The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

I tell my students all the time that a vast majority of goat kiddings go very smoothly, with the doe doing all the work and the kids coming out in textbook "diver" position. Oftentimes, you'll just wake up to extra babies in the barn and no signs of a struggle. But then every once in awhile, you will encounter a tricky situation in which fast and decisive intervention is necessary in order to save the kids, the doe, or both. Flossie's latest birth was the latter.

In this, her third kidding, as Flossie went into active labor, two front feet were soon visible from the outside. But as she continued pushing, there was very little progress. So I gloved up and reached in, discovering a little nose just inside - where it should be - waiting to come out. But then as I slid my hand around the left side, I noticed something that should not have been there: a second nose.

Using my hands, I reached in a little bit more and felt around both noses, thankfully confirming that the frontmost (right) nose was the one that belonged to the feet that were already sticking out. By this point, both noses were vying for first position and were causing both babies to be wedged and unable to make any progress out of the birth canal. The doe was struggling and tiring.

The next course was clear: nose #2 needed to go back to allow baby #1 to get out first. But at this point they were pretty well wedged together in the tiny space and baby #2 did not want to go backward. In fact, it took quite a bit of manipulation - and ultimately a third hand - to push baby #2 backward and make enough room for baby #1 to come out. It took so long, in fact, that Flossie was already rolling her eyes back in her head and dangerously close to the point of total exhaustion when baby #1 finally popped out.

Baby #2 came out very quickly after baby #1, but baby #2 was about one-third the size, underdeveloped, and stillborn, sadly. Flossie was busy cleaning up baby #1 when baby #3 decided it was time to greet the world. When I saw baby #3 coming, I thought, "That's a pretty big head." Only it wasn't a pretty big head. It was a slim and narrow backside. Number three was breech. Fortunately, the birth canal had already stretched out and allowed for a very quick - albeit backward - entrance into the world for our little black and white girl.

I stand by my assertion that usually goats have easy births and take care of things on their own. But in the event that things DO go wrong, you're going to want to know what to look for and how to intervene BEFORE you're needed. Flossie's latest kidding could have been disastrous for her and her kids, if no one knowledgeable had been there to help out. This why I teach my Beyond Kidding goat class.