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March 2, 2005

Took another goat to Cornell

It's almost 1am as I write this. Alarm goes off at 4, so I probably won't be a happy camper tomorrow -- uh -- today.

Sarah did kid today. What I thought was not right turned out to be not right, but I thought I was dealing with ketosis. Dealing with the snowstorm, I worked at home today. I went outside and did rounds every 2 hours or so, after I fed the bottle baby. Sarah was not eating, not interested in water. Grain still not touched. I thought I was dealing with ketosis. I drenched her with propyl glycol and gave her scritches when Gary came home. It was then I saw that she was starting to kid. Warning : graphic story follows.

When a goat kids, and people too I am told, a mucous plug is passed as the bag is moved through the cervix and the infant is presented for birth. This plug is usually clear-ish/white-ish. Today Sarah's was brown. Brown is the color of old blood. Blood (of any color) is the last thing you want to see first at birth.
She started her contractions about 6pm. When it was 7:30 and still nothing was really showing, I truly became worried. I then figured out the little tag that was emerging was an ear.
Basically the best thing you want to see when a goat kids is feet then a nose. An ear is not even in the top 5 best things to see emerging from a goat.
It was time to go in. Gloves on, lubed up, we each took turns trying to figure out what was going on here. Believe it or not there is not a lot of room inside a goat to move around and figure out what is going on ;-)
I gave it one last shot, gloves off this time, and felt the temperature of this kid. It was cold. This kid was dead. I was not sure if another kid was waiting behind this one.
I grabbed the phone and started calling. Ambulatory vet was 2 hours out with a colic case. Local vet had night off. We decided to drive her in to Cornell. We just had a snowstorm, it is still snowing and the roads are not the best. We placed Sarah in the back seat of our extended cab but with only 2 doors truck, and off we went.
If you are squeamish and disregarded my gory warning, you might want to stop reading.
=really=
We set Sarah down on a cart with a mattress and the students went right to work. After going in with gloves and lube, complaining about the tight fit and not being able to tell what was going on, they made me feel validated. *phew* maybe we _do_ know what we are doing if these guys are complaining about the same things.
It was determined that kid was large, not presented well and cervix was shutting down on it. More drugs were administered to Sarah (mostly painkillers, an epidural and painkillers) and in they went in earnest.
They used a fematome: a long metal shaft where you insert a metal line as a loop. The idea was to get this loop wrapped around the kid's head, which had finally been placed in the right direction, and using a sawing motion with the wire, cut the head off for easier removal.
To be honest I thought it would be more an action of a lop when you prune trees, but the wire had to go back and forth to sever the head. Once the head was removed the rest of the fetus could be removed from the uterus but not wthout a lot of work. Sarah was wonderful through it all, humming the whole time.
So she had another doe this year,s ame coloring as Amber, her doe from last year. I neglected to ask for a weight.

Sarah is fine. She groaned like a drunk the whole ride home, uuuuhhhgghhhhhhhhh. Her head kept falling back. Removing her from the truck we found her rear legs still were numb and not functional. Moving a 150-ish pound goat is a little difficult. Bags of feed are easier ;-)
We placed her back in the stall under heat lamps and as I was getting ready to leave the barn to get her a blanket, she stood. She walked over and started to eat hay, just like ol' Sarah. (where was that mobility 10 minutes ago, lady?) So I am sure she will be fine.
I am going to try to graft the kid onto her tomorrow. Meanwhile the bottle baby waited in the basement for our return, and was very ready for her bottle.
There wasn't anything we could do about this birth. It is a shame we lost a lovely doe but a gift we kept the mama. Sarah has a smile that allows her to eat an apple through a picket fence but she is our sweetie and is here to stay.

Posted by roosterh at March 2, 2005 12:52 AM

Comments

Thank you for your story, though I'm sorry you lost the doeling I'm glad Sarah's doing fine and I really hope she takes to the new kid.
Stacy

Posted by: Stacy Adams at March 2, 2005 8:55 AM

Posted to Goats

Bags of feed don't squirm as much when you try to carry them!

I'm glad Sarah's still in good shape, and I hope the attempt to pair her with the other goat's kid will work.

Posted by: Mark H. Anbinder at March 2, 2005 9:44 AM

Posted to Goats

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