Kidding at Midnight

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On a warm summer Monday morning we let the goats out and we immediately noticed Dr. Quinn’s change in behavior. She was speaking much more than usual and kept laying down, getting up, and laying somewhere else. I checked her ligaments and they had dropped, she had discharge, and a very full udder. She’ll kid today, we thought. If not this morning, then by the afternoon. Boy were we wrong.

All day I checked on her every half hour to see how she was progressing. More discharge here and there, moving around a lot, but no nesting and not much dilating. The whole day passed and it came time to put our buddies in for the night. I set up a cot right next to Dr. Quinn’s kidding area not knowing what lie ahead of us in just a few hours. I never slept that night, as she would call to me and I’d get up to sit by her side, pet her, and tell her it was going to be okay. Every time I got cozy in my sleeping bag, looked up at the stars, and breathed out a long breath trying to relax, she’d call to me again. I’d talk to her and eventually get up to console her again. This process started around 9pm and around 11:30pm she started talking a little more and seemed to want me to stay right by her side. Which, by the way, is not normal for Dr. Quinn. She typically likes her own space and petting never lasts long. The time was coming near for the kid to come. She’d start pushing soon. Then finally at 11:58pm she gave a little push and I could see the amniotic sack just inside. I called my husband, who was trying to get some sleep before she kidded, and told him it was time. Just after he got to Dr. Quinn’s side, she had pushed out the amniotic sack and we popped it to relieve pressure. Now comes the kid… Anytime now… Dr. Quinn kept pushing… Soon… After 10 minutes, things didn’t seem to be progressing, so we decided to go in and check on the kids position.

Kris could feel a head just inside. Dr. Quinn pushed some more and the nose and mouth appeared. My first thought when seeing the nose was “that thing is huge! How will she ever push that out?” Obviously we were both concerned. Would Dr. Quinn survive this? Would we get the kid out safely?

Our previous doe kidded without our assistance. We were there for the whole thing, but she didn’t need us to do anything except receive her kids. This was not the same experience. We had read up on things that could go wrong during kidding and were prepared to do whatever was necessary. But I had not come across a situation like this. We were scared.

The front hooves should come out first. If those had been there we would have had something to grab and pull on. But how do you pull on a nose? And she didn’t seem fully dilated. We thought maybe we could snip her a little so I grabbed my phone and franticly started looking up if one should snip a goat when in labor. “Whatever you do, absolutely do not snip her” is what I read. So that was out. I finally came across a web page that explained the best thing to do was use our fingers to stretch back the skin each time she pushed. And once the divots below the eyes appeared, we could gently tug along with each push. So Kris stretched and folded back her skin every time she pushed. She was giving it all she had. The sound of deep throat bleating cries made me feel her agony. She’s sure to wake the neighbors, I thought, but I wasn’t going to worry about that just then. Kris and I were both nervous, but we kept each other calm by doing our parts. I was amazed at his patience and persistence to ease Dr. Quinn through this. He offered her words of encouragement as she gave it all she had. Once the head was out, the kid was crying, but Kris could finally tug ever so gently – still with each push. She was delivering the kid! At last the shoulder popped out and the rest of the body slid out without a problem. She did it! And the kid was alive and well! We placed the long legged, 4 pound 12 ounce buckling by Dr. Quinn and she immediately started licking him and talking to him. It was so wonderful to hear those special maternity sounds a doe offers her kid. The whole delivery only lasted about 20 minutes, but it seemed a lot longer. We all made it through that experience and were very relieved. We could have lost both the doe and kid if we had not been there to help her deliver. But the Lord came through for us by allowing us to be there when she kidded, giving us the ability to research in a pinch, and persevere not knowing what the outcome would be.

As Kris and I looked at each other he said, “I hope there isn’t another one.” He checked her and thank goodness there wasn’t.