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| Casper |
He said 'yeah mom, I'm tired'. He's very cute.
Then the bad. Nanner decided it was time for her to pop those kids out too. Except, it wasn't kids. It was one very large kid. His head was huge. And got stuck. It took about an hour to finally get the head through, and the kid was obviously dead by then. Then the shoulder was stuck. I couldn't reach in far enough to ease it loose. She pushed. We pulled. Two hours. It finally came out. We were all exhausted and shaken.
Nanner is heartbroken. I feel so bad for her. She's about 12 years old, and she's never had a kid. As far as we know, this was her second delivery. She lost both of her kids the first time too. She went right to work cleaning up that baby. Poor Nan. She didn't seem to understand why it wouldn't get up. It was so sad.
The ugly. We're going to send her away. We debated it last year when #1 decided he wanted to raise goats. On the one hand, she's pretty old. Blending in with a new herd could be hard on her. She still hangs out with the horses and cows- or rather, bosses them around, more than with the younger goats. On the other hand, if Oscar knocks her up again, it could really end badly for her. So I advertised her this morning. I'm hoping someone might like her for a pet, or at least that someone with miniature goats might understand and take pity on her.
Now to clean up the sun room. First thing on the job list for spring- build a goat shed! Or a milking stand. Or maybe one of each. Or maybe a new chicken coop. Hmmm... That might be the easiest, and then I could move the chickens over to the garden area. I'll have to think on that. Or maybe stalls in the barn. That would make sense. Something needs to change, that's for sure. This goat in the sun room thing is getting out of hand!
Poor Nanner. That makes me so sad for her. I hope the next home does not let her get knocked up!
ReplyDeleteIs her boyfriend a really large goat? Maybe she needs smaller company?
ReplyDeleteShe was about 5 when we got her, and though she had been exposed to a male pygmy a few times, never got knocked up. Her room mate got knocked up every time. They thought she was sterile. We were told Spot, our Billy, was a pygmy, so that's what we were looking for in her. Except he kept growing and growing... and was definitely not a pygmy. She's been just a pet, alone with the horses and cows until last summer. Then #1 got his goats. Oscar, the Billy, wasn't too big when we got him, but he's still growing. Easily double her size now. We're planning to build him his own pen this spring, so we can manage when kids will be born, but it's still a serious risk to her if he gets out when she's in heat. And I would like to see her have kids of her own, but really don't want to buy a pygmy billy just so she can be a mom.
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