The beginning of my story...

February 1st

I have a few dairy goats that I am expecting to kid any day now!  I keep checking, but they're not here yet.  I'm glad that they didn't come yet though because it has been very cold.  Now we have a lot of snow and more is coming tonight.

Feb 10th:

My goats still haven't kidded and I'm not sure what they are waiting for!  Two of them, Precious & Clover, look like they are going to burst!  They've started bagging up during farm show a month ago!  Maddie (another of my goats - she came with that name if you remember from my essay) is about to burst as well.  The others aren't quite as ready as them.

Feb 25th:

Guess What!!!  Finally, one of my goats kidded!  She had twins, one boy and one girl!  Their names are Lilly and Willy.  Sadly their mom rejected them so now I have two bottle babies that live in my own house.  They are just adorable.  I've had to bottle feed them around the clock.  At least their mom is allowing me to milk her and she's producing a lot of milk which I am using to feed the "kids." 

Lilly and Willy

I also had one of my angora goats kid.  She had the most precious little girl and just loves her.  In fact, she didn't lay down at all for hours because she stood there watching the baby's every move.  When that baby nurses, the mom actually squats a bit for the baby to reach better and she even lifts her leg out of the way of the baby.  Now, if only I could get her to teach "Clover" how it's supposed to be done!

I have more goats to kids and I'm not quite sure what they are waiting for.  Two are showing signs of going very soon.

I was able to get pictures of the babies being born, but I'll attach one of them all fluffed up and cute.

March 3rd:

Lilly and Willy drink about 15 oz. four times a day.  All of my other goats need to be milked twice a day, but right now they are dried up and getting ready to kid!  My one goat, Maddie, (came with the name) just had her kid, but sadly he is very weak and can't walk right.  His front leg tendons are loose, but should strengthen in the next few days.  He was quite large when he was born which contributed to this.  I work with him, massage his legs, make sure that he nurses- (his mommy, Maddie, loves him).  I made sure that he was given a shot of BoSe (selenium booster for him) and he is getting better every day.

Spidey

I had another angora goat finally have her baby.  Her name is Willow and she had the most precious little girl that I named Ella.  Willow has been a fantastic mommy.  In fact right after Ella was born, Willow wouldn't take her eyes off her.  She is now 4 days old and bouncing everywhere.  The best news is that I was able to put Lilly & Willy in with Willow and Ella and they are making friends!  They are so adorable.  I still give Lilly & Willy bottles 4 times a day, but Willow is teaching them now how to be a goat.  I just love Willow.

Ella

Another view of Ella

One other goat I have is named Whoopie Pie.  Today I checked on everyone around when I fed Willy & Lilly and there were no signs of kidding.  Two hours later I went back to the barn to do another check and 15 minutes later, Whoopie was giving birth to a beautiful little girl.  I'm not sure what I'll name her yet, but her momma loves her too.  I just will keep checking on them to make sure that the baby nurses and stays warm. 

Whoopie Pie and her baby, Maple

I still have one more goat to go and her name is Precious.  She looks like she is going to pop any minute now!  I feel so blessed to have been able to see and help with all the deliveries of my goat's babies!  What a wonderful life!

March 12th:

Right now I have sixteen goats (Four angora goats, four nubian goats, and seven kids).  But the vet came last Friday and I asked her why three of my goats got lumps on their jaw-line right before kidding.  She said that we would have to lance the lumps and test the fluid inside.  Unfortunately, the tests just came back and I learned that they have CL (caseous lymphadenitis) and that is very contagious and not a good thing to have in your herd.  We think that it came from the last goat I added to my herd.  She was to be clean, but wasn't.  I have no way of knowing for sure and the blood tests to check for it, according to my vet, can actually give false readings.  Of course it happened to my three best goats (Precious, Whoopie Pie, and my first dairy goat Maddie) for milking or showing.

Eclipse

I had to pull all the kids and have been bottle feeding them ever since.  When I cleaned the wounds from lancing on my dairy goats, I had to take every precaution as the fluid can even be contagious to humans.  When we were finished with them, we had to burn all the tools and I had to isolate all three of my girls until the tests came.  I was very sad when I got the news on Monday as they had to be put down.

Now I am bottle feeding all the babies as the only milking doe I have left is Clover and that is Lilly & Willy's mom.  You know her story as she rejected them the day they were born.  Do you have any idea how much time is involved in bottle feeding all these babies?  Well, I have to unfreeze milk, sanitize bottles, fill bottles, heat bottles, feed bottles, wash bottles, and repeat!  Whew!  My days are going very fast right now.  The babies are worth it though and having them has made it a little easier to accept what has happened.

So far the babies are ok because I separated them from the moms as the illness is passed through the fluid in the abscess.  Since I took all precautions, the babies should be ok.  Also, as they get a little bit older, I will be vaccinating them for it.

Also, Precious did have twin boys!  Sadly, she rejected them, goooooooooo figure!  right now they are living in my garage and they drink a bottle four to five times a day....... Good thing they're cute!  I named them Meteor & Eclipse.

Meteor, Maple and Spidey

March 25th:

Well, all the babies are growing.  Clover is still not a fan of her babies, but she is producing a lot of milk every day.  Right now, I'm not using it though for my cheese making, instead, I have been using it to top off the bottles for all the babies.

They are growing, jumping, getting out of their pen, and I just love them all!  In fact, they're all staying here!  I love them all too much to part with any of them.  I did wether three of the boys.  My best friend, Cami, who loves animals, but doesn't have any at her house, has adopted one of them so she can show him at our 4-H fair.  (she's always wanted to do that).  I'm going to show his brother.  I kept the one, Spidey in tact to help rebuild my herd.  I'm almost finished with the vaccinating and then I hope to add an older doe that my vet recommended from one of her clients farms.

The girls of course will stay here and I likely won't breed them until next year unless they grow enough before fall breeding time.  I like to give them enough time to properly grow before I breed them.  Little Ella - the angora baby, is just beautiful.  Her momma has been wonderful.

Well, time to go do the night time bottles.

Meteor

Willy

Lilly and Willy