Meet Shamrock

Yesterday Jade went out to check on the goats and see how they were coming along. Leah was the closest to kidding, but I didn't think she was quite ready to go yet. It seems that I was wrong. When Jade got there, she had kidded. One baby was dead, the other only half cleaned. Leah didn't seem to interested in taking care of her.

I knew she was cold and being fast was important. So I got the little doeling in the house and Jade dried her and held her until she warmed up. I managed to get a little colostrum our of leah and fed that to the baby with a syringe.

For some reason Leah isn't bagging up as well as she should, so I haven't been able to get much out of her for the baby. Luckily the friend I bought her from had saved some of her colostrum from last year and gave me that for the baby.

It's taken more than 24 hours, but the baby is finally starting to show some interest in her surroundings. I don't know if she had just gotten too cold or if something else was going on. She was standing by yesterday afternoon, but showed no interest in walking until just this afternoon. Mostly she is just sleeping.

There are other things that make me wonder if she was actually just a little premature. For example, she won't open her mouth for the bottle when she is hungry. Once I manage to force it in her mouth, she can suck on it but it's like she can't figure out how to get it there herself.

While I know that I could probably get Leah to take her and nurse her, Jade is quite excited to have a bottle baby to train up for fair. So I think it's all working out. Even Ruger is being gentle with her. As I type this he's napping right in front of her crate, almost like he's guarding her.