The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Goats => Topic started by: ballingall on February 14, 2010, 11:39:47 am
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Hello,
This year we are supposed to have 8 goats to kid, but one has just decided she hasn't held and come back into season, which is a shame because she is now 3 and still not had any kids, so we now have seven goats to kid.
Christina, my mum's British Alpine (she was mine first, and I decided we had too many breeds, but my mum said you can't sell her and took her instead- so we still have as many breeds!) is due to kid on the 21st of this month, so only a week to go now. She is looking very big, and these will be her first pure bred kids as she doesn't hold in kid if we travel her to a billy- we had to bring a billy to her this year. She is a breed champion, so we are hoping to get some nice kids from her.
Will keep you posted on how she is doing
Beth.
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all the best, then!
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sorry beth this has nothing to do with kiddings!
is that a pic of a proper goat sign on your posts.
if so where did you get it?
i would love one for the stone pier for the gates!!!! ;) :goat:
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Talk to happyhippie!
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Not much happening yet, she's going longer than we thought. Her udder is a bit lopsided at the moment, so hopefully it will improve. We have homes for 2 males if she has boys, so that won't be an issue. I hope she has a female as well though!
Beth
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Thats good that you have homes for two boys - we have had three boys this time so far, so fingers crossed Jamine has a girl (or two!) She is bagging up, but a few weeks to go yet.
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Hi all,
I have had to bring myself to update this. Christina started to kid on Tuesday morning, and I had to toddle off to work to bring in the pennies. Mum and ALex were at home with her. She gave up pushing by 10am, so mum investigated and found the problem was two kids, both coming forwards at the same time. Mum tried but was unable to kid her, so we had to call the vet, who also had great difficultly. She did eventually manage to get out all three male kids.
The second kid who probably had the most trauma from kidding was very weak, and died within a couple of hours. Christina didn't produce any afterbirth, and was in shock from the handling when I got home from work. She looked awful when I saw her first, but we got her rugged up, and persuaded her to drink some glucose/treacle water, which she had refused to do earlier. She wouldn't touch food, but did look brighter. When mum went out at 6am, it was clear she was not going to make it, and she died 20 minutes later.
So we have two wee boys, who of course need feeding. Fortunately we have Romily running through and she is giving about 4 litres a day. We will buy some dried milk as an in case to supplement her milk until the next goats are due to kid in 4 weeks.
Sadly we never had a daughter from Christina to carry her line on, in fact the boys are the first pure bred BA kids we have from her. She was a breed champion, winning 7 1st firsts out of 8 BGS recognised shows she went to and winning 6 BCC's, gaining her breed championship as a first kidder. She lost out on a BCC at the Royal Highland Show as she threw a strop and kicked the bucket of milk over! She then ran through last year as we couldn't get her to hold in kid and despite not having a huge quantity of milk, still was awarded BCC's, and was placed in the top six line up several times in 2009. My 11 year old neice took complete charge of her last year, and would not only show her in the show ring, but prepare her for the show/judging and milk her at the shows as well. She had a fantastic relationship with my AN milker Kream, they loved each other to bits, but they had a very sado-masochistic relationship! Essentially she beat up Kream, who was quite happy with this as she would just lie down and eat lots of food while Christina had a strop! She was very determined to get her own way, and ran her herd of goats with an iron hoof. I'm so sorry we don't still have her.
(http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b340/ballingall/DSCF3199.jpg)
(http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b340/ballingall/DSCF3209.jpg)
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Hi Beth. I am so sorry to read of your loss. This is the reason I have never been tempted to breed from any of mine. I know you get more happy endings than sad ones but just too afraid to risk it. I hope your boys do well and all your other kiddings are stress free. :)
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Oh! So sorry, and hope the baby boys bring you joy, and can help to ease the grief at losing a lovely - sounding girl.
All the best for your other kiddings
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I am so sorry about your losing your lovely girl. I think it brings things home to us, that not everything goes smoothly sometimes. Having lost two kids already this year, I am awaiting my Jasmine to kid, and will be a bit tense until the kids arrive safely. Funny thing is, the goat that lost her kid, had one last year, in the back garden of a lady who had no idea about goats and kidding, and all went well .......
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Sometimes they just get on with it themselves Roxy and let us humans know how useless we are!
The good times do outweigh the bad James, but I can see where you are coming from. The wee boys are growing fast, and are very hungry. They are already taking 15 fluid ounces at a feed! They are named Carrick and Charlie.
I must take some still pictures of them- haven't taken any yet. Alex did take a video of them getting their first bottle though. Please ignore our untidy house! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdEFsz5YhsA (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdEFsz5YhsA)
Beth
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Beth what a fantastic video. That must help ease some of the heartache over the unexpected loss. The boys are gorgeous, are you keeping them since you lost their mum?
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Very sad to loose a goat during kidding - mine are due to kid in 3 and a half and 4 weeks, but getting a bit anxious now! The BT goatling is looking quite big already!
But I loved the video, thought your dog was about to adopt them!
Lets hope the others go much smoother.
Regards, Anke
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Great video - had to smile at the dog helping .....they soon latch on to the bottle, after that initial struggle. Look cute in their box, but I bet they will soon be wanting to come out of there!! I remember bottle feeding my very first goat kid, over 30 years ago. She was so energetic she kept pulling the teats off. I remember being so worried, that she had swallowed them. You can imagine my relief when I found them in the straw bed!!
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We are keeping them both to begin with, one has a home to go to (a neighbour who got 2 castrates from us 2 years ago) once he is a bit older, and when (hopefully) we have other kids to keep Carrick company. We will keep Carrick until the Autumn anyway, and use him on our AOV milker Romily so we get some offspring. Needless to say they have a bigger cardboard box now, and are already getting out to the shed most of the time. I need to make them a pen tomorrow.
Beth
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Getting towards more kiddings now, we have two due in the next week or two, both Anglo-Nubian's, both will be second kidders. These two are both mine, Surf is due first, on Tuesday, and her udder is starting to fill up. It would be nice for me if she kidded at the weekend as I'll be at home of course! Evita is due next Thursday, and her udder isn't as full, although she has been struggling to get up and down far more than Surf. I am worried this might mean she is having boys, which are heavier boned :(
Fingers all crossed for better kiddings and some nice kids!
Anke, your goats must be due soon as well.
Beth
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Hi, the GG kidded on Wednesday morning, I was in at the beginning but got such filthy looks from her that I thought I give her half an hour to get on with it, and 20 minutes later kid was there! Unfortunately it is a single and male, but he is very cute! Trying to hop on all four legs a once into the air! The BT type was due today, but udder isn't that tight yet and she is probably going for a few days over... Am hoping for female though (and preferably more than one.... but that's breeding)
So, one down one to go and quite a few sheep look ready to burst (lambing due to start on Wednesday nxt week)...
Anke
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Don't want to be pessimistic, but a overdue goat can mean boy kids. I will cross all my fingers though for you!
Had a good check of Surf tonight and her udder is much fuller, not really tight yet, but not far off. She could be over the weekend. I'm convinced she has girls and that Evita is going to have males. I already have females from Surf last year, and I would really like a female from Evita...
From what I have heard it hasn't been a very good year for lots of female kids, which is disappointing.
Beth
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Oh well must have been the cold winter.... If it's all males for us we need to sell more of our lambs (or buy a new freezer!) I am looking forward to lots of milk though (unless my sheep produce a few triplets...)
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Surf has been keeping us on tenderhooks most of the weekend, and Alex has been getting up in the middle of every night to check her. However, she started in ernest late this afternoon. However, having started, she then didn't do very much! Pushed a few times and gave up. We went in to investigate, but both mum and I were pretty certian the problem was just that the first kid coming was breech. This proved to be the case and was therefore quite quick to deal with.
She had a girl first, pale creamy colour (as is becoming standard for my goats!), then a lovely chocolate brown boy (sadly). She then had a another even paler female kid, and mum checked to make sure that was it. We left all the kids with her for a wee while, but one of the females was quite weak, and she was moving around a lot nearly tramping on them, so we took away the girls into the house, leaving the boy with her. After I gave the wee lad some milk, I went back indoors to see to the girls. When I went back to check on her to get the afterbirth, I was a bit shocked to discover she had another kid! However, this one was dead and had been so for a while, she wasn't developed properly at all.
Sadly, the second female who seemed weak, had trouble sucking. We couldn't get her to take any milk to begin with, when the milk hit the back of throat she seemed unable to swallow. We tried to feed her again after a couple of hours, but again she hardly took anything and seemed to have trouble swallowing. We checked her palette to make sure she didn't have a cleft palette but that was fine. I moved her into a cardboard box on her own after the second feed, but she died about 1/2 afterwards, just slept away. Not sure what was wrong- something not developed properly maybe.
Although sad to lose her, it's not a great loss, as we have her sister, and we also have 2 of Surf's female triplets from last year. The boy is being kept as he will be Charlie's companion for our friend up the road, although he doesn't have a name yet. The little girl has been christened Spring.
Beth
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Sorry about your losses, Beth, but thats the way with livestock, and something we have to accept as part and parcel of it. I have only ever had one goat kid triplets and that was a British Toggenburg, and she had all billies. In fact every kidding she had billies, usually twins. But quads - definitely not had any of those.
I thought it was my year for all billies, having had one live and two dead ones, so I am chuffed to have Primrose and Poppy, the two girls.
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The little girl is now called Spring, in keeping with my naming theme for my S line. The wee boy has temporarily been christened Sherlock, but his new owner may change his name anyway.
Oh, and Alex videoed the birth. Its a little bit messy as she had to be helped, and noisy, and loads of us talking in the background!
http://www.youtube.com/user/Ballingallgoats#p/a/u/0/c265ZU40q-E (http://www.youtube.com/user/Ballingallgoats#p/a/u/0/c265ZU40q-E)
Beth
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I am sure that video will be of interest to those who have kids due, and are first time owners of kidding goats, although hopefully theirs will arrive without needing help. How fortunate to have a resident vet for such occasions!!!
I am on standby with my neighbour for her lambing, cos she has very large hands, and says my tiny hands are just the right size if things go wrong with her ewes lambing.......yes, fine, so long as I do not get a 2am phone call :D
Typical lambing weather here - pouring with rain, and snow expected later in the week, and lambs round here just about to start arriving!!
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Oh I know Roxy- most of the local farmers here are due to start lambing this week, and it's been snowing since this morning! Whenever we had sheep lambing they always chose the coldest day or worse weather.
I must say it is useful having a resident vet- everyone should have one!
Beth
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Its not just the sheep that pick the worse weather to lamb in! Evita, the other Anglo-Nubian milker has produced some discharge and is looking like kidding on a horrible, horrible night. The wind is dreadful- I had to tie the goatshed door shut earlier, but managed to sort it now.
Beth
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Oh, I will have my fingers crossed for Evita, and hopefully a successful kidding!! Horrible night here too - been sleeting hard and hailstones all day, and now its snowing.
Horses are well known for waiting for a good day to foal - apparantly they can hold off the birth if the weather is not right. Although, this years colt was born on a very wet and windy day in June, but he was none the worse for his very wet arrival.
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She did hold off as it happened- after doing hourly checks from 9:30pm til 2:30am she settled down again. However, she started straining this morning (I was all geared to be late for work, but my mother shooed me off!).
Once again, like all of our kiddings so far, she had to be helped, as three kids were all trying to come at once. The first one out was a boy who wasn't breathing, but Alex managed to resucitate him for a while. Then followed another 2 boys :( One of these boys was twisted round when he came out, and had very bad muscle tone. Having produced 3 males already, mum put her hand back in, and found another kid, much bigger than the other 3, so naturally she thought, oh no another boy...... BUT it was a girl!
The boy first out who wasn't breathing did actually die, as did the one with bad muscles, he actually never got up, although his cause wan't helped by his mum who lay on him as well!
It's been a funny year, we actually haven't had any kids put to sleep, but have lost several through them just not making it. Thank goodness the female kid is the strongest of them all.
No pictures or videos of this lot, but I will try and take some pictures, as the newest wee girl is very cute.
Beth
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You are having some multiple births at your place, aren't you!! There is no way I could manage at my house with all those arriving, and having to bottle feed .....it would be a good excuse not to go to work though ;D
As you know, I have not had a good year with kidding. Out of three nannies I have two live nanny kids and one live billy, and then two dead billy kids. Next kids are due in the summer hopefully.
Is that all your nannies kidded now - must be getting a full barn by now with the new arrivals!!
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Oh no, we still have another 3 to go in the next 2 weeks. And another maybe, but she might not be due until July if she has held (a 3 year old that hasn't kidded yet!).
That's all my one's done though. Of the next 3, 2 belong to my neices and are both first kidders, and the other is my mum's BT 2nd kidder.
So far we have had, 7 males, 3 of which died and 4 females of which 1 was born dead and 1 other died. We wouldn't have kept as many as that anyway, but it isn't a good total.
Beth
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I have people waiting or my goat kids, and some people wanting billy kids for the freezer, and others wanting pygmy kids ......typical, all wanting what I do not have, this kidding time!!!
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beth sorry that im not replying to post, have read it interesting.
beth do or can scurs at some time stop growing?
mollys now has regrown twice and this time they were thicker and longer but they have fallen out again.
langdon ;) :goat:
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They can eventually stop growing, but I think most often they tend to keep growing. What you might find is that the rate of growth might slow down though, which will mean it happens less often.
Beth