Morning Mist Nubians and Boers

*~ Heads Up!~*

 This page contains photographs of actual births. This is intended for people who are interested in seeing pictures of births in goats. The photos are graphic and may not be suitable for young children or those uncomfortable with the birthing process.

 Here at Journey's End Jerseys we rarely interfere with the birthing process. We leave the dams to deliver on their own. If a kid, calf, or dam is experiencing problems we are quick to assist though. Our mortality rate is very low and we breed with delivery and offspring in mind.

 Edited in 2009 to add; Now that I practice CAE prevention with my kids I am a bit more hands on than I used to be. I do a quick check for presentation after the water has broke. I wipe off the mouth and nose as the kid is being born, and I immediately check the gender after the kid is born. Unreserved bucklings are left for their mothers to raise and doelings, along with reserved bucklings, are taken immediately at birth to be raised on CAE Prevention. I do not leave a doe without a kid to raise, however. I foster a number of buck kids each year. I still do not get in there and pull babies unless the situation warants it.

 Every farmer approaches each aspect of their living in their own way. We urge you to decide how you want to approach matters! This is simply how we do things here.

 Enjoy the rest of your visit and please ask questions if you have any! 

Danielle

  Danielle kidded for the fifth time this year. She kidded early as a yearling (2000) with a premature doe. She kidded with twin does (Elegance and Dainty) in 2002. In January of 2003, she had twin bucks both of whom died within 24 hours. We fostered two of a set of triplet does onto her that year. In 2004, she had a difficult birth. Her two bucklings were both trying to come out at the same time. With assistance we encouraged one to go back and wait his turn. The two bucklings came out healthy, and an hour later she gave birth to a dead doeling. We should have gone in after the third kid that I thought I felt, but I was not sure enough.

 If at any point you are concerned about how a birth is going, it is better to go in and find out what is happening than to wait and run the risk of losing the kid(s) and/or the dam. If you are uncomfortable doing so, find a goat owner in your area before kidding who would be willing to help you with your first year kidding. A vet also works in a pinch, but this is something you should work on learning yourself and vets, especially ones willing to see goats, tend to be large animal vets and have their hands full already.

 Needless to say I wanted to be sure to be there this year when she had her triplets...yes, I thought there would be three kids again this year but I was wrong. She had a perfect kidding and you all are the lucky ones! I was able to record the whole thing with photographs. This is a proper kidding. What you want to see happen.

Onto the kidding! 

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Danielle had been working on her laboring since the evening of 1/6/05. Danielle's water broke and she got into the serious pushing stage a little after 2 AM on 1/7/05. In the photo on the left we can see one foot sticking out. You may see a darker sack come out before this, and then next a clear sack that will contain the kid. Since her water had already broken, there was no sack over this kid. Some does are up and down during their kidding. Some chose to stand and some chose to lay down for serious pushing. For the first kid, Danielle decided to deliver while standing up.

  

The first thing to check when you see the first hoof peek out is what direction it is facing. Proper presentation for a kid (or calf) is in the diving position with its head tucked between its front legs. Since the hoof was facing down, it indicated that this kid was coming out correctly. If the hoof is upside down it is best to go in and check to see if you have a kid in the backwards (hind feet first) position or not. In the photo on the right you can see that the second hoof has made its entrance and if you look above the two legs you will notice the nose just coming out. Looks like very good presentation!

  

 The photo on the left is a close up shot. You can see very clearly the nose coming out above the two front legs. The deep red, purplish thing sticking out next to the mouth is the kid's tongue. This will generally be sticking out during births in both kids and calves. So far, so good! In the photo on the right, we see that through some more pushes the head has begun to enter the world. It will take quite a few pushes before a head will enter the world and stay there. Your kid may go back into momma quite a few times while she works on getting the head out.

  

 Here we have another shot of the head coming out. At this point, or before, the legs may twitch and the kid may shake its head. I did not like how far back the legs looked in this instance. I prefer to see them further extended. This indicates that they are slightly hunched and it may be a little more difficult for her to deliver the shoulders. This is one issue we had with her last year. The first buck's front legs were hunched up. If at any point you feel the need to assist, remember to provide traction and pull the legs down and towards the doe's body with the contractions. In the next photo you can see that even though she is just about to deliver the shoulders that the legs are not fully extended. All in all though she is having a fairly simple birth and I did not feel the need to interfere.

   

Once the shoulders are delivered the rest of the kid should come out within the next couple of pushes. The shoulders are the largest portion for the doe to deliver. The left and middle photo were taken very quickly since the kid was born within one push after the shoulders came out. The kid hit the ground and flopped over. I may have reached in and unfolded it at this point. I don't recall. Notice Danielle has immediately turned around to begin cleaning up her kid. This buckling was born around 3AM on 1/7/05.

 Kidding into straw is a good idea as the straw will cause them to cough and this clears their lungs. The kids should start shaking their heads fairly quickly after being born. If this kid had still had a sack I would have pushed it back off its nose at this point, but he was fine.

 Now the wait for any more kids. It is good to have an idea of how many you are expecting from each doe before kidding. You can accomplish this by using ultrasound or by bumping the does during pregnancies or after each delivery. There is a wonderful explanation of how to bump a doe, or "bouncing" on Fias Co Farms webpage (http://www.fiascofarm.com/goats/bouncing.html). If there is another kid you should hopefully see the doe begin laboring with it fairly soon after the previous kid is born.

  

After working on cleaning her first kid for five or ten minutes, Danielle started her strong contractions for the next kid and laid down. Notice she has laid in such a way that she has her first kid near her head so she can work on cleaning him in between contractions. With her second kid she chose to lay down for the birth. In the first photo you can see the dark sack I was referring to earlier. In the middle photo we see the front legs being presented over the dark sack. As the second kid came out, Danielle was preparing to stand so she could reach him. This second birth went much more quickly than the first as she was already stretched.  Notice the first kid is already standing while the second kid is being born.

 

She chose to stay where she lay and reach around in an attempt to clean off the second kid. At this point I did go in and drag the kid up towards her head so she could clean him off and not have to get up. I also did pull of the sack from the second kids head.

I checked her for more kids and did not find that she had anymore in utero. She had two bucklings and it was a very uneventful kidding. Unfortunately, I was figuring on another kid so did not get many photos of the second delivery.