Friday, March 12, 2010

First, my IV went fine thank you, but between it and it's time schedule, milking, feeding, and working, there was no time for blogging.

So lets re-cap since it's been since Feb since I was here last.

The kid count was bucks-11 and does-6 out of 13 does. Not great, but totally managable.

I was down to my last week of IV and my first week back to work after some IV time off. I'm really glad I scheduled work around this thing because it made me feel like CRAP. But the infection seems better, which was the goal. It's all about the end result yanno?

In the middle of January the breeder we got out first toggs from contacted us because she was selling out and wanted to know if we wanted any does. We said yes and took in two plus a buck. The does were thin when they got here, and probably bred, but the looked a little thin and not up close to kidding. Since when we bought them and the buck, and we were the ones to remove the buck, they could have been due anywhere from NOW to June. So by looking at them, they looked healthy but at least a few months out if bred at all.

Fast forward to the 4th of March when one of these does started to favor a front leg. It was late, pouring rain, and getting dark so I vowed to pull her in the next morning and check it out. The next morning she's down by the fence and really weak. We haul her inside, dig into her feet, which looked fine, and pen her up inside thinking she's being bullied out of the feed, though she looks OK. We start her on all sort of appetite inducing drugs, probiotics, and some antibiotics to be safe. On the 5th at night milking, about dusk, we get out to the goats and hear this noise. Something like a rat caught in a trap. It's hideous and nothing a goat should make. Greg finds his alpine kid stuck in a fence and we think all is right in the world. I walk into the barn and hear this NOISE again. It's trapped, it's dying and I can't FIND IT. I start walking toward the noise and see the penned goat (Mehaw) standing over a baby (WHAT!), it's dry, it is NOT making THAT NOISE. Over in the far far corner is a flat brown blob. I think dead kid. No, no, IT'S MAKING THAT NOISE! I holler for Greg, he comes, picks up o' flat one, shakes it a few times, and puts it with mom. She's interested, but you can tell she's concentrating on not falling over. We walk her up to, and lift her onto the milk stand and try to coax her to just eat a little grain. Nada. So on the way back to her pen, we've boxed up the babies to take home, we see what looks like a foot..... I say to Greg and he says to me "Is that a foot?" We think it was testing the temperature... nope to cold, I'll come later.....

So Greg just decides to pull this baby, mom is tired and obviously beyond done. She was thin before twins, we're scared shitless to see what she'd look like after triplets. Now we have a bag of bone with a hide thrown over, who had triplets. She's stressed. She we grab her little friend she came with for some company and hopefully a little encouragement.

The next morning she looks like she might have eaten, we keep up with the probiotics and keep bringing her in for grain. She has just about no milk, but really I wasn't expecting any, so a little was encouraging. Her little friend looks suspiciously like she might be making an udder. A few weeks I hope before she'd kid. I should have known my luck doesn't run like that.

We finally brave sexing the kids Mehaw had..... triplet does. The flat one, we call her the little Weetard, is a trooper and the first one on her feet. All three and very weak in the back ends and take a full day and half to stand alone.

On the evening of the 8th (Sunday) we go out to milk and find the little friend with twin bucks. Mehaw has stolen them and is feeding one, with her head in the feeder eating. Whatever makes her happy! We opt to just leave them there with the moms, for one, Mehaw is the strongest we've seen her in a week, and she's now plowing through the grain we offer her, for two, I work the next two days back to back long days, and two less bottle babies won't hurt my feelings, and three, bucks... BOO!

Monday morning the 9th we go out to milk and for the first milking in a while, find no kids! Only my best doe is looking CLOSE. She's not eating and she's hanging off by herself. Not things she does normally. She NEVER misses a meal. I warn Bill, who is going to milk for me while I'm at work, that he will likely find babies from Star when he gets there, and to look for them, she will probably hide them. At 4pm I get a picture text. It's taken from our gate. Way at the top of the hill you can see a couple specks.. the text says "fucking star had her babies all the way at the top of the hill." I get text after text for the next hour, with phone calls mixed in.... what to do, how to do it.... "Star had twins" "Oh no, there are two more that she's not taking care of" "Wait, she's running back and forth between them" "How do I get them off the hill?" "She doesn't want me to take them what do I do" "Two bucks two does" "I'll leave the bucks with her" "No, wait, no bucks I'm just bringing them all home" So Star- quad does. I don't see them until after work, and one is the tiniest thing I have ever seen. She's not even as big as my mini dachshund. She's perfectly formed, but her little hooves are the size of dimes. The biggest is a BIG kid, normal twin size, about 8-9lbs. The middle two look like normal quad kid size, probably 5-6lbs. One black, 3 brown.

The next night, Tuesday, after a hellish day; which included, but not limited to, waking up to my son lying on the bathroom floor curled in a ball crying, calling my husband home from work to help me with my job, and testing 700 cows, we finally make it out to milk, at like 9PM. It's dark, it's POURING rain, it's cold as hell, and we pull up to a mass of goats at the upper sheds. I know somethings up, I can tell by the look on their guilty little faces. Either they are kidding, eating something they shouldn't be, or breaking something.

Turns out the last two toggs were kidding. Nothing eventful here, unless you count Bill trying to catch the 2 year old and falling on his ass, which was rather friggin' funny......

Jade- twins buck/doe
Hope- twins buck/doe

So lets recap again shall we.

In four days we had:

Mehaw- trip does
Eregon- twin bucks
Star- quad does
Jade- twins buck/doe
Hope- twins buck/doe

Yes that is 13 kids in 4 days. 9 of which are does. All of which are toggs. We went from only 3 togg does up to this point, to 12. Thanks girls for evening the odds... all at once. Holy HELL.

We have one doe we KNOW is left to kid. She was due yesterday, she will kid this weekend, which means she too will kid while I'm at work next week, she's just a bitch like that. Yes Sarah, that one!

I sent one milker home with Lori today. I have a call in to the dairy to make a run up there tomorrow, but they are horrible at returning calls. Actually if they wait a little bit maybe Mehaws little friend will feel better because she can totally go, there is nothing impressive about her except her size, and I'll keep Mehaw for that. I have a group of yearling milkers to take, none impressive but all milking, and I think my reserve champ milking yearling (kind of unheard of win for a yearling milker) from last year shall go, I'm just not impressed with her either this year.

Well that's all for now, if you don't hear from me again for a while, you'll know I drown in goat milk. Or the babies ate me.