Kids 2012

The kids are here!  All of our mamas delighted us with normal births that occurred during daylight hours (grin).  You can see them soon on the Kinders for Sale page.

And yes, it's very difficult to get photos of these quick guys and gals!  They love to run, jump and play!!

A Congested Udder

Poor Splat.  The girl's udder was ginormous just for one kid, and although I milked her out a bit on day three, I waited until day six to try again. Two lessons:  one, I needed to milk her out sooner than day three to save better milk for the antioxidants to freeze.  And two, I should not have let her go that long before trying to relieve the poor dear.

In any case, trying to milk her out on day six was terrible!  Her udder was so swollen I couldn't even get a grip on her teats!  I worked on her for a while (staying low on her teat) and managed to get her milked out about a third of the way before we (she and I) were both *done*.

Twice more that day I went out to milk and thankfully by that evening she was looking (and I bet feeling) much better.

One of her teats was giving me some clumpy milk however, that would stop up her flow and I had to gently strip it all out.  Uh oh, I thought.  I tested her for mastitis and thankfully that was negative.  But I still had to deal with the clumps and the fact that her udder was not in primo condition.

This is what I did, other than milking her out multiple times and gently getting those clumps out.

I made a herbal batch with 8oz molasses, 4oz seaweed, 1/2TB of my ImmuniTea herb mix (with immune supporting herbs), 1/2 TB powdered ginger, 1/2TB marshmallow root, and a chopped up raw garlic clove.

Then I added warm water to the mix, to make a slurry consistency.  I gave Splat some of the mix as I was milking her. To it I added a strong herbal wormer, some probiotics, vitamin C and a teaspoon each of Diamond Yeast and dolomite.

Onto her udder, I massaged her first with warm water with Thieves essential oil, and then with a comfrey salve.  It's a nice consistency and gives my hands a better grip.  After milking, I massaged her again with UdderMint Balm, which has eucalyptus (amongst other things) in it.

All to say, at the end of the second day, things are looking much, much better.  The clumps are almost all gone and there is still plenty of milk.

As I say, lessons learned!  I will be more careful with my doe's udder next kidding.  Only three more does to go this spring!

First Kid of 2012

Splat gave us one beautiful black doe on the evening of the "Supermoon", May 5th.  Her name is Luna Perigeo, Italian for super moon.  She is super friendly and fun to play with!

Post Kidding: The First Couple Months

If the kidding has been successful, and the mama and kids are all doing well with nursing, after a few days I'll let them all join the herd under my watchful eye for a little bit, working over the next week or so to let them all have full access to one another.

At that point, I'll give each kid a probiotic boost with Fastrack if they didn't get some at birth.
I will also be paying close attention to my doe's udder to see if the kids are nursing on both sides evenly.  If not, I will start milking her out on one side or the other to keep them even.  I won't have to separate the kids from her during this time (other than when she's on the stanchion).  Last year my poor doe was definitely heavier on one side and I was just too inexperienced to figure it out.  Whatever milk I get during this time I will freeze and save for potential kidding problems with the other does.  And...I can always make soap with it all if all bares well.

After two weeks,  I will start separating the kids from the mama at night, so I can milk her in the morning before letting the kids back with her for the rest of the day.  That is how I like to milk, once a day, until the kids are weaned and sold.  It works out great for me in terms of time management.  I have no desire to bottle feed if I don't have to, and I haven't had problems (yet) with kids bonding to me with plenty of attention.  The one problem I did have last year was one kid chewing on the teat of my doe, so you better believe I'll be watching  like a hawk for any similar issues and will bottle feed before releasing them to mama to take the hunger edge off (if not removing a naughty kid altogether; those teats are valuable!).  Otherwise, I'm happy to keep the kids on mom.

About that time, I'll start the kids on our wormer schedule.  I've been using Molly's Herbal Wormer for years and so far am happy with the results.  I do think the key to using any herbal wormer is consistent, diligent use--we worm our animals (even our dogs) every single week with it.

Within that first week, the kids will all be disbudded, and I will begin to offer up our kids for pre-sale and take deposits.

At 3-4 weeks, we will wether the bucks unless someone intends to buy a buck (and has fully paid for him at that point).   Because our soils are horrible, I'll also give all of the kids a dose of selenium/vitamin E gel.  And of course, they will all stay on the weekly worming schedule as well.

All doelings and bucklings will be registered with KGBA and ready to go at eight weeks if their weight looks good.

Then the kids will hopefully all leave the property to go to happy and good homes after getting their tattoos done and hooves trimmed.  At that point we'll begin milking twice a day until (1) we dry them off for the winter and don't want to milk in the cold barn or (2) the does are two months from kidding again.

That is the "plan" (smile).