Difficult Kidding

Well, today Jiffy had her babies. I noticed an obvious waterbag coming out around 6:45 AM this morning. I figured she would have her baby within an a few hours from then. Well, around 8:30 she was having obvious contractions, but nothing was presenting and it seemed like it was still far back in the birth canal.

Finally at 9:30 AM I decided to put my hand in and see what was going on. When my hand got in there I was feeling ribs. I knew that the ribs cannot come out first so I started fishing for a leg, however when you put your hand in the uterus it causes more contractions. It was pretty tight in there and on top of that I had to push the kid back in order to get something besides the side coming first. Now she is a Nigerian Dwarf goat so it is hard to get one hand in let alone two, so I a, trying to push the baby back and fish for a leg.

I was finally able to maneuver the kid and find a hind leg. When he came out he gave a couple of gasps but then stopped breathing. I had Tirzah come in the stall and start stimulating him by rubbing him down which made him start breathing. Then in succession two more kids came out. They were doing fairly well. After another 45 minutes Jiffy started having more contractions. I figured there would be at least one more kid in her. I let her push for a little bit and she seemed to be struggling so I went in again. I found a head and two legs. I grabbed the legs and started to pull gently but it seemed like it was too much kid. I then examined the legs and realized one looked thicker than the other. I put my hand back in and felt around. I was pretty sure that two kids were trying to come out at one time. I found a big head and so figured the little leg must be from a fifth goat so I pushed the littler leg back in.

The head of the fourth kid came out and he was the biggest of all the kids. Rather vigorous also. Then I went ahead an found both front legs of the last one and pulled it out, I was ready to be done with the kids. It was a good thing I did because that kid was dead and had been dead for a while. She had some discharge a while back and I am thinking his waterbag may have broken and caused him to die. His eye sockets were sunken and his joints were all loose. With a dead kid, many times they don't come out on their own because they are all floppy and they get all tangled up so I was glad I didn't wait and just pulled it.

She had all boys, last year she had all boys also. I was really hoping to get a doe out of her but I didn't. The first kid still isn't doing well, he responds if I rub him, but hasn't been able to stand up. I finally fed him with a tube put into his stomach, but I am wondering if he has internal injuries because of how he was presenting. I let Jiffy labor like that for about an hour at least and then when I went in it was kind of hard to push him around so I may have hurt him also when I moved him around to get him out. We will see what happens.

This was my most difficult birth so far. I am just glad that this is my third year of kidding and not my first. Since I put my hand in with Spice yesterday I gave her an intramuscular injection of Penicillin G and now I will do that for Jiffy. Wow, I have learned a lot in the last couple days. This should be good training if the Lord ever allows me to be a midwife. A lot of what I have been reading recently about midwifery went through my mind at I was working with Jiffy.