Thursday, April 15, 2010

Surprise!







I was at work yesterday and I received a call from Furry Husband around 4pm.


"WE ARE HAVING BABIES. RIGHT NOW!"



It surprised us. She is due Sunday and I didn't think she'd go that early... I've been checking in with her each evening. My guess was Friday. Whoops.
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I told him I'd be home right away and rushed out of the office.... he sounded pretty stressed out.
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When the does pop, the scenario has always been that we are either both home or I'm home and Furry Husband is the one on the way home. He's never been the lone attendee of goat birthin' and it freaked him out!
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On my way, I called to see how he was holding up. He sounded a lot calmer and I heard our horse vet in the background shout out "Everything's fine!"
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He broke down and called in reinforcements before I could get there. grin.
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Speck had two buck kids.... 6 and 7 lbs. Normal presentation - little front feet with a nose on top and she would have been just fine.


Poor Furry Husband.

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The pix above were taken about 3 hrs after birth. We dip their navels in iodine and by this morning they were dried up and looking ready to fall off. Not so ... 'gooey'.
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Sammy, our border collie mix, gets very protective of the new babies and Little Toe was thrilled to death to meet the new additions - very wiggle butt happy to each little buck. Bequia is smart enough to steer clear of all the commotion. I suppose it doesn't hurt that the kids have lots of colostrum/milk on their chins for Sammy and Toe to clean off!
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We bottle raise them with heat treated/pasteurized milk for the prevention of CAE, which can be passed to the babies in raw milk (to goats only not to humans).
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It's time intensive and not all goat producers do it. It's not wrong - just different than how we decided to do it. If I learned anything about raising goats, it's that there are LOTS of different ways to do things. As in all aspects o' life I suppose. (So profound! *snort*)
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Mom and babies are doing well! Spot's next. May 20 is her due date....


8 comments:

Heather said...

Awwww! So cute! Furry Husband is such a trooper!

DebH said...

They look absolutely HUGE!! Wow those are some big boys! Mine don't weigh in quite that at all, especially the fainters. Yours would double mine in size there. I admire the dedication on feeding your babies the CAE way. Lots of work it would be and although I would like too, it is just not feasible at all for me. Sure wish I could though.
That was hysterical you had the vet in the background..that is totally my reaction. I just love the LaMancha babies...they are adorable!! Again, THOSE are just Big Boys?!! Where does that all fit??

Shanster said...

Heather - he IS a trooper and he knows the right people to call if there is any question... valuable!

DebH - really? I always think they are small because a goat vet around here who used to have Saanens says her babies were 10lbs!! How does THAT happen exactly??

She always commented on how little mine were so I just thought they were. Everything is relative isn't it? grin.

We only have 2-3 does so it's much easier for us to be intensive! We had 9 babies one year between 4 does and Furry Husband was on a work trip. I felt overwhelmed then!

I'm always in great awe of the farms like SouthFork or Harmody Farms who have 20+ does to milk and exponentially more bottle babies!

Cheryl said...

They're so cute!!! That photo of Toe with one of the babies is too precious! He looks like he'll make an excellent uncle.

Cute, also, how your Furry Husband freaked out. You'd think he was the papa to be.

And 6 and 7 lbs! They must be tiny! Will you be posting any videos of them?

Anonymous said...

The babies are so cute. And Toe looks like he doesn't know what to make of them.
Furry handled the situation quite well.

Yousef said...

So, it seems that your paranoia is by no means justifiable. Congrats.

Shanster said...

Cheryl - he LOVES the babies! It's very cute.. odd but cute! I'll try to post some videos...

Dedene - yes he did - he's definately a good egg!

Yousef - Right. Paranoia is not justified! Tho'... there is still Spot and I don't know what is growing inside her! Oh don't get me going again...

Yousef said...

Oh but I do want to get you going again. It should be interesting where your imagination takes us. And then you could make a movie about the strange scenario you come up with about how the government has been doing experimentation on your goats without you knowing and how they grow a mutant in Spot's womb that they can control and use to wreck the crops of farmers all over to drive the price of locally grown food up so they can sell their own food grown in labs for cheaper and run local farmers out of business. George Clooney could play the goat Spot Mates with. ;) Oh btw you'd become a millionaire from the movie. (Don't forget who gave you the idea, I could use a little kickback)