So its been an eventful week around here. We have 5 baby goats. Goats are fun, but baby goats are the most fun!!
First our Bonnie delivered 2, a sweet set of boy/girl twins...Ragnar & Lagetha on Sunday, Jan 29th.
Then Riser delivered a singleton named Ivar on Wed, Feb 1st. He is my personal favorite because he is jet black with one white spot on the top of his head. Also his front hooves are ever so slightly turned in...which everything Im reading says that will correct itself.
Then Annie gave birth to a set of boy/girl twins; Olaf and Elsa, on Thurs, Feb 2nd. Ruth named those as she has claimed Annie as her goat and insist that the babies of Annie are hers as well. If you have ever known an insistent 4 year old, then you understand why we adhere to her logic. There is no denying Ruthie her claim or hell will be paid.
Anyway, poor Riser was really too young to be bred but it happened...she thankfully survived as well as Ivar. But Riser isnt the best mom, plus her milk isnt enough to sustain Ivar. Yesterday we went out to check in the goats to find Ivar laying, unresponsive on the ground inside his and Riser's pen. Basically he had been out in the cold all night with no warmth from his mother. Thankfully I had put a sweater on him that night because of the cold and I think it kept him warm enough to keep him alive.
Thankfully he was still alive. Thankfully the internet has a lot of information on caring for baby goats that have hypothermia. I acted quickly. I knew I had to warm him up. I submerged him in a warm..almost hot..bath..keeping his head up out of the water of course. After about 45 mins of the bath, I blow dried him and held him under my warming blanket. Meanwhile I was intermittently putting Karo syrup under his tongue to quickly absorb into his system to bring his blood sugar back up...which I would bet had plummeted due to not being fed by his mother as he lay dying in the cold.
After about 4 hours the little guy was like new...ready to eat. So I milked his mother....which to my dismay, she really doesnt have much milk..and I milked one of thr other does. He will take his milkie from a bottle but he also doesnt mind when we lock a doe on the milk stand. He gets in there and nurses like a champ.
Either way, Ivar is getting fed.
And the bad news is Riser has rejected him all together at this point. I have them combined and Im making her feed him but this morning her milk output was so dismal and she is so miserable I think Im going to just put Riser back in the general population and keep Ivar as a bottle baby.
So yep, thats been my week in a nutshell.
