Our new kidding season has begun! Fennel showed signs of early labor yesterday afternoon, so we moved her to the kidding stall for observation. I stayed up with her until nearly 10pm and then left Levi in charge of checking in on her so that I could get some sleep. It's a bit easier to check on them now that we have the barn cam....I'm loving that thing already!
About 1am I woke up and decided to check on her. Watching from the mudroom tv is much easier than bundling up and walking out to the barn! I could tell that she was having serious contractions and starting to push so I got dressed and went out to see how she was progressing. First fresheners are unpredictable, they may push off and on for hours, or they may give a couple of good pushes and pop out triplets.
It didn't take long for me to realize that she was having some trouble. She was having strong contractions and pushing hard, but there was no bubble or any sign of the kid. So I went in to see what was going on and discovered that the kid was presenting shoulder first, with it's head twisted against it's spine. It was obvious at that point that the kid was dead; and we had to work fast if we were to save the other kid and the doe. It took nearly an hour to get the dead kid out, a little doe that was marked just like her dad. Then at 1:58am little Holly arrived, weighing 4# 15 ounces.
She is small (they were a few days early), but she is a good eater and everything about her looks great!
She looks a lot like her mother...and has nearly a full belly band...
But look at the marking on her forehead.....I see a Santa face....
Here is a picture of her dam..
And her sire...
Introducing Queenacres Holiday Hope
"Holly"
2 comments:
What a sweet little one! Congrats - and I'm glad you were able to save her and Fennel!
Thank you! Yes, they are both doing very well. I was sad to lose the one little doe, but considering the fact that we could have lost all 3 we were blessed!
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