Emery and I were working in the barn and keeping an eye on the goats.  Emery told me, “Red Bird looks… different.”  So I told him to bring her into the kidding stall.

When he called for help moving her, I thought she was just being stubborn.  But she wasn’t, she was actually having trouble walking.  Her knees kept buckling every few feet.  At that point we had her in the walkway so we had to keep going to the stall. Brett and I helped Emery support and lead her the rest of the way.   Because she seemed otherwise normal, our best guess was that one of the babies was irritating a nerve, which was making it difficult for her to walk.  

Once we got to the kidding stall and she was lying down, she stretched out her neck like she was uncomfortable, and her abdomen was contracting like she was in prelabor.  I decided to do an internal status check.  Her vulva was really puffy- that’s what Emery had meant about looking different.  After washing my hands, I lubed up and went in.  Her cervix was so soft that I had trouble finding it.  It was still fully closed, but it lacked its usual muscular firmness.  It didn’t feel right or look right, so we decided to call a vet.  

We put in calls to two vets, and waited to hear back.  I sat with Red and talked to her and snapped a picture for my friends, to let them know that Red was in pre-labor and uncomfortable.

When the vet from the Purdue Large Animal Hospital called, I let him know what I felt and he said that she could have a calcium issue, or pregnancy toxemia, and that I should give it an hour, and if things hadn’t changed, to give him a call back.  I didn’t believe calcium was a problem since we offer free-choice alfalfa pellets that are chock-full of the stuff, so I talked with PJ (our resident goat health encyclopedia), and she told me that pregnancy toxemia is usually not an issue once the kids are delivered.  

After an hour, I checked her again, this time looking less for a progress report, rather more for a solution.  I wanted to get these kids out.  

I found the cervix about a centimeter dilated, and I began to manually dilate it.  As far as I was concerned, this was enough of a change, that I didn’t need to call the Purdue vet back.  Everything loosened up relatively easily and before long I was able to go deeper and find 4 hooves.  Further investigation revealed that they were all front hooves: a large set and a smaller set.  I tried to manipulate the smaller set toward the birth canal, but it was difficult since they were still in the amniotic sack and very slippery.  I kept working on them, but every time I would get them close, they would draw back.  

During the time that I was working with Red, PJ had talked with the other vet.  They made the decision to help Red’s uterus.  PJ picked up the medication the vet prescribed and when she returned, Red first got a shot of ECP (an estrogen something).  We had to wait forty-five minutes before we could give her the first shot of oxytocin.

All of this time, Red Bird’s abdomen had continued to contract.  We could see her sides pulsing, but inside I was still not feeling any of it.  

I took a quick break as I told PJ that I wasn’t getting any help from Red Bird’s uterus.  It made sense.  The cervix hadn’t dilated because it didn’t have anything pressing on it from the inside to stretch it out.  The kids were still back in the womb because they hadn’t been squeezed into position toward the birth canal.  Whether it was a nerve, or toxemia or something else, it was affecting not only her walking, but her womb’s ability to contract as well.

Now I didn’t just want to get these kids out.  I had to.

I went back in and couldn’t find the smaller hooves at all.  They had slipped back, but the larger set was easy to reach and I was able to feel the head as well.  OK, I thought.  The big one’s coming first.  I started to work the head and hooves toward the birth canal, but the whole body was leaning sideways.  I like to have them lined up vertically with the head on top of the two front hooves like a diving position, because the birth canal has a slight downward curve to it.  I knew pulling a baby out sideways would be really hard on the kids and on Redbird.  I worked on rotating the head over the top of the legs, but it kept slipping back to the side.  It seemed that the back legs and hips must have been in that sideways position so every time I would try to straighten the front out, it would just twist back to match the back half.  All the while I was gently pulling the front hooves toward the birth canal.

As I finally got the front hooves to just about 2 inches in, I was able to get the head to stay on top of the legs.  I guess I had pulled the kid’s body enough that its rear end was able to straighten up.  I finally had the alignment right, but the hardest part was about to start.  The head was still on the far side of Red’s hip joints and without the pushes from the inside, the pelvis hadn’t been loosened up like usual.  With two fingers on the horn buds of the kid’s head, I kept it in alignment and pulled it along with the hooves.  It took a while but it eventually worked its way past the hardest part.  We still had a lot of soft tissue to get through, but that’s just a matter of stretching.

By this point, hours had passed and Red had been give 2 shots of oxytocin.

I was tired.  Red Bird was really tired.  

I called Colter over to help me.  He took hold of the kid’s left hoof, and I took the right one.  Together we pulled, while the rest of the family kept Redbird from sliding back.  It was amazing the difference that the goat’s uterus makes.  It is really an awesome design that I had never really appreciated until a part of it didn’t work.  There were times through out this entire day that I had questioned if we would be able to get the kids out.  That is to say, there were times I thought I actually wouldn’t get the kids out, but finally it happened.  

The first kid was born, and he was big (11 pounds).  I wasn’t sure he was going to survive because he had been under a lot of stress throughout the delivery.  He was struggling to breathe.  As PJ and the children worked on him, I made the suggestion that if he made it, he should be called Rampart.  PJ kept insisting he would be fine once he was able to rest and recover.  At the time I wasn’t sure how much of that was just for the children’s benefit, but he is fine, and we did call him Rampart.

I then went to work on the second kid.  I found the hooves quickly and was able to gently guide them and the head into position.  The second delivery was much easier on everyone and before long, Rampart’s sister was born.  I suggested that given the fact that she had pulled away from me so many times she should be called Reluctant (“Lucky”).  

Immediately after her birth, I checked Redbird again, like I do with all of the does, to see if there was another kid.  There was only placenta left, so the delivery was all but done.  

The labor and delivery probably took about 6-8 hours total.  With Red Bird unable to stand or move or help much with pushing, it really is miraculous that both kids were born alive and without a c-section.  We had a lot of prayer support throughout that day, and we’re so thankful for it.   We were going to continue to need a lot of prayer as we worked with Red Bird ( you can read the rest of her story here).

Four pregnant goats done. Thirteen more to go!

Kid count: 4 bucklings. 4 doelings.

#GMSKids

 2014 Goat Birth Stories

• Castro and Cedar
• Vanish and Venice
• Saturn and Secret
• Rampart and Reluctant
• Quality and Quest
• Idina and Iliana
• Elvis and Esther
• Factor and Ferocious
• Java and Jericho
• Tapioca and Tempest
• Lampy
• Yahoo and Yesterday
• Happy and Hera
• Patriot
• Zea and Zany