Whew, Our First Kikobian

This little guy was born at 10:10 last night, but not without a little drama. On Tuesday, I noticed that Surprise's udder didn't seem as flabby as usual, and the next day, yesterday, it filled. She stayed standing in her stall all day, and wouldn't even come out for a brief nibble in the new pasture. We were past the circled due date on my calendar, so I knew this was it.

At 9:08 pm I went out to check on her and discovered that she had started pushing. Shortly the birth sac appeared. I looked for the tips of two front hooves and a nose, but saw none. After half an hour, there were still none, and this was worrisome. After Jasmine's stillborn, I dreaded ever having another difficult birth. They're only supposed to happen in some 90-odd% of kiddings and this being my fourth, meant my average would be 50%! No fair.

I went to my birthing kit and got out a glove and lubricant, to go in to "see" what was happening. Surprise was not at all cooperative and would not stand still. At last I was able to feel two legs and teeth. That's a normal presentation, but what was the problem? I realized that what I was feeling was actually knees, not feet. There wasn't enough room to get my hand further in to feel anything else. Did they even belong to the same kid? It was going on an hour of hard labor by now and that was too long. I prayed and managed to guide the feet out. With the next few contractions I pulled. Surprise screamed and was finally able to get the head out. A wet, limp baby boy soon followed.

He wasn't moving, he wasn't breathing. I grabbed my towels to wipe away the birth sac from his face and nose and began rubbing vigorously. Surprise licked him like crazy. Finally he moved and whimpered. More rubbing and licking and he began to complain. I was so relieved.

My kitchen scale weighed him in at 10.5 pounds. Besides being large, he already has tips of horns showing! Of course, he was born at about 158 days gestation; average for a goat being 145 to 155.

I made sure there were no other kids coming, that the placenta was mostly out (no need to dispose of it, Surprise will eat it), that he was dry, had a tummy full of colostrum and his selenium/E, and could wobble about and find a teat all by himself. Because our temperature was supposed to dip back down below freezing, I hung the heat lamp in the stall and finally got to bed around 2 am. I went back out at 5 to check. Mother and baby were doing fine.

We're not out of the woods yet. His breathing is congested and I'm concerned about pneumonia. I've got him on oral and subq antibiotics, and making sure he stays warm. What I did not have in my birthing kit was my bulb syringe. I thought it was there, but couldn't find it when I needed it. I'm not positive that would have helped, but it is a must-have item.

And about the title of this blog post, "Our First Kikobian"; what is a Kikobian you may be wondering? Not a real breed, just something I made up when we decided to get our Kiko buck, Elvis. I had no success trying to breed Kinders, so I thought maybe I could start my own dual purpose breed, a Kiko/Nubian cross. This little guy is the first, but not the last.

Whew, Our First Kikobian © March 2013 

by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com/