|
TRIPET doelings for Liberty!! But OH what an adventurous day it was. Liberty has had a prolapse for over a month, so we kind of thought we might have issues. She was 3 days past her due date today, so I gloved up to check her. Fully dilated, ready to go, so we just watched her. Me checking her triggered something and she began to get restless. Within an hour or two, she dropped a doeling while I walked outside to check the greenhouse! She began pushing and switching sides a lot and after about 20min I could see something was wrong, so I went in again. I could feel a large back, but nothing else. I gave her more time to switch sides, and we gave her lots of fluids/molasses water, etc. but checked again twice and the same. No legs, no hooves. Called the vet, and they couldn't come out so we had to take her in - in labor! She would not walk and did NOT want to get into the car. Who could blame her? Ugh. It was a wild ride with her one baby screaming, and her screaming in the back as she couldn't see her. So stressful. At the same time, we had to leave Foxie here (due to kid anytime, 2 days overdue) and PRAY she didn't kid with issues while we were gone as no one else knows what to do! Terrible timing and I was not happy. This is the first time I have had to take my goat into the vet in labor BUT it all ended well. We have wonderful vets, and although she mentioned a c-section, she kept working so hard until she was able to flip her legs back from under her (it was her back I felt - fetal position coming out backwards) and pulled her out! And then another smaller doeling popped out behind her. All alive! I could not believe they were alive after me going in so much, and I can't even tell you how far in our vet was! I was impressed. LOL. I thought for sure Liberty would reject them as they were cleaned off at the vets so she didn't lick them (on top of ALL the intervention) but Liberty is a trooper and when we got home, she went right to work to "re-clean" them. Another doe I think may not have reacted the same way after all she went through. She just ADORES her little "girl power" trio. All are looking to be horned, and the two larger girls are both blue-eyed. Two have moonspots - one has a bunch like her daddy! Rock's first kiddos! Foxie is on watch, so hopefully tonight so we can have a little break before round two starts next Thursday with Figgy! More photos soon, and names TBD!! All girls so far! Let's see if Foxie continues the streak!!
0 Comments
Off with a BANG!! Hazel blessed us beautiful twin doelings on May 2nd! We had the monitors on and didn't hear a peep from her - just a little scream from one of the babies around 11:35pm. We went out there and she already had everything under control and was cleaning them! By far the easiest kidding to date on our farm, done under an hour start to finish, and she is a wonderful mama. Both doelings are BIG and sturdy! Both blue eyed as well - Glory has only thrown blue eyes here to date! Truffles is chocolate, blue-eyed and seems polled. Shitake is a beautiful blue eyed chocolate buckskin and has a couple moonspots as well - a big one covering her neck. Feeling so incredibly blessed right now! Mama and babies are doing wonderfully. Liberty is up next, and she has a big prolapse - so prayers would be very appreciated as I have a feeling this may be a complicated birth for her. Foxie is also due today! More updates soon!!
 Daisy had a beautiful, blue-eyed buckling late yesterday. Sadly, there was also a little DOA doeling right behind him. She was very tiny and underdeveloped. We brought Daisy in from another farm when she was very far along in her pregnancy - she was sold due to excessive bullying, so we were wondering if her kids would all be ok. I guess we will never know if ramming killed her, but it looks like she's been dead quite awhile. The little buckling, who we've now named Sorrel, is a big boy, and was VERY stuck coming out since Daisy is so petite - we had to work for a bit to get him pulled out! He was right on his feet and up nursing though immediately, and is a beautiful, strapping boy! Daisy is such a happy, absolutely wonderful mama and just LOVES her boy! It's so nice to see a FF take so easily to motherhood. He did GREAT his first night and is such a docile little guy. :-) More photos soon!
 Well, it's 2-2-22 and Groundhog Day AND Butters had QUINTS - 4 does & a buck!!! We were out there 7.5hrs from the start of labor to the end today. Unbelievable. I've never seen anything like it! They all came out backwards or butt first. Three little doelings first, then a big buckling, and last a big doeling (who was sadly DOA on arrival as she was butt first and her massive head was lodged in the birth canal - tried to resuscitate unsuccessfully). She took SO much time between each one, so it took forever! The other four are doing well. One little doeling was full of mucus and water and it was touch as go for a bit, but got her up and doing well. All are nursing and Butters is SO PROUD of them! :-) She did really, really great considering how terrible it was. We will be getting better photos up soon, and praying that all her kids continue to do well! Names TBD! 
 Butters is over being pregnant! She's HUGE and due on Wednesday! She has an XL basketball on each side and can barely walk...more like a waddle at this point. We got the temporary stalls in place (will be building a new barn this summer) and she's resting quietly. Any guess on how many she might have in there?   We have some exciting news!! We finally bought an ultrasound machine after figuring out we would have to haul 14 goats into our new TN vet's office (which wasn't an option anyway). Our vet was kind enough to come out and show us how to use it! It's really neat! So, with that being said, we confirmed pregnancies on 7 of the girls so far. We still have to wait a bit longer to check Scarlet, Kitty, Dixie and Faith in the coming weeks! Here are the U/S results:
Hazel: 2-3 Foxie: 2-3 Liberty: 3+ Figgy: 4+ Pie: 1-2 Sylvie: 1-2 Pepper: 3+ Sorry for the bad photo, but the lighting was terrible in the barn that day. More updates coming soon! ;-) We got snow the other day - and TONS of it! As it turns out, Tennessee can also get big snow dumps! LOL. The goats and puppies loved romping around in it all day! What a beautiful day in the snow!! :-)
 There's a new face in the barn...meet Daisy! She is a very sweet and gentle girl, and is actually preggo -due mid February (bred to a moonspotted & blue eyed Prairie Wood buck). She is also moonspotted and blue eyed. She is SUCH a love and we are grateful to have her as a part of our herd! Thanks Kathy! 
We are beyond excited to announce the arrival of Swedish Flower chickens to Sweet Meadows Farm! We knew we wanted to bring chickens back to the farm, after not having them for a bit, and after doing some research, we decided to focus on one very special endangered breed....the Swedish Flower! We brought in six hens and two roos from a wonderful SFH breeder in Indiana (thank you, Maria!), and are planning on hatching out chicks come spring 2022! A little history on the Swedish Flower Hen. Originally from Sweden, there were very few left by the 1970's and so the government found a few isolated flocks and established the Swedish Genetic Project to help bring the breed back and also to raise awareness about other endangered heritage breeds. The SFH, or Skånsk Blommehöna, has only been in America since 2010 with the first importing of a few birds. They are named for the various beautiful and unusual "flowering" they have in patterns, producing many different colors and patterns. They are a landrace, which means that they were not engineered by man, but rather evolved and adapted naturally to their environment over the centuries. They are super hardy and healthy, lay really large eggs regularly, do very well in super cold climates and have amazing funny personalities. They are known as the "compost" chicken, foraging with such tenacity that they are always busy looking for things to eat! The perfect permaculture and homesteading chicken! What a special breed of chicken, and we can't wait to share them with others! **Photo 1 features Noelle - she has bright blue/hazel eyes which is very rare for a chicken. Never seen anything like it before! She is a stunner. We will be getting a page up on our website for the flock soon, and more photos to follow! 
|
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
May 2022
Categories |
RSS Feed