Lady Bug Kidded!

The last few weeks have been rough ones as far as things go for Lady Bug. We have some not-so-nice neighbors who are city-minded and do-as-I-please-regardless types. They built their house and now a "play barn" next to our barn which has always housed livestock. The 26th of June they had a wedding reception in their barn for a son and after dark set of illegal fireworks NEXT TO MY BARN! There was a major goat stampede and escape. Lady, late-term pregnant, managed to end up wedged down between 2 50-gallon feed barrels and the wall and was injured. She has a break in her leg and a broken tail, possible back injuries, and a lot of soft tissue injuries so is 3-legged lame. She was extremely (severely) swollen from the ribs back when I found her Sunday morning and you could no longer distinguish her udder. I really thought I was losing the pregnancy and possibly Lady Bug, it was that bad.

After a couple LONG discussions with an experienced goat vet, I was given instructions. He really felt she needed kept under 24/7 watch due to the pregnancy and some time for swelling to subside. So I went with his game plan as it made lots of sense. He was available if I had questions, etc. Just call and he'd give the info to the next vet on call so they could pass along what was going on and actions taken.

Lady became a house goat and she's more than happy to serve the position! She was only a couple days old when we got her and she started here in the house and has always enjoyed coming in for a visit and felt she belonged inside! So she's quite content to have her home back. I was worried about her being stressed from separation from the herd but she shows no concern over that. She just wants to be with me and I'm to stay in her sight. Treats are expected and she LOVES fruit flavored cheap pop tarts! She also took right to using papers at the door for piddles and a lot of berry "downloads".

On the 2nd, following Friday, Lady Bug was stable enough to transport to the vet and she needed to be seen as far as my gut feeling was directing. The decisions amongst the vets was they prefered tonot stress her at all so the kids had ample time to develop their lungs and important last-minute pregnancy development such as suck reflex, etc. She did get a magnetic treatment for the soft tissue of her leg/thigh and he felt she had a broken tail and pastern.

Lady had moved to the house and now needed watched so she could have assistance kidding due to the muscle damage and her lameness. Her pain level did go down except in the one leg. There was concern over her being able to push the kids out and concern over the kids.

Yesterday I had a doctors appointment and shortly after we got home Lady kidded successfully. She was able to push the first out fine and then she and Candi, mini Aussie, immediately went to work cleaning up the black doeling. What a cutie she is with white marks on both sides, a spot on her withers and a star on her forehead. She also has frosted ears, muzzle and tail with a white tip on her tail. Her sides have random frosted hairs that are most concentrated on her shoulders.

The 2nd doeling is a buckskin which means she's tan on the back half of her body and black to the front. She also has a star and tan eye bars and a few frosted hairs on her ears and muzzle. She's much smaller than the firstborn. I have concerns over her as she's not doing near as well. Her sack was full of greenish-yellowish fluid with some dark specks. This isn't normal and isn't good! She's at high risk of pneumonia and becoming septic. I took her right to the bathroom and bathed her off well as I suspect it's body waste in the sack. At this point she's progressing much slower than the first born. I'm giving her colostrum frequently and monitoring her closely. She's had a large drop of corn syrup to help get her sugar level up as she was doing a bit of trembling. She's very tiny and light weight. In the photo, she's laying by Lady's udder and Lady is looking at her.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed the tiny doeling can make it. I'm also glad Lady has kidded so the hormonal change can revert back to non pregnant so we can further determine if she needs more medical care or what the next goal will be for her. I keep wanting her to get better faster, but reality is that breaks take time to heal.

I also had to make a decision as to whether to splint Lady's tail straight down. She can no longer lift it but can flag it hanging down. My thoughts were that being it's broken and not going to be completely functional that it might just be better if it's slightly to the side. Then she can pee and poop without hitting her tail. Then IF she's to be rebred that process might be easier for her. As it is, the hairs partially fall over just enough to do some protecting of the perineal area.

So, we have a healing and yet lame doe who is a wonderful momma to her twin doelings who are CUTE CUTE CUTE! And I'll be continuing to cut a jungle and bring Lady browse to eat. She prefers the maple and grape leaves over the "salad". I'm surprised how much a Nigerian Dwarf can consume in a day's time!

Everyone needs a house goat, don't they?!