seeing as how they're just bursting with baby flavor. Tierra and Harmony are due on the same day, February 5th. What are the chances of that? Especially considering I bought them both pregnant from different farms. Harmony has been very obviously pregnant since the first time I saw her. Her little belly bulges on both sides, and she's definitely carrying her babies high up, compared to Tierra who has never really gained and inch side-to-side, but who's belly just gets closer and closer to the ground each day.
About two weeks ago I caught Harmony standing up on the picnic table, and I thought I'd see if I could feel any movement in her belly. As soon as I placed my hand on her I felt a very distinct little pop against my palm. Whoa! A few days later as I was sitting outside in a lawnchair watching her and Sahara cuddling in a patch of sunlight, I could see Harmony's little bulging belly just jumping and bopping all over the place. The moment was so beautiful it almost gave me goosebumps. I think she must have some seriously active babies in there, and I can really sympathize after having been pregnant with Ayden. In my 9th month when I would do my kick counts (you're supposed to feel the baby kick at least 12 times in one hour) I would literally count 12 kicks in the space of less than a minute. The whole thing was absurd for me. I never minded until that space of about 12 hours when he was positioned just right to be kicking me right in the cervix. Ahhh! It felt like being shocked with a cattle prod, and I would have absolutely NO warning. Terrible. I'm sure Dustin and my mom remember that episode with me screaming every few minutes...Moving on. Tierra, unlike Harmony, has not felt the need to stand still long enough for me to feel her babies. Every time I'd try to reach under her, she'd immediately walk away. I guess it probably has something to do with the fact that she's used to being milked and has decided not to let me get anywhere near her udder without the requisite grain ration. She knows I'm green at this and she takes advantage of me, I just know it. Thats ok, though, because this evening I gave her the scratching of her life and surreptitiously snuck my palm down to her stomach. I was almost immediately rewarded with a very distinct flutter against my hand, and after a few moments a few hardy kicks to my hand. YEA! It was the highlight of my day. I stood there stooped over her, frantically rubbing and scratching with my other hand until my poor back just could not take another moment. When I straightened up and took a step back, she looked at me with a "hey-where-the-heck-do-you-think-you're-going stare" and walked over and leaned against my thighs wanting more. So of course I sacrificed my own comfort and partook in a little more goat-lovin'.
Something interesting about Tierra, I've found, is that she seems to
be carrying her babies way down low. I had my doubts that she was even pregnant because she is not an inch wider than when I first got her, but about a month ago I noticed that she's getting to be a definite wedge shape. Skinny neck to moderate sized chest and a steady slope downhill from there, ending with her ever-increasing udder. Another interesting thing happening with her is that all of a sudden it feels like I can touch my fingers under her spine right above her tail. You're supposed to feel for ligaments there, because when they seem to disappear, that means the birth is imminent. I've been practicing since I got her, but there for a while she was so fat that she had fat pads bulging on either side of her spine. So, I cut back on her grain and now she's slimmed down. I was reading on the Internet the other day that her spine popping up like that is a normal thing that can happen a few weeks before kidding. Two weeks ago I noticed that overnight her vulva went from being a perky 2-3 inches long to about 5. I'll spare you the pictures I took. I of course flipped out and thought she was going into premature labor and even had my mom come up and babysit her while I was at work just in case. The next morning everything was back to its normal size, and then three days ago I noticed that she had a small bit of orange goo coming out, which is another sign of labor, only its usually a very large amount. Nothing has happened since, and I am assuming that her body is just gearing up for the big event. Maybe it means that she'll have a very easy kidding since her body has been getting used to the idea this whole time. :)Her udder is even starting to change. Even though she was in milk when I bought her, her udder was never much to look at size-wise.
Lately, though, it has plumped up so big that it's even starting to bulge out the back. You can really see it in this picture. Pretty soon it'll be time to give her a shave on her udder and backside in preparation for the birth. I'm sure she's gonna love that. It can't be any worse than attempting to give Louie a pizzle trim (its what you think it is). *full body shiver*
8 comments:
Oh, that is so exciting!! I wonder how many babies Tierra has in there. Love the pictures - you can really see the difference in Tierra's pictures when you go back and look at the one's you took when you first got her.
LOL that was a great post.But I love goats. Goats are very fun to watch. Better have farm mama over because you will want help. My does have always kidded very close or on their due date. They get a weird look in their eye the day they kid. You are so observent..watch for it. They seem a bit off in the morning.
P.S. Your Nigerian does are darling! You did good girl !
Hmmm...so for all the non-goat-educated peeps out there (I probably stand alone here), could you please explain why you have to shave Tierra's backside and udder in prep for the birth? Also, I get the idea of the pizzle-trim (LOL), but why would you have to do that?
farmgirl,
Well, you shave their udder so the kids can find it better, and also because when you're milking you want to eliminate as much hair as possible to reduce the amount of debris that can fall in your milk pail. Also, its easier to keep an eye on how her body is changing in preparation for birth, and its easier to keep her clean after the birth (they leak for a few weeks just like we do!).
As for a pizzle trim, what fun. It's a good idea to trim the hair around a bucks you-know-what because it can get matted with urine and harbor bacteria to the point that his little organ becomes red and infected. Not to mention, for a goat as hairy as my Angora, Louie, it's a lot easier to navigate his way toward the appropriate, shall we say, receptacle. :)
Wow, how exciting--and very informative! I think I followed you here from a link at Farmgirl_DK's blog, and I've really been enjoying the animal stories. My husband and I have chickens and as soon as we have the space we're going to get goats, so I've been fascinated with your blog.
Meg,
Nice to meet you! What kind of chickens do you have? What kind of goats are you looking to get? Pets? Dairy? Meat? I love all this stuff!
We have three egg laying chickens--they're a cross between White Rocks and Rhode Island Reds. They're great, but they're about as much livestock as our rented property can take without some major changes.
Eventually we want to get a few goats for pets and for milk. We are big into gardening/small farming and have read a lot about the role livestock can play in building a sustainable, healthy farm, so in that respect they'd be a bonus! I love Nigerians, so they are on the list, but we haven't done a whole lot of research into other breeds yet. For now I'm getting a kick reading about yours!
Post a Comment