A Journey Through a Different Way - Funny Story Pg. 69

[ruth]

Quote:
Hi Henry - yes, DH dug the holes with a post hole digger and then added ready mix concrete. They are really secure because I pounded on them with a hammer to secure the welded wire fence with huge/thick u-shaped nails. DH was even pounding in the nails with a sledge hammer and the posts didn't budge.

 

[hcammack]

sounds great I am not sure my mom will let me use concrete so I may just stick with the PVC runs I am probably going to make a large simpler one instead of using two.

 

[The Chicken Lady]

Your Marans are beautiful. That roo, stunning!

 

[beefy]

Butler, Jonas, Big Sam, Pork, Merriweather

 

[ruth]

WOW - what a journey today has been. DH got up early to go to Covington to meet with some repair men and I hear him outside honking the horn. I get dressed and run out as he's running in and says "We've got goats". Confetti kidded sometime early this morning - triplets. Sadly one looks as if it were stillborn, one looked weak and shaky and one looked healthy. I've spent the day tying up Confetti so that the babies could nurse since she seems to refuse to let them nurse. She also ignores the little black and white one while constantly licking the brown one. The little frail black and white one is a boy and the buckskin is a girl and looks just like Bitsy. I'm so sad we lost one. I'll always wonder if I could have done something had I been there when she had them. We discovered them shortly after birth, I think, because she still had blood on her and sticky stuff.

So I've had them in my bathroom that I was restoring and it's a mess anyway - and they are in the tub with a heater/blower on them to stay warm. Rex heard the babies screaming this morning and was waiting outside stall when I carried them out. There was NO way he was going to leave those babies and insisted on following me in house and into bathroom where he immediately went into his Mama Hen routine. He gave them each a little tongue bath and then laid down on guard. The babies soon feel asleep.

Now I'm having to go out and tie up Confetti every couple of hours in an effort to get that important colustrum into these two babies. I'm hoping she will take to both babies and raise them herself because you all know how I feel about doing things the natural way.

BUT.....they are sooooooo cute. I may keep them and cuddle them and sleep with them and never give them back to the mama.

 

[hcammack]

They are amazing I am sure there is nothing you could have done animals often wait until you leave to give birth for some reason. They are adorable and that buckskin doeling will be amazing. How is Confetti standing to be milked? hope she is not giving you to much trouble. I would try and get them back with Mama as soon as possible so they can bond to her and she won't forget about them. Bottle Babies can sometimes be real pains but they are offally cute and maybe with smaller breeds it would not be such a problem.

This has been quite a journey and I am glad you are at the next step of starting up a beautiful goat dairy. Maybe bottle feeding would make is easier to milk confetti if thats what you were planing to do. CONGRATULATIONS THEY ARE BEAUTIFUL!!!!! Rex is such a good boy glad he does the protection thing with other non bird speacies

He is the coolest LGD!

Henry

 

[WildBurroShirts.com]

What adorable goatlettes!

Sorry you lost the one but I did read that triplets often don't make it due to womb size so I'm glad the two are healthy.

I had an Arab mare that wouldn't stand for a foal and actually had to be sedated in order to let the baby nurse...but by later that night she was 'over' it and accepted the baby.

The vet said it was...dang, can't remember the technical term but sort of like male hormones that get released during the birth and make the mare sort of aggressive.

After she came off the drugs I stood there with a bucket of cob and carrots and she was so interested in that the foal got to nurse before she realized she "hated" it...then she started licking it and from there they were good to go.

Hope the goat mom calms down soon.

And...thank you for your blog about the more natural way of raising chickens. I really appreciate it and the time you take to explain things to us newbies.

 

[ruth]

I've just taken the goat babies back out to mama and this time she bathed both of them and let them both try and nurse while I simply held her by her collar. So she's getting a lot calmer. Unfortunately, neither seemed too hungry or just couldn't quite catch onto a teat so I milked her and tried to bottle feed them. They had nothing to do with the bottle. So I had to feed them with a large medicine dropper. They are sleeping now, in my tub. I will keep this up until they can nurse on their own and remain with mama.

Tomorrow, I'll have to close in one end of the tack room so they are more confined and then I can fill that section with hay, put the heater and heat lamps over it, and leave babies with mama. But for tonight, they'll stay inside and I'll go back and forth with them all night to visit mama.

 

[WildBurroShirts.com]

Great news!!!! So she'll be ok with them.

It did take my foals a while to figure out how to nurse...they got more in their ears the first half hour or so but after that they figured it out.

I remember with the stud colt I had to sort of get milk on my fingers and 'lead' him towards the teat to help him figure it out though.

 

[hcammack]

sounds like a great improvement!