Capturing Ginger's Third Pregnancy

So much for keeping up with the farm's blog. Well, Ginger finally gave birth. Goat's gestation period is 145 to 155 days. Split that difference and all the calculators put the due date at 150 days. The previous two years, she has always been early even last year when she gave birth to triplets (all does by the way).

This year, her pregnancy seemed to be hard on her unlike previous years. She started showing earlier than usual and I would wager she didn't sleep for the last two weeks of her pregnancy (nor did we). Rather she would lie down and moan...constantly. Least to say we were anxious for the kidding and she made us wait longer than usual this year. She gave birth just as the calculator predicted, March 6.

Last year, I called all 3 does kidding date by feeling their tail ligaments. Since this was to be an atypical year, Ginger's ligaments kept fooling us. Her tail hollowed out at least one week prior to giving birth. Her ligaments usually prominent until kidding date, were hard to find. To our credit, we did notice the change Sunday morning.

Into the stall she went at 11am. Then the pawing started and this was her routine: paw madly...walk to the next corner putting her butt in the corner...paw more...swing by us for moral support...get a bite of hay...walk to the next corner and put her butt in the corner....paw madly...lie down...curl lips...get up and start the routine over. This went on for at least 5 hours.

Ginger has an instinct to paw before and after birth. For this reason alone we feel it necessary to be present at her birthing. The pawing around the baby is evidently instinct to make them get up to nurse. Unfortunately, she sometimes comes very close to pawing the baby.

Last year after the first baby was born the next two came out easily while she was busy cleaning. Not this year, each one required lots of effort. Two bucks and a doe. Amid cleaning and giving birth, she is pawing. So I'm grabbing the babies and holding them in between births. It was a circus and had we not been hidden by the barn, I'm sure the neighbors would have been quite perplexed.

Now on to the section of learning something new each year. Sean noticed her stomach looked unusual. Then we started to feel--thick vessels running the course of her stomach. Crap...Sean runs into the house and starts "googling." While it does not appear to be a hernia, we're worried. We've never noticed this before.

In the meantime, momma is eating and drinking water. She's nursing and doing well. We decide to do more research and keep an eye on everyone before calling the vet. Talked to the vet the next day. First question after explaining what we're feeling: "Dairy goat, right?" My response: "Yes."