Medicine Woman Kids – Part 3: The Early Morning

Deprecated: Automatic conversion of false to array is deprecated in /home1/cramfarm/public_html/wp-content/plugins/zilla-likes/zilla-likes.php on line 220

 

“Baby goat!”

Kris rolled over half asleep and groggily asked, “What?”

“Baby goat,” I exclaimed,  “there’s only one!”

On Friday, June 16^th I took the goats out for their evening graze and walk.  They all followed me out of the pen and started up the hill as usual, but when we got to the end of the fence Medicine Woman wouldn’t go any further.  I called her several times and she would talk back to me trying to tell me she didn’t want to leave her home.  She was so stubborn about staying near the pen that we had to forgo our walk that evening.  To me, that was a sign that she might kid soon.  She wanted to stay close to home because she knew what was coming.  Because of the change in her behavior, I checked her and she seemed slightly dilated, but her ligaments had not dropped.  I let Kris know that I thought she was in early labor, given the signs I observed.  “What if she kids tonight,” I thought, “nah, her udder isn’t tight yet.  It might be another day or so.”  Kris didn’t think it would be that night either, so we didn’t give it too much thought.  I put Medicine Woman to bed as usual, all the while thinking in the back of my mind that maybe I should sleep out there just in case… or at least put the baby monitor in there so I can hear if she starts to kid.  I didn’t do either, but I did check her before I went to bed and her ligaments felt softened, but not completely dropped like last time she was in labor.  I thought she may kid later the next morning at the earliest.

I have now learned first-hand that all labor signs can be different, even with the same doe.

I slept well that night until I awoke at 2:30am.  My mind immediately started thinking about Medicine Woman.  I had a strange feeling that I needed to check on her and I knew I wasn’t going to be able to sleep again until I did, so on went the slippers.  I crept out of the house quietly so I didn’t wake Kris, and walked into the goat pen.  I opened the door to Medicine Woman’s room and there, to my surprise, was a little baby goat cuddled in the corner!  Medicine Woman was standing over the baby licking, licking, licking.  I felt the baby and it was already dry and poofy, which meant it was born a while ago.  I looked for other kids, but there were none.  I ran into the house and yelled to Kris, “Baby goat!”

I went back to Medicine Woman and the baby.  I checked the baby and, thank the Lord, it was a doeling!  I looked again to see if I missed any kids, and I looked at Medicine Woman, but everything on her was already drying up.  There was no afterbirth, so we thought that was still on its way, and very possibly another kid.  She had four the first time around, so we thought she would have multiple this time.  I read that it is possible for hours to go by between kids, so I waited.  After an hour I gave up on more kids popping out, so I began waiting for the after birth.  That never came either and since she showed no signs of discomfort we concluded that she must have already consumed it.  I remember watching how fast Dr. Quinn ate her after birth, and Medicine Woman definitely had plenty of time to eat it before I found her at 2:30.  My guess is that she must have kidded at least a couple hours before I checked on her.

Kris and I are super bummed we missed it, because we were ready to roll the camera and document the kidding.  On the other hand, it was all really easy for us.  Medicine Woman was, once again, a champ and did it all on her own.  We never heard her scream, she cleaned the baby, made sure it milked, and even cleaned up her afterbirth.  Besides the baby and some messiness on her back end, there was really no sign of kidding.  I didn’t have to clean anything!  Way to go Medicine Woman!  And thank you for having a normal sized, healthy doeling!