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Post by shellymay on Feb 26, 2016 0:30:00 GMT
barefootfarmer, I don't own goats either but I am a sucker for ANY baby, CONGRATULATIONS YOU ALL DID IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I sure hope Midnight gets the urge to stand up now,(praying those babies help make her decide up is better) she is beautiful and those kids are so darn cute, this just made my evening...........
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Post by Deleted on Feb 26, 2016 0:46:10 GMT
CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!!!!! You don't even know how happy this makes me!!! I think everyone has had their fingers crossed for Midnight, y'all just made a whole lotta people HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY. I have been thinking about her every day, especially when I am out milking. I'm just so happy! Hoping she gets up, bucklings are always ready to eat. Loved those other kids too, but Midnight's are special
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Post by aoconnor on Feb 26, 2016 2:18:28 GMT
Woohoo!!! Congrats to Midnight and her new darling babies!!! Oh gosh, I was so tickled to see the UPDATE on the post title! Hope all will go well with aMidnight now and she will be back on her feet in no time:-)
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Post by merks on Feb 26, 2016 15:46:14 GMT
I don't have goats either, but for some reason this thread caught my eye and I have been following along. Congrats to you all! So happy Midnight delivered them, now just hoping she gets up and is good as new.
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Post by mzgarden on Feb 26, 2016 17:09:23 GMT
Hooray! I was so happy to see the thread title. This is super-duper! Well done you for sticking by her and helping her get to this point. Good for her and her boys!
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Post by Wendy on Feb 26, 2016 18:34:25 GMT
Yeah!! Hopefully she will get up soon. If not, bottle babies are fun! I have 17 right now.
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Post by Mari-in-IN on Feb 26, 2016 21:33:49 GMT
Yeah!! Hopefully she will get up soon. If not, bottle babies are fun! I have 17 right now. ¡Ay, caramba!
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Post by Deleted on Feb 26, 2016 22:10:25 GMT
Yeah!! Hopefully she will get up soon. If not, bottle babies are fun! I have 17 right now. Amen to that! I only have 9 (had 11) right now but have 6 more due to kid I will be pulling them all, well I will share with one doe. She's an old gal who has always raised twins herself, but she is cool with the joint custody LOL Love me some kids! Although I'm gonna be bottle feeding for LONG time!
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Post by jd4020 on Feb 27, 2016 21:51:59 GMT
I have always bottle fed. One of my favorite pictures is of me with the bucket lambar and all the little goats feeding with their tails just a wagging. Just seems to work better for me.
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Post by Wendy on Feb 28, 2016 3:07:54 GMT
Make that 19! I actually do individual bottles. I always say I am going to get a lambar, but never do.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 28, 2016 3:42:44 GMT
Make that 19! I actually do individual bottles. I always say I am going to get a lambar, but never do. Same here! I can't do the lambar, with the different breeds I have some would end up bloating others would starve. I'm filling bottles right now
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Post by barefootfarmer on Feb 28, 2016 3:55:58 GMT
Midnight is finally up on all four legs! It's been a roller coaster over here. First, she delivered the two healthy bucklings. She was cleaning them and talking to them. Still not standing, so I was helping them to nurse. Then, I left them for about 30 minutes. When I came back, she had smothered one of them. Luckily my friend had arrived just ahead of me and she was able to pull the second one out from under Midnight or we would have lost them both.
At that point, the little guy was only with mom if I was supervising. My husband made a sling to help her stand. He used a life preserver vest, with the buckles on her back. Then he attached two tie downs with the ratchets to the vest and to the ceiling of her hut. Adjusting it so she could bear weight on all four legs, but it would catch her if she lost strength. First day she was able to stand like that on her two back legs, but her front legs still buckled. I was thinking about putting splints on her. We put her in the sling for two hours at a time, rest for two hours and back up. When she was up, we'd put the buckling under her to nurse.
Today, using the sling, she was up on all four legs. For the entire two hours, as far as I could see. She fought the buckling, kicking him off when he tried to nurse. Her udder is nice, not hot, no mastitis. I was milking her out in between so that her buckling would have her milk in a bottle and so she kept a healthy udder. Later this afternoon I unhooked the straps- and she stood! All by herself! By the end of the day, she was walking around on her own. Still doesn't like her buckling so he's become my bottle kid.
I gave Midnight 2cc of injectable iron, IM this morning, and again tonight. Her eyelids had seemed very pale and since her fecal was fine, this was kind of a last ditch effort to see if it would help. I have no idea if the iron itself perked her up, or if it was just a combination of our efforts. Midnight had been down for exactly 14 days.
I want to thank every single one of you who followed along, offering encouragement and ideas, or just a shout out or a thumb's up. It was comforting to know that I wasn't entirely on my own during this time.
If I can figure out how to post a pic without posting to face book first, I'd love to post the ones of Midnight in her sling. It might help someone else down the road.
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Post by shellymay on Feb 28, 2016 5:21:49 GMT
barefootfarmer, Sorry about the loss of one of the bucklings, but I am so happy for you and Midnight and that is really great news on her being up on all four and walking around, what a great job you and your DH did to aid and help her during all of this, enjoy the bottle baby and hopefully by this time next year Midnight will be raising two all on her own with no issues
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Post by mzgarden on Feb 28, 2016 5:48:05 GMT
Good to hear she's up and about. Sorry you lost one. Love to see pics of the sling if you can.
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Post by aoconnor on Feb 29, 2016 2:46:24 GMT
Sorry you lost one of those kids, but glad you were able to get the other one safely away. Great news the doe is finally up!!! What a ride for you guys!
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Post by merks on Feb 29, 2016 15:05:33 GMT
So sorry you lost one of the babies. Glad to hear that Midnight is up and walking around though.
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Post by manygoatsnmore on Mar 1, 2016 9:39:47 GMT
Also sorry about losing the kid, but ecstatic about hearing that Midnight is up and walking. What a relief! If I had to choose between losing a buckling kid or my milking doe...well, you know. I'm really happy for you. I had a down doe that I nursed back to health in my utility room one year, and I did use a sling for her for a while. No kids involved in that case, but it just goes to show that using a sling isn't the worst thing you can do for a goat that can't stand up. I think she had polio, but was never entirely sure exactly what made her go down...it took about 6 weeks, but eventually, she was back to normal and back to bossing around the rest of the herd.
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