Delivery Drama

Ester had FOUR kids!

Amazing!

But it wasn't without difficulty.

I checked on her at 1:00 pm and nothing was going on.

At 4:30 pm when Ranae checked on her there were 3 on the ground.

Alex looked in on her too and heard her bawling.

I then rushed out thinking why would she still be crying?

She has had triplets twice before.

And, low and behold, I looked at Ester and noticed something sticking out.

One hoof.

I touched it and my heart sunk.

A cold hoof.

I thought, "I don't believe this kid could still be alive."

I then checked the other three kids.

Two were dry and one was still wet.

That meant she hadn't been this way long.

Oh dear.

I thought, "What should I do now?"

Well......I called my husband and I called the vet.

Luckily Brian was able to get home and the vet had lots of advice...by phone.

So with the phone to my ear,

a goat book in my hand,

Brian and Alex assisting,

and Ester bawling with every push,

we listened and tried to save them.

At the time it seemed the vet was talking in slow motion.

Like... there... was... all... the... time... in... the... world.

She first said, "You have to determine if it is a front hoof or a back hoof."

I then relayed the information talking faster than a speeding bullet.

As we looked at the hoof it was a bit hard to tell which direction this kid was headed.

She went on to say quite casually, "If it's a back hoof you need two before you pull.

And if it's a front hoof you need to have the head also before you pull."

I repeated this info talking 90 miles per hour.

All the while I added tips and facts from the chapter on kidding in my goat book.

After much searching, and long exasperating minutes,

Brian located the head and the front foot together and started to pull.

Now it got even more interesting.

As I read through the book it said,

"Pull, but very gently, working with the doe; otherwise, hemorrhage might result."

The vet then slowly exclaimed in my ear,

" Now you're gonna half to pull kinda hard."

What!

Pull hard - Pull gently.

Hemorrhage???

Brian did pull him out.

And low and behold he was BIG.

And thankfully he still had the sack around his head.

Ester licked that off and he moved.

He was alive!

We all sat back and exhaled.

After doing this since 2003 I guess we were due for some delivery drama.

But boy do I hope we are done with that for a while.

Later, Brian would say that he was surprised how hard he had to pull.

So, just in case you ever are assisting a goat delivery.....

"You're gonna half to pull kinda hard."

~ ~ ~

This time Ester gave us 3 bucks and 1 doe (not golden).

Their names are:

Ballerina, Bullet, Biscuit (the runt) and Believer (the one that got stuck).