If so that is a genetic flaw that you do not want to propagate. no matter how good the bloodlines.

With does giving you multiple kids and no milk or colostrum, it will cost you a fortune in milk replacer. Sorry for your problems. You are working so hard.

 

[rachels.haven]

NORMAL KIDDING FOR SANDRA!!! ND, her kids are the BIG cream ones, buck and doe, no assistance needed just like last year. Thank you, Sandy!