3 Days of Kids- Onyx's Girls

I checked Onyx Saturday morning before the kids' baseball game. She seemed fine. She got up on the stand for me for her breakfast. No discharge or anything. After the game, I went out to give Bogo and Magnum their CD&T boosters and give Phoebe and Scilla a dose of wormer. I was out playing with the babies for a while.

Onyx stood up to say hi and when she peed, it literally hit the barn wall like a water balloon. That was weird. Then came goo and in 2 minutes she was pushing! I called my husband in the house and told him if he and the kids wanted to see this, they'd better get up to the barn, STAT!

Within minutes she'd delivered this little Onyx Mini Me. We're calling her April.

She took her own sweet time delivering April's twin- she was focused on cleaning April up and getting her on her feet. About 20 minutes later, she finally decided to start pushing and out came Fawn! Her coloring was sure a surprise!

My friend Dave's buck only gave girls this year! I think this makes 15 doelings, zero bucklings from him. I hope Magnum is like that! We are 3 girls/ 3 boys for the year. I guess I can't thumb my nose at 50/50.

I'd called Auburn University Large Animal Clinic about Onyx Friday evening. Her half that had mastitis last year had started dripping a little bit and was 40% bigger than her other side. I was wondering whether I should milk that side out. I feared the mastitis was back.

Both vets I spoke with were on the fence about milking her. I decided to hold off since she didn't seem to be leaking more. I finally milked that side last night because the kids were having a hard time latching on, it was so full. They'd drained the other half. I brought a quart jar in the stall and within 15 seconds had filled the entire jar! She probably had another quart in there! I stopped at that point, since I didn't have anywhere to put the colostrum and since the teat had softened enough, I hoped the kids could manage it.

The milk looked fine. No blood, no stringiness. I think, knock on wood, that she's healed. The vet said that the disease last summer probably broke down some of the connective tissue in that half and that's why it looks so different from the other. I feel very encouraged. This was the goat that the vets gave a 50/50 chance of that half ever producing milk again. And I may just have my first gallon a day milker! She may just need an old lady bra to sling those teats up, just like Trixie ;)

I tried my hand at disbudding for the first time yesterday with Ike. I'm sorry you had to be my guinea-goat, Ike. I'd read everything I could find on the subject and looked at a hundred pictures. I hope I did a good job. I read that Swiss breed bucklings need to have their ridge done too or they get scurs, that's why he has 4 rings. I did each side twice, but when I got him up to the barn and studied him again, I decided there were places that did not look done enough. Poor little guy had to go back into the box for round three.

I think the whole process is more traumatic for the humans involved than the goats. Ike seemed no worse for wear. I need to do Iris and Scilla's boys this afternoon. They still don't have names, but I'm leaning toward Moses and Abraham. Name suggestions would be appreciated!