(My little girl Emerald.)
I've been finding it hard to find the words to write lately.
This past Thursday I was greeted with both joy and grief.
Now, while most farmers will take a look at this blog post and just sluff it off as "farm life" and "that's just the way it is sometimes", I can entirely comprehend their view and ability to just take it on the shoulder, choke it down and move on.
I know full well that this lifestyle has those kinds of moments and I'm prepared to deal with them. However I still find it equally difficult losing a farm critter no matter the critter.
I cry every time it's time to butcher chickens. I hesitate when it's time to butcher ducks or cows or whatever it may be. Anytime I have a sick animal I do my best to bring them back to health because an animal is not just a bowl of stew or another dollar sign to me.
They're a being just like you and I with the ability to move to the rhythm of nature often more than people are able to.
At least in my opinion anyway.
It's becoming spring time. Lots of animals are having their little ones right now or will be soon.
I currently have 2 goats expecting and 1 having given birth to a healthy little girl.
Imagine my surprise when I found a freshly born baby born to a goat I didn't even know was pregnant - Emerald.
Unfortunately however, that baby was not alive when I found her and had been gone for about half an hour to an hour.
She was laid on by one of the other goats and squished.
My heart sank. I was even currently gabbing away to a friend on the phone (little flip phone with headphones) before I was about to pop off to a friends house to babysit so she could go to a dental appointment.
Only to discover this right before I was about to leave.
I quickly got the goats into the shed tucked away because if Emerald was pregnant, her twin, Diamond would surely be as well. Also, it appears as though my 3rd goat Hannah is too after I thought she may have been infertile.
After that I carried on about my day despite being utterly miserable and was able to make it through.
I feel pretty shitty about the whole situation.
However I learned a few things from this.
The most important thing being how to tell if a goat is pregnant and especially if that goat is about to give birth. A lot of internet lists give you a bunch of different ways you can tell your goat is getting close from things like the udders swelling to pawing the ground etc. However this goat did none of those things since she was a younger first time mom.
What I am noticing with my other currently pregnant goat whom I'm waiting for any day to pop, is that there are two tendons on the back that stretch and thin the closer a goat gets to labour. At the end these tendons will completely disappear.
(Showing where you can find the ligaments on my girl Diamond. She'll be giving birth soon.)
Also, goat vulvas get rather puffy the closer they get to the end too.
I also learned that young goat moms also need a lot of help with their babies.
My older goat Sadie having now given birth 3 times - once to twins - is very defensive over her babies. If any of the other goats get near to her she will beat their asses. I noticed they were out of the shelter when I found her in the shelter with a brand new baby she was in the process of cleaning up.
This other goat Emerald however is a first time younger mom, had no idea what she was doing, was not aggressive and for all I had known may have rejected the baby of which it would have been in the elements subjected to the whim of the other goats. It is very likely that this baby would have been a bottle fed baby and had I gone to check merely an hour sooner I would have that baby on my lap right now as I type. Then again I wouldn't be typing this story but maybe something different about how I have a bottle fed baby on my lap and am having a new experience bottle feeding a goat as well as learning the signs of labour.
Whereas Sadie had kicked all the other goats out of the shelter and took to her baby perfectly.
(She LOVES her babies)
While it is extremely frustrating and saddening I learned the hard way, I learned a LOT from this experience and these are not mistakes I intend to repeat again.
And now I await my other baby goaties.
