Our first Nubian kids for this kidding season were born last night. Late December, Heavy fog and a balmy 33 degrees out. SO very grateful for a good, if cold, dry barn.
At feeding time, Sandy had been acting strangely, and with her due date being the 27th (today), we kept a close eye on her. On a late barn check at 10;30, we found her in labor, and quickly discovered a baby was en-route. when she presented with two hooves, and no nose, we performed a manual examination of the baby, and found her, head back, front legs forward. In this positions it would be impossible to be born.
Taking swift action, Joe grabbed her collar and I went in after the kid, pushing her legs back gently, and finding her head to draw her forward. Easier said than done with a slippery kid. I tried pulling her head forward and kept losing my grip, and with my hand in the way there was not enough room to draw the head forward, Deciding on another course of action, I reached under the kids head an hooked my fingers on either side of her bottom jaw and drew her head forward into birthing position, a good solid tug on both legs and head brought us a healthy doe kid.
With the doe kid out, and feeling the boney bumps of another kid on board we settled back to wait, as Sandy set about cleaning her doe. After an hour of waiting and watching, we began to get concerned, she was contracting well, but then she lay down. We continued to watch and monitor her until 1:30, We had checked several times, could feel the full water bag of another kid, just inside the cervix, but not presenting. At 1:30 am, we decided a more in depth physical exam was going to be necessary.
On examination we found a kid presented breech, Tail and Hocks coming first at the same time, and unable to enter the birth canal, Sandy, in her age old wisdom, had known not to push with the baby lying this way, she had ridden out 2 1/2 hours on contractions, with no pushing.
We once again went into action, Joe holding her head again, I manually re-positioned the kid, pushing him slightly downward to draw his legs up to bring the hooves up and into the birth canal, Once I had both feet in hand, and a good push from mom, a slightly weary buck kid was brought into the world.
All were well and healthy when we called it a night at 2 am, and at the 9 am morning feeding for the herd, the kids are hale and hearty, eating well, and being mothered by Sandy. We will watch over Sandy in the coming weeks, monitoring her for any signs of infection or complications.
At feeding time, Sandy had been acting strangely, and with her due date being the 27th (today), we kept a close eye on her. On a late barn check at 10;30, we found her in labor, and quickly discovered a baby was en-route. when she presented with two hooves, and no nose, we performed a manual examination of the baby, and found her, head back, front legs forward. In this positions it would be impossible to be born.
Taking swift action, Joe grabbed her collar and I went in after the kid, pushing her legs back gently, and finding her head to draw her forward. Easier said than done with a slippery kid. I tried pulling her head forward and kept losing my grip, and with my hand in the way there was not enough room to draw the head forward, Deciding on another course of action, I reached under the kids head an hooked my fingers on either side of her bottom jaw and drew her head forward into birthing position, a good solid tug on both legs and head brought us a healthy doe kid.
With the doe kid out, and feeling the boney bumps of another kid on board we settled back to wait, as Sandy set about cleaning her doe. After an hour of waiting and watching, we began to get concerned, she was contracting well, but then she lay down. We continued to watch and monitor her until 1:30, We had checked several times, could feel the full water bag of another kid, just inside the cervix, but not presenting. At 1:30 am, we decided a more in depth physical exam was going to be necessary.
On examination we found a kid presented breech, Tail and Hocks coming first at the same time, and unable to enter the birth canal, Sandy, in her age old wisdom, had known not to push with the baby lying this way, she had ridden out 2 1/2 hours on contractions, with no pushing.
We once again went into action, Joe holding her head again, I manually re-positioned the kid, pushing him slightly downward to draw his legs up to bring the hooves up and into the birth canal, Once I had both feet in hand, and a good push from mom, a slightly weary buck kid was brought into the world.
All were well and healthy when we called it a night at 2 am, and at the 9 am morning feeding for the herd, the kids are hale and hearty, eating well, and being mothered by Sandy. We will watch over Sandy in the coming weeks, monitoring her for any signs of infection or complications.
Buck kid on the left, Doe on the right.
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