08/02/2026
Marshmellow’s birthing this year was an involved one. After having no ligaments for more than 24 hours and what seemed like most of the waking day in labor Marsha finally started pushing! I like to take a back seat and just let mama's get the kids out on their own and am just there to help with drying off and making sure they get their first colostrum. So, I patiently waited for a bit but didn't see the kid coming, no bulging of the v***a, nothing. I knew the kid was in a bad position. So, I gloved up to see what was going on and sure enough it was poorly positioned, and quite large and almost no room to move the kid around in the womb. I tried for about 10 minutes to try and reposition the kid without success then promptly called my vet. Praying Marsha would be okay and that I would get a vet with the smallest hands possible, I waited. Thankfully I got my favorite vet who has the smallest hands from the clinic arrive within the hour and got straight to work. It was just awful though, Marsha was screaming and I was so uncomfortable helping support her and keep her as still as I could but didn't say a word because I knew she was having the hardest day of her life and I in comparison had nothing to complain about. It took the vet 20 minutes to reposition the kid and get it out. The vet said the kid had no signs of life. I accepted the loss and I thanked the vet for saving one of my favorite does. Thankfully she was able to resuscitate the kid and it started to breath! I had assumed since the kid was so big I had gotten a buckling out of Marsha. The vet asked if I was going to check if it was a doe or buck and I was surprised by the site of girlie bits! She congratulated me and was on her way pretty quickly after, she knew I could handle what came next. The kid was not out of the woods yet though. It was very weak and hypothermic. I had to warm it up and then tube feed it. Thankfully the kid perked right up within a couple of hours and you'd never know she was previously dead. On top of all of this I was trying to get Marsha to adopt an orphaned kid. I can write a story on this process later and how it went as this post is getting quite long already.
Anyways that’s the short version of a very involved labor, delivery and newborn goat management.
Everyone is doing great though, thank the Lord!
And look at how huge she is! This photo is less than 48 hours after birth. She had to kneel to nurse on Marsha.
