New Kid in the Tiny-House

Tonight, these will be staples: 

"Kid Milk" and M&M's ;)

I can't remember if I mentioned it on this blog but we have 4 Nigerian Dwarf goats: 3 does and 1 buck.  They are residing on my parents land right now because we have no fenced area for them where are tiny house is.  One of the does had twins last Wednesday; my mom heard them not long after the were born so I was able to get over there and check on them pretty quick.

Today, my parents and my family were out of town and no one checked on the goats until after dark.  My brother called to let me know there was an extra kid in the goat house and we headed up there to check on the health of mama and baby.

The new kid was cleaned off, standing on its own and nursing.  The new mama was eating and drinking but I decided to look around for the afterbirth, maybe cause something didn't seem right to me, I don't know.  As I looked around the area, I heard a kid cry (there are 3 new kids) but the cry sounded desperate and weak.

I found a 4th kid lying on it's side in the briars, struggling to live.

I picked it up as gentle as possible while trying not to panic, rushed it over to mama and started milking Colostrum into it's tiny mouth.  My son valiantly held mama for me while I tried to hold up the little one, open it's mouth and milk the mama (this particular doe has not been milked by me much and does not like it).  

Little one was sucking and swallowing.  It's heart was beating steady but it couldn't hold up it's own head and was very weak.  My guess is mom had the baby out in the open but it wasn't strong enough to follow her back to the goat house.

As soon as I got "enough" Colostrum into it's little mouth, I took it inside where my mom mixed up some dry goat kid milk and my husband brought in a little more milk from one of the does. I fed the little one with an eye dropper until it seemed to be satisfied.  

Then I checked its gender-doelings bring in twice as much money as bucklings-and this little one is the only doeling out of the 4 kids born this week.  Figures. 

I really didn't want to stay the night at my parents when my own bed is 10 minutes away AND there's no reason we can't have a new resident at our house for one night.

I was able to milk about an ounce of colostrum and milk out of the does before leaving my parents.  We got home and, after filling up her belly, little one went right to sleep in her cozy box-bed.

AND she's already holding her head up better!  

I'll be keeping watch throughout the night and praying she makes a full recovery.  

Oh, and we DO NOT make it habit to bring goats into our house...unless they're sick and need to be nursed!