Arctic Blast Babies

This morning we were looking outside at the sheet of ice two inches thick and wondering how we were going to handle chores without killing ourselves.  Al had walked out to break the ice on the freshened doe's water and was slipping everywhere. I noticed some smaller goat bodies near Wendy and knew she kidded early this morning.  

Al and I suited up and went to the goat pen only to be hindered by the frozen gates and no way to get in. So we came back to the house.  Al went back out to get to work on the gate latch.  Once into the pen, he looked in on Wendy.  He told me there were three but I needed to come out because one didn't look so good.  

I suited up and went out with towels.  I scooped up the little one and rubbed her down.  She was pretty vocal, but clearly cold and weak.  The two chunks were quickly determined to be bucks.  Typical!  I really didn't need to check the little one because usually it is the doe. 

We brought in the little girl to warm her up in hot water, give her a blow dry, and put her on a heating pad.  Temp was lower than desired, but she was proving to be feisty.  While she warmed up, I went back out for supplies and to care for the goats and milk some colostrum from Wendy.

I gave her a selenium shot which seemed to work rapidly and before we knew it she was standing and crying for milk.  Her temp was at 99.6 and I decided to go for it.  (Goats in the wild logic...) She drank 1 1/2 tbs of colostrum and was content to sleep.  

Before long that little girl was up and almost literally running down the hall to Caleb.  I have no doubt she will be fine.  She seems to have a liking for Caleb and follows him everywhere.  I told him she can't stay in the house because the warm temps will throw her body off.  I plan to take her out in the afternoon to see how momma handles her, but may bring her back in at night. I haven't decided.  

You can find more pictures on Hickory Hill Goats.