Monday, February 22, 2010

Portraits

Here are the pictures the photographer, Rhoda Peacher, took for an example of the Katahdin breed.
You can see her website at here at R Photographs.

Please respect her copyright.

Rosalind and her triplets

Rosalind with her Marselli, Venice, and Emily

Johann on his 1st birthday!

He was a little to intent on checking out the camera instead of posing.

2009 Ewe Lambs

Aravis and her twins, Sicily and Paris

Ewes and lambs

Parsley and Texas

Amelia and Vienna

Ol' Louis and a July ram lamb from KRK Katahdins

Louis

Amelia

Amelia and Vienna

Amelia and Vienna along with Sicily

Ewes and lambs


Ophelia

© Rhoda Peacher

Friday, February 19, 2010

Kidding Season Stuff

I always buy my pre-kidding season stuff in the fall when I'm selling lambs and kids. This insures that I have the money for it, as well that I'll have it when I need it. It's worked much better for me then the old method. :-)

There are several products we have found invaluable over the years, and I thought I'd just list a few. I would be really happy to hear what works for you guys. Breeders' experience is often the best. :-)

Nutra Drench-
We buy the sheep and goat drench in bulk. This is an awesome product and helps me feel much safer when I can't get colostrum in a baby quickly or a mama's gotten beat from a hard labor. As a rule I use it on all new born babies and moms just once after as soon as possible.

Bova Sera-
A newer discovery, Bova Sera has really been an amazing product. We used to use Hoegger's Goat Serum for our kids, but it's one quick way to drain your funds. Bova-Sera covers a wider variety of problems and can be used on sheep too. One reason I use it on every mama and baby after delivery is it's power over enertoximia, a problem we all face at one time or another. (CD&T can not be absorbed by kids until at least 2 weeks!) It is also very good for animals that are about to be moved or undergo some sort of unavoidable stress. Highly recommend this product and it is considerably cheaper then Serum!

Omega-3 Drech-
I've used this for four years now on new kids and moms. It really gives an energy boost. I like to use it on kids that won't be getting a lot of colostrum or have to be away from mom for a time. Excellent for bottle babies.

Of course we give Bo-Se to every mom and kid after delivery as well. In our area, selenium is a big thing to watch.

We have found a baby feeding tube a life saver in many situations. It's very easy to use and can give those cold or tired babies the extra boost they need that they just aren't strong enough to get any other way. Extremely affordable! You should really have one of these in your stash. $5 might save the life of one of your babies someday.

Pen-G-
Is another thing to have in your fridge. Helps prevent infection after you assist with a delivery or after a mom tares or retains her afterbirth. Well worth it...

We always keep products on hand for milk fever (even though we've never had a case in the past 11 years), meds for pregnancy toxemia, B Complex for low moms, J Lube, plastic gloves, lots of clean rags, iodine, and more....

One thing I realized we didn't have this year that we probably should is a leg snare. I've never had much faith in them because I just don't see how they could work in the situations I would use them in. They must, though, because people use them! It would sure be nice to get a leg when my hands just can't.
I of course would like an ultrasound machine and a bottle of oxytocin...we all have dreams. ;-)

Of course for you....You need an alarm clock that works and is hard to turn off in your sleep, coffee, lots of clothes to go through, and some time somewhere where you can get some sleep!

I actually went through all of kidding and bottle babying this year without any caffeine! Oh I wanted to, but I didn't. :-) Certainly a first. :-)

Please share what helps you through kidding and lambing season!
Miss Pickwickian

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Photographs to Come...



Today a photographer came out to take pictures of our Katahdins for some examples of the breed. I'm really looking forward to the end product, and I'm sure you'll see quit a few here. :-)

We disbudded half of the goat kids this morning. So glad that is done!!! Only five kids to go.

The ewe I was afraid wasn't pregnant is now filling up and is in the stage of "eating everything in sight 24/7". Very excited about that. That will be my last Katahdin ewe.

Anyways, that's the news. :-)
Tomorrow I'm hoping to do a post on the invaluable things that we had during this kidding season. :-)
(#1 Should be time budgeted for sleep! Yeah right....)

Thanks for reading,
Miss Pickwickian

Monday, February 15, 2010

Kidding is Over for 2010!


Virginia Grace gave us a Valentine's present of twin, black Nubians.

They are doing great, but I'm still waiting for Virginia's afterbirth...hopefully all goes well! She's been a great mom.

So kidding is over for 2010! We had four new time moms this year. Three did great, but Sally didn't take at all. That was a bummer, but we've been very blessed with all our other babies!

Final Kid count-
5 does - 10 kids (3 bucks and 7 does)

We have a lot to be thankful for!
We have one more Katahdin ewe due and then a wait until the two dairy ewes sometime around March 15th. Wow!

Thanks for reading,
Miss Pickwickian


Rosalind with two of her triplet ewes!
2 days old

KRK 42
Rosalind

Venice wants to know what's happening next door.

Venice again....

And the whole bunch....
Venice, Emily, and Marsellie
2 days old

KRK 977
My Johann
Now one whole year old and the papa to ten lambs (9 ewe babies!).

Johann again...
I had to snap these shots very sneakily before he saw me and ran to the fence.

And introducing....Virginia's doeling!!!
(I can't believe she doesn't have a name yet. It must be a record for us.)

Virginia's big buck
Not the greatest picture...he's stretching...
It was tricky between Virginia's curious nose, Toffy (barn kitty) jumping on my back, bad lightening, and crazy frisky babies!

The proud mama
RR Resources Virginia Grace

Brunswick
Sophie's buck 1 week old

DWB Bradey
One of Rue's 2009 twins
10 month old ram


Hermen watches bouncing lambs in the pasture.
"Ah, the old days when I was as light as a feather. I was once like them."

Hermen decides to take a closer look.

2010 Ewe Lambs
Texas is the ewe looking at you. Have you ever seen a sweeter face?

2010 Ewe lambs

Friday, February 12, 2010

Rosalind


Rosalind finally lambed this morning (I've been watching her for a week now. She carries her weight sort of low so I keep thinking she's dropped :-).

She gave me three gorgeous brown ewe lambs!!!!!!!!!!!! Venice, Marseille, and Emily. These babies parents are both KRK and they will be 100% provable Katahdin!

Wow. How exciting!

I'll get pictures up one of these busy days. :-)

Current Baby Count

5 ewes - 10 lambs
(9 ewes and 1 ram!)
4 does - 8 kids (6 does and 2 bucks)

Thanks for reading.
Miss Pickwickian

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Ella the Great and a Host of Pictures!

Well...Ella tried to make up for all my singles.

Ella is my main stay. She's almost the perfect goat.

I love the fact that-

-She's big and healthy
-Her babies are big and healthy
-She gives me lots of kids
-She gives me 3 gallons plus a day!
-She'll stay in milk as heavy as I want as long as I want
-She's sweet and easy to handle

What I do not like about Ella-

-Ella is sweet to people, but bossy to the other goats and will try to make the Boers stay outside in the rain. What a meanie!
-Sometimes her babies are just a bit to big
-And for the last two years she's tried delivering two 10lb+ kids at once! What's with that?

So, last year she had triplets and we lost one in delivery (the plain, big ol' boys made it and the spotty doe didn't, of course). She had two heads and only one leg and I couldn't sort it out. Sorry girl!

I was nervous about her delivery this year because of last year and because I'd had to have a vet out because she'd retained the afterbirth... I forgive her from all that extra trauma in her labor.


So...Anyways....
Last night she was in mild labor at about 7pm. I kept coming down and checking on her and it looked like things were progressing nicely. When pushing came to shoving, she delivered a whole new kid (unrelated to the water sack already out). A wobbly, but huge boy.

The other water sack should have given me enough red lights to investigate, but I didn't. I really don't like to go in there when I don't have too. I'm just so afraid of messing things up and introducing infection.
Well, she pushed out a head...no legs. She was continue to push, and with last year (two kids at once) I knew there was enough room for her to get the body out without those legs lined up. Well, my mistake. Pretty soon there was another head without legs!

Now I went in. Baby, baby everywhere! I couldn't find anything but long necks and legs where still to far down and there wasn't enough room for my hand. I could tell the bottom baby was getting crushed, so things were getting pretty frantic at this point. (I love Boers! They don't get bred for crazy long, slender necks. Legs are just a little closer.)

Well, she pushed and tried, but just couldn't get anywhere. I really didn't want to tear anything. We lost the bottom baby. Even without worrying about hurting the baby, I couldn't move anything.Things just got worse. The top baby was starting to fade. Oh Ella, I'm sorry! But I went as fare as I could and pushed and pulled that poor baby, until I finally was just barely able to find a front leg.
What relief! (Especially for Ella!)

The rest was pretty easy. All three does came out fairly well, but none with any legs positioned correctly. Poor Ella, just trying to bump my average back up to twins this year. :-) She's always picking up the slack. She's raised abut almost all my bottle babies on her milk alone.

We lost one doe, but she now has two exhausted (probably bruised) does and one very happy-go-lucky buck! They are so big!!! They dwarf all the other kids born in the last 10 days.
Ella is still alive and she didn't tare!!!!!! She's on Pen-G right now and hopefully she won't scar or get an infection.

The babies are less active then her normal kids, but they've been through a lot. We gave them their shots and got warm milk in their tummies. I crawled back into bed at about 2am so I could get back to check on them all at 5:30am and then get on to feeding the bottle babies and milking. What fun. I'm going to need a nap today.

We have one more try for us both next year, Ella, and if it doesn't work out your going to have to go in retirement. Poor girl.


Lesson learned-

You see an unrelated water sack - go in while you still can and push that baby down there! You get two heads and your stuck; no going back in there! When you think you have triplets or quadruplets in there and you don't see feet in the right spot, investigate.
It's always better to fix things before you're in danger of seriously damaging the doe or your working on a stress time frame well your losing a baby.

Be clean and treat for infection. It's better then this sort of situation.

Thank you God! A healthy Ella with a bonus of three babies is a huge blessing!

Here's Ella's track record-

2005 - Twins (does)
2006 - Twins (does)
2007 - Triplets (2 bucks, 1 doe)
2008 - Triplets (3 does)
2009 - Triplets (2 bucks, 1 doe)
2010 - Quadruplets (3 does, 1 buck)

That's a total of 17 babies for a seven year old doe that didn't start until she was two! And a 14:3 doe: buck ratio! You rock Ella!

Current Baby Count
4 ewes - 7 lambs (6 ewe lambs and 1 ram)
4 does - 8 kids (6 does and 2 buck)

Besides the loss of that doe kid and the ware and tare on Ella, it has been an amazing year.
We are so blessed!

Thank you for reading,
Miss Pickwickian

Sorry about the blurry pictures. The lighting isn't so great in our barns, but I wanted to show some of the critters.


So you can see how big they are!
Alexandra, Bristol, and Sweet Potato Pie
(Ella/Monkey)

Alexandra, Bristol, and Sweet Potato Pie

Bristol...the doe that had to come out over the other poor girl.

Aravis twins, Sicily and Paris.
9 days old (Aravis/Johann)

Paris and Sicily

Vienna

Scarlett (Sophie/Monkey)
3 days old
This was the only pic I could get except blurry ones of her bouncing off the walls. She is quit the lively little girl. What a sweetie!

Brunswick...I couldn't get a picture of him without him eating!
3 days old (Sophie/Monkey)

Brunswick
Love his markings!

Celia
Is she pregnant or not?

Texas (Parsley/Johann)
3 days old

Parsley and her ewe lamb, Texas

Two of my favorite ewe lambs from 2009
Spotty DWB 10P Hagar (One of Parsley's twins from last year). I love how long she is.
And KRK Mercy, a white July twin.

Have you ever seen anything so cute in your life?
Miss Lonely (Gwenie/Monkey)
3 days old

Bottle babies are impossible to take pictures of!
Little Dorrit, Miss Lonely, and Florence

Atlanta (Penny/Monkey)
5 days old
This is blurry, but it shows how lovely and totally dairy Penny's baby is!

Atlanta

Vienna, Sicily, and Paris
"Run!"

Vienna, Paris, and Sicily
"Wait. What's that?"