Adventures with Madi at Blue Mountain Farms: I'm not Kidding Ewe!

Hello everyone. This was a very interesting weekend. First, I have to start with what I was doing. I am a part of the 4-H Exchange club, and what we do is do an exchange with another group of wonderful 4-Hers in a different state. So, this year we are exchanging with a group of kids in Montana! Obviously, we will need some money for that, so we had a fundraiser this past weekend. We were actually able to help at a dog show for our fundraiser! We always help with ring crew, setup, and tear down. It's easy to say that this is my favorite fundraiser that I help with. I love to watch the dogs run their course and have a great time doing it! I was there on Friday and again on Sunday. My mom, Papa, and I went on Friday and on Sunday, Tyler and I went.

For the past few weeks, my mom and I have been keeping a close eye on my goat Peek-A-Boo. She was due to have her kids and we knew that she was going to go soon, until last week she went down. She laid down and couldn't stand back up again. This was terrifying considering that there was a chance that the kids would have to be pulled. Right away our vet received an email from us that Peek wasn't doing well. She replied within minutes and told me about a few shots that I should give her. I also gave her CMPK drench for some energy and strength. She still wasn't standing so I just kept an eye on her and kept contact with the vet just in case. Within a few days, Peek still was down. We asked Cindy, our vet, what we should do. She said that we should induce her labor with 5 ML of Dexamethasone. We waited 24-36 hours, but the medication didn't take. Cindy told me to give her 10 ML. I, of course, did what she said, and then the clock started, again.

I was hesitant to go to the dog show, but I went. On Sunday, I was in the ring at the dog show when Tyler came up behind me and said, "Hey, Peek-A-Boo had her kids." A million questions rushed through my head at that second: Is she okay? How many? Boys? Girls? Are they okay? I also thought, "Did mom have to pull them?" This thought scared me because I knew how hard it was for Cocoa deliver Bubba and she was strong, but Peek-a-Boo was weak. As far as Tyler knew, she had triplets, two boys and one girl. He also knew that they were not positioned correctly.

I waited, for what felt like forever, until the class of dogs was finished so I could share the news. I was very excited to come home to see the three kids! The one thing that I was not looking forward to was seeing Peek as weak as I could imagine her being.

After the next few hours, it was time to go home. Once we made it home, I met three beautiful goat kids. One buck weighed ten pounds, the other buck weighed eight pounds 7 ounces, and the little girl, who is just a peanut, weighed five pounds 4 ounces. The sight of them made me happy, but in that same stall was Peek-A-Boo with her glazed-over eyes. She was still laying down. She had been through a lot that day and there was more to come. We have been trying to rotate her from one side and back to the other, but she always rolled back onto one side. By doing this, she made her right hind leg useless. We had to get some blood-flow to that leg, so we put her in a sling. As carefully as we could, we rubbed her back leg to make it less numb.

Another thing that we had to stay on the clock with was feeding the kids. They needed the colostrum in their system before they became weak as well; since Peek wasn't going to be able to nurse them on her own. One of the bucks was curling his back legs and he couldn't walk. I had to put splints on him to make them straight which seemed to help him walk a little bit better.

Thank Goodness that my mom is a trooper because she took the 1:00 am shift to feed the kids. I also made sure that Peek was eating and drinking. The kids were a little weak the first day, but by today, they are bouncing around and drinking, a lot! (we had a surplus of frozen goat milk which is now being used for the kids) We are all working together to get Peek-A-Boo up and moving, but she isn't up yet. She is showing some improvement though! We have started putting her up in a sling for a few minutes three times a day. Today she put some weight on her back legs and tried walking on them! I am so glad that I have all of the chances and opportunities that I have!