The hostage situation was resolved this morning….this event is also known as, “Beauty finally had her babies”.

Beauty is an experienced mom and normally handles the whole experience like a pro….but let’s face it nothing in 2022 has been normal and this was no exception.

Fred came in and woke me at 4:00, letting me know she had kidded and I needed to get out to the barn. I fumbled into my farm grubbies, moving clumsily from my lingering sleep haze. When I got there, one look at Beauty’s stunned face told me that things hadn’t gone as we had hoped. She had quads, which I always pray won’t happen, particularly with my Boer goats. Boers aren’t a dairy breed and they typically struggle to produce enough to feed more than 2 babies. This means we have to step in and help.

Farm Practices

On our farm we try to interfere as little as possible with the kidding process. When things go well we usually do only a few things. A quick health check on the babies. Then make sure to tie off and dip their umbilical cords. Lastly, just a quick squirt of vitamins and make sure they are eating well. Of course, mom is given some extra attention in the form of grain and hay. That’s it.

This year kidding season has required more assistance from us than in well over a decade of goat breeding and Beauty followed this year’s trend.

Working through the Disappointment

At the barn, I found that two of the babies were cleaned and up trying to feed…….. and two had not made it. It seems that after the first two babies were born Beauty was confused as to why more babies kept being expelled from her body. (I can’t say I blame her, four is A LOT!) By the time the 3rd and 4th baby were born she hadn’t broken the birthing sack or cleaned them, and they didn’t survive.

I quickly pushed back my disappointment and sadness, there was just no time to succumb to the emotion. I did the health check on the two live babies. They looked great! We took care of their umbilical cords and wiped them down a bit better to make sure they were dry. Then I gave them a squirt of Nutri-Drench and got them feeding on mom.

Then it was time to address the two that didn’t make it. I picked up the first baby, preparing to hand him to Fred. I noticed that the birthing sack must have burst when he was born, but he was still covered in birthing goo and ice cold……. and then I saw it. He was breathing, barely. I was so surprised I almost dropped him. His breath was incredibly shallow and at first, I thought I imagined it, but it was there. He was unresponsive in every other way, but it was enough for me. I checked his brother and found his birth sack had not burst….he never had a chance to take his first breath. ☹

Fighting for Life

I stuffed my emotions again. Milking a tiny bit of mom’s colostrum into a container and rushed the struggling baby into the house. The most pressing issues in otherwise healthy babies is to ensure that they eat within the first 30 minutes (ideally) and that they stay warm. As I carried this baby into the house, I noticed that it felt like he had just came out of the freezer. He was so cold. Trying to raise core body temps are difficult. In retrospect I should have used the bathtub method because I think it would raised his internal temps quicker, but the heating pad and blow dryer managed to do the job…. albeit at a much slower pace.

We pulled all our tricks out of the bag for this guy, and after an hour and a half of warming I finally saw some signs of responsiveness. With him finally getting his core temperature up, it was time to warm the colostrum 2 cc’s at a time in a needle-less syringe and get him fed.

Note:

A couple of notes: care needs to be taken when warming colostrum not to get the heat too high – which turns it kills off beneficial bacteria and can turn the consistency to pudding. Also, as much as the baby needs to eat, the body temp needs to be brought up first for them to properly process the food.

Focusing on the Blessings

During the whole process Rowdy was incredibly concerned about the baby, licking him clean, nuzzling him and generally getting in the way. I think he’s now considered the unofficial God parent to this little guy.

After an eternity had passed, the baby had been warmed enough to eat. I began giving him very small amounts in 15-to-30-minute increments. And 4 hours after being rushed inside he was warm, alert, testing out his new legs. He was ready to be reunited with mom and his siblings.  The longer a baby stays away from mom the greater the chance she will not accept him back. When he got back to the barn, I rubbed him down with some of the dirty towels we had used to clean up the other kids. This helped him get covered in Beauty’s scent and increase the chances she would recognize him.

We were super lucky that he was able to be revived and that Beauty accepted him. However, I refused to get too optimistic because despite all our heroics, nature is ultimately in charge. I decided that if he survived the first 24 hours, I would name him Lazarus. He would have earned the name. Well, the 24 hours passed and he is thriving!

 

Meet Lazarus.