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Kids: Coccidia

Coccidia are a protozoan internal parasite, that most goats have, in small numbers. In adults, this is generally not a problem, but if kids get an overload of coccidia, it can cause diarrhea, intestinal scarring, and ultimately death, if not treated.  The first line of prevention for coccidia in kids is to keep their areas clean. This may seem like an unreasonable expectation--it's a barn, for all love--but what this means is essentially making sure the kids have minimal access to poop--they pick up coccidia from mouthing poop, soiled straw, etc. This can mean cleaning out the pen every day, or it can mean adding a new layer of straw once or twice a day, or even both. A good criteria (picked up from Deborah at the Thrifty Homesteader) is that you should be willing to sit down in the stall. Then, it's clean enough for kids. If you're not willing to sit down (while wearing "barn" pants. Not wearing a fancy dress, for instance) it's not clean enough for kids.  In
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Kidding: Normal Birth

95% of goat births are completely normal, so I thought I would cover what a normal birth looks like before I move on to possible dystocias or issues! 

In a normal birth, the goat will show signs of being in early labor (occasional contractions, discomfort, not eating, pacing, etc.) for a number of hours. She'll probably be up and down and up and down. During a contraction, a goat will arch her back slightly, raise her tail straight up, and put her neck up as well.)

At some point, she will lie down and stay down, and then she'll start to push. Sometimes you'll see a gush of water as one of the first sacs breaks. The first thing to come out will usually be an orange-tinted sac (or the broken water) which helps to pave the way for the first kid. 

As the goat pushes, it's normal for her to yell very, very loudly. Just fyi. :) 

After the orange sac, another, whitish, sac will start to protrude, coming out as the doe pushes, and going back in as she relaxes. This is all normal, and you don't need to be hurrying things along. As she keeps pushing, you may see white hooves and a nose (often the tongue will be sticking out!), or two hooves all by themselves (in this case, we'll assume that these are the back hooves. Two front hooves by themselves can be problematic), or even just a butt. In Nigerians, a butt first birth, aka a breech birth, is usually not a problem, and is actually pretty normal. Honestly, around a third of our kids have been born breech, and have been fine. 

As the goat pushes, the head and hooves or back hooves will start to slide out. You don't need to interfere at all at this point. 

If the kid is coming forwards, once the head is out, you can clean the nose off so the kid can breathe, but you don't need to, as it's still attached to the umbilical cord. We like to do it just in case. If the goat is coming out backwards, once the hips are out, you need to gently pull the hooves while the mom is pushing, because at that point, the umbilical cord is cut off, and it will try to breathe. The first breath should be air, not amniotic fluid! In general, though, breach kids come out pretty quickly, so this is just a precaution. 

And then--the kid slides out! You should use a towel to clean off the nose, and make sure the kid can breathe. The umbilical cord will normally break on its own. Often, the mom will turn around or stand up to start cleaning the baby, but some don't do that right away (especially first fresheners), so if not, bring the baby around to the mom's head. The mom will start licking and cleaning and eating the goop off the baby. You can help, especially if it's very cold, but if you'll be dam raising, don't take the kid away! The mom needs this time to bond. Make sure she can lick it! If the baby is having trouble breathing, use the bulb syringe to clean the goat's airways. 

Unless the kid is a singleton, between a few seconds and fifteen-twenty minutes later, the doe will start to push again. At this point, it's probably a good idea to move the first kid out of the way so the doe doesn't kick her by accident. You can do some more drying at this point. The doe will push out a second (and sometimes third, fourth, and fifth, or even sixth!) kid. Make sure to get these ones moved to Mom and dried off as well. When there are more kids, the mom sometimes have trouble cleaning them all off...but make sure she licks every new baby, so she'll recognize it later. Once we have time, we dip the kids' cords in iodine to help keep it clean. If it's too long, you can tear it a couple of inches from the stomach. 

Once the doe is done, she'll look very deflated, and probably start pushing out the placenta, which looks like a big pink membrane with purple date-shaped things on it. (These are the cotyledons.) She'll usually eat it, which is fine! It helps stimulate milk production. At this point, it's a good idea to give the mom some warm molasses water, and watery oatmeal. 

Within a few minutes of being born, the kids will be trying to stand, and moving towards the udder. You can put them in the right general direction, but you can't make them latch on...and they usually figure it out on their own. The kid needs to be nursing within an hour to get the right immunities from the colostrum (first milk). 

And hurrah! Successful and normal birth! 

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