Plenty Kidded

I have been watching Plenty like a hawk and I still missed her having her kids!  She had them on Saturday 6-29-13 in the late afternoon.  She delivered a huge buck and a large doe.  She chose to have them outside.  That is only my second goat in 14 years to decide to have her babies outside.  She had quite an audience.  As when I came out to the barn, there was one of our barn cats watching intently from the barn roof.

  And......Milky Whey's two bucklings were staring in awe from the stall door.

And.......Another barn cat Caramel was laying about five feed away watching it all.

When I walked out there she rolled over and flopped over on her other side.

She then cutely rolled onto her back in submission for a tummy rub.  What a sweetie pie.

You can also see that our farm dog Yellow was watching patiently and Milky Whey was trying to get some leaves so she could have dinner and a show. 

Mini bell also watched from her pen.

Poor Plenty had no privacy at all.  But if you choose to have your kids out in the open field rather than in a quiet secluded stall you have left yourself wide open for an audience. 

The kids were beautiful.  But from the moment I saw the doe I knew she was not right.  She was huge and healthy looking but had no nursing instinct and had no instinct to stay by her mom.  She just tried to stand and walk and wondered aimlessly all over.  When Plenty would go to her and lick her off she retreated further away.  By late in the night I tube fed her some colostrum and went to bed.  By morning she was much worse and was weak.  She passed away later that day.  I don't know what was wrong with her.

Above is the doeling that passed away.  She stood humped up like this from the time she was born?  So strange.

The above and below photo's are of the buckling.  He is doing great.

Farm life is strange.  Milky Whey had triplets and one of them was this tiny, tiny doe.  I had to tube feed her  many times a day for several days and she is still so small but growing and doing well.  And Plenty has this huge beautiful doeling that looks so good but dies within less than 24 hours no matter what I did.

God is so good.  I am grateful for this life we have.  It is just hard sometimes.

Plenty's remaining kid bucking is doing very well.  I don't think he will be able to keep up with her huge amount of milk she produces but it will soon come down to what he needs.  I have milked her out a bit to give her relief a few times.  She is a good doe.

I pray all is well with everyone.  Blessings and happy farming.
susan