Today, on March19th, Patience had a little kid. Patience was the daughter of Satine, our little bottle goat that lived in the house, do you remember her?
I was about to get my coat and boots on to go do chores, when Dexter- who had already started his chores just minutes before-, came in the door and said that there was a baby goat in Patience’s pen.
I flew to my coat and boots so fast! “Could Patience really be a mom?? Did she really have a kid???” I was so excited! I flew out the door so fast, and ran to the barn on our un even and icy ground as fast as lightning.
I tore through the barn and arrived in Patience’s pen, breathless. There in her pen, lying down, was a new born goat. It was black, and it looked like baron, but it had a white patch on it’s back, and had a star on it’s head. Lily and Faith were in the corner of the pen, and they were pretty nervous. Patience stood by the baby. Patience became a mother today.
The little kid was covered in guck, and was all wet. It was probably just born within the last several minutes. I started pulling slime off of the goat, it was shivering. In a few minutes, Dexter was there, and I asked him to go grab a towel. I gave Patience a hug.
Dexter came with the towel just as Mommy and Daddy were arriving. Dexter passed me the towel, and I wrapped the little one up in it, and I began drying it off. The little one still hadn’t moved from where it was, it looked alert, alive, and well- it just didn’t want to stand. The goat was a little girl. Patience was very interested in the goat, and stood there calmly.
I tried getting her to nurse off of Patience, but she just wouldn’t. We decided to bring her in to the house and warm her up, because it was so cold outside. I ran back to the house over the icy, un even footing, and arrived quickly. I sat down beside the fire, and Zoe was very interested in her, and she wanted to lick her.
I dried her off pretty well, and Mommy and Daddy began searching for a bottle, but we couldn’t find one. Although we couldn’t find a bottle, we found a syringe. Mommy milked Patience a little, and brought in some colostrum. She took a few mouthfuls of the colostrum. Mommy said that Patience was looking for her kid, and that she was being pretty loud, and that she was upset at her disappearance.
We brought her back out to Patience to see if she would nurse, but she still couldn’t stand on her own. I almost got her to nurse, but she still didn’t have the strength, so we brought her back inside. This time we sat on the couch, I handed her to Daddy so that I could finish my chores. Patience was pretty upset, and followed us around, hoping to find her daughter. When I came in for water (I was half done my chores), she was kind of standing, and she had eaten a bunch of colostrum. Her strength was definitely returning.
Daddy passed her back to me so that he could finish his chores, and I cuddled the sweet little goat. She was doing so good. She tried to stand a few times, and then she did- she stood up all on her own. She was pretty wobbly, and she fell over eventually, but then she got right back up and stood on her feet. When mommy and Daddy came back in, we brought her back out to Patience. With my help, she was able to nurse, and it wasn’t all that hard to get her to nurse either. I finished my chores then.
I came out to check on her after about an hour, I found her trying to nurse off of Patience’s chest. You silly goat! She doesn’t have udders on her chest! I helped her find Patience’s udders, and she nursed happily. Patience lifted up her leg to give the kid a little more room to nurse, good girl, Patience. Lily and Faith were put in the pen with the other goats, so Patience was alone with her baby. I got her to nurse pretty easily.
When I came out later, I found her nursing Patience with no need for assistance whatsoever. She was doing good, we haven’t figured out a name for her yet, but I will write another post when we do, and hopefully with some better pictures! We are keeping an eye on Satine, as we think that she may kid soon too!
Have you entered kidding season?
Kayli
Kayli's Homestead 