Birth Defects in Goats
Occasionally bad things happen when working with goats. Birth defects are rare but not unknown. Below are pictures of defects. Caution! They are not pretty pictures.
JANA FINALLY DOWNLOADS
June 6, 2021
We washed Jana’s vulva and surrounding area and put on clean gloves and lots of lube. Jana cooperated very well and stood as I carefully slid my hand in to check the position of the kids and I found that Jana was completely dilated. A little deeper exploration found a kid wadded up in a ball. The kid felt very strange: the leg bones were really small and the head seemed abnormal. A little manipulation and soon I had the kid out and on the kidding pad. It was a buck with a badly deformed head. He was born alive but lived only about 10 minutes.
In 2017 a doe at Black Mesa Ranch kidded with 2 and a half kids. One normal doeling, one doeling with twisted legs, plus a pair of legs connected to some guts. (Pictures and info by permission of Black Mesa Ranch)
SUKEY STRIKES OUT
SIGH,well, a sad story tonight. Our pretty little black doe is dead….I managed to sort out and pull her first kid. A cute black with white ears, cap, and splashes, buck. Then went after another kid….worked for an hour and couldn’t for the life of me figure out what was going on…thought I might have 2 kids tangled up but just couldn’t budge them…We called Kerri and she graciously came up.
She gave it her best shot and neither of us could get anything to budge. We figured that Sukey had torn by now so I euthanized her I immediately took a scalpel and cut out the uterus and extracted a very large schistosomus reflexus kid….It was also a buck and he was about half again larger than his brother. His belly was split open and all 4 of his leg were up over his back and his head was down toward his open belly… there was no way that the kid could have ever been born without a C-section….and Sukey had torn trying to have him…Sadly she tried so very hard and worked so long…. She wasn’t my favorite doe and she was a brat, but with Sukey you always knew what you would get and she did her job as a milker. We will miss her.
So we are sad tonight but, also relieved that there wasn’t anything we could have done for her or the kid…We are exhausted tonight as well, but the morning will find us back in the barn and milking as we await the arrival of Juno’s kids. This is only the second time in all my years that I have seen this rare and devastating deformity. Both time it has cause the loss of the doe. It was an exhausting ordeal for all of us but the process of growing a kid from a Zygote is unbelievably complex and intricate. There are bound to be problems occasionally. Thankfully they are very rare.
Now there is something you don’t see every day. Along with perfectly healthy triplets (one doeling and two bucklings), came a hairball complete with its own umbilical cord. The hairball was found imbedded inside a placenta once the doe had cleaned. (Picture and info by permission of Black Mesa Ranch)
ZAYNAH STRUGGLES THROUGH
March 4, 2021
After a tough delivery of three kids, I went in to check Zaynah to see if I could feel any uterine tears and to check for any more kids…I was surprised to find yet another kid deep in the uterus. I quickly pulled him and found that he had died a day or so earlier. He was smaller and less well developed than he would have been at full term and his right rear leg was missing below the hock.
We request that all kids be picked up at the farm or shipped by 4-6 weeks of age as there seems to be less stress on them at that age. After 6 weeks of age we will have to charge $2.00 per day board until they are picked up or shipped. A $75 deposit is required to hold your kid with the balance due on notification of your kid’s birth. All health papers, shipping kennels and shipping are the responsibility of the buyer and are to be paid prior to shipment. Deposits on canceled orders are not refundable but deposits paid on kids that are not born can be refunded or shifted to another available kid. We reserve the right to refuse sale of any kid and to return the deposit or apply it to another kid. Please email Sandy if you have any questions.
Also, check out our For Sale page. All does and pre ordered bucks and wethers are raised on heat treated colostrum and pasteurized milk. All kid prices listed are for pre ordered kids that are picked up at 6 weeks or younger. We give a discount to herds on milk test, youth in 4-H, or for multiple purchases.
Thank you for your interest in Reuel Dairy Goats.
