whew....glad it wasn't one of mine.

a freind called this morning and had doe with kids hung up in her. he got the doe here and she had two legs hanging out (minus the head) I couldn't get the head around so I pushed it all back in and finally got the head around  and had a head and two front legs coming. head slipped back again at about which time I realized that the two front legs were from different kids!!!*&^%$##@@@($#^&*@#$% finally the vet called back and he raced her down there. that was a tangled mess of kids. one of them was sucking on my finger inside  so at least one was still alive. hope they make it. what a freakin morning.

well the vet couldn't get it out either and did a c-section, it was one giant tangled kid apparently so it must have been really messed up in there. I thought it was legs from two different kids because they were bending in opposite directions but I can only imagine that it had a dislocated shoulder or something or I suppose babies are super flexible . momma is going to be ok though so that is good. holy moly that poor goat had a rough morning.

Wow...that's intense...and sad. Poor kid. Glad momma's gonna be ok.

after some thinking I realize I need to devise a kid puller to have handy. if I could have gotten a nylon strap or something around its head I could have been holding its head forward and been able to get the legs where they need to be and might have managed to get it out. it is surprising difficult to tell what is what inside a goat uterus ......even the vet couldn't find the head when it got there and said that if you ever find the head don't ever let it go. so I really needed someway to keep the head from flipping back while I went after the legs... live and you learn I guess...

The more experience you get at this, the more adept you will become. I don't doubt that you be as good at "pulling kids" as any vet. Probably even better!  No doubt it's difficult to accomplish that "by feel". I can't even begin to imagine! Experience will be your best teacher for sure.

I had to pull a single large buck kid one time -- he had his head turned back over his shoulder, and one leg back, one leg forward.  It was my first time to have to seriously assist with a birth -- thankfully a neighbor who used to raise cattle came over and gave directions, but his hands were too big to go inside a goat, so that part was up to me.  I tried several times to get ahold of that head and pull it around where it needed to be, and wasn't having much luck until I grabbed onto his lower jaw -- the little teeth gave me something to hold onto that wasn't slimy-slippery.  Once his head was in place, I was able to hook the leg that was back and move it into place, then pull the whole baby out.  Afterwards, my experienced friend said that he'd been afraid we were going to lose both of them, but they both did fine once I got the baby untangled.  (I would hate to ever have to try to pull a calf, though -- one reason I stick with goats, even though I was raised on a cow dairy.)

We had an audience of several young children -- my three, and two of their friends -- who were wide-eyed through the whole mess -- the doe was screaming her head off through the whole thing.  What an introduction to birthing!

Kathleen

I read that if you have a soft cord, you can fasten a loop around the lower jaw in other livestock.  Do you think it would work with goats?  Then you could pull and push at the same time... well... between contractions, anyway.

Sue

Susan Monroe wrote:
I read that if you have a soft cord, you can fasten a loop around the lower jaw in other livestock.  Do you think it would work with goats?  Then you could pull and push at the same time... well... between contractions, anyway.

Sue

That's something to remember and try if I ever have another kid that badly hung up (in 26 years of raising goats, that was the worst kidding I've had).  But I'm not sure if it would work or not, as the kids jaws are so small.  I'll add some cord to my kidding kit, though -- I have a doe who is due any day right now.

Kathleen