Last but not least

Our last mama goat had her baby last week. This goat was one of our babies that was born last year. She is a little over a year old. She may have been a little too young when we let her get bred but I think it was close enough. She had some issues having this baby. We got home last Wednesday and she was laying on her side on the pond bank and she was moaning. We went and checked on her and she was trying to have the baby, we could tell she was in real agony. We were not sure how long she had been trying to have it so we gave her a little longer so she could try to have. After a while she had not made any progress and I was getting worried so I decided to help her a little. The feet of the baby goat were just barely hanging out so I grabbed them and pulled. This did not help a whole lot, the mama goat's "opening" did not seem big enough to get that baby out but I knew it was not going to come out any other way. I kept pulling but no progress was made getting the baby out and I was even moving the mama goat as I was pulling. So, I got Margo to hold the mama goat's front legs to keep her from moving while I pulled on the baby. I also tried to stretch out the skin with my hand to make the opening a little bigger for the baby to come out. Finally, after a couple minutes of pulling and stretching, the baby popped out. And as soon as the baby was out, the mama jumped up and ran off. I had to run catch her and bring her back to the baby but she wanted nothing to do with it. I took her and the baby to the barn and penned them up. She did not want to accept the baby. When the baby tried to nurse she would move away and not let it. We had to hold her to let it nurse. To make an already long story short, she would not accept it and every few hours we would have to go down to the barn and hold the mama and force her to let the baby nurse. We hoped that after a few days the mama would get the idea and accept the baby and let it nurse. Well, today it happened, after 5 days she finally started letting the baby nurse. We are very happy not to have to go down to the barn every few hours. I wanted to wait to post pictures of the new baby until we knew how it was going to do and what it's fate would be. Here are some pics.