When I got there my children were running around excitedly telling me that the goat was going to have the babies soon. I went out to the goat pen and found a goat laying on the ground with her water broken, in heavy labor. I decided not to do anything except the normal things I do every night which consist of reminding kids that they have to clean up their rooms, do the kitchen jobs and get ready for bed. My children informed me that if they missed the birth mom was going to be very upset with me. I told them they'd better hurry and finish their stuff so they wouldn't miss it. After much arguing, well the normal amount really, but after much arguing we were all in the goat pen except the baby and the oldest sister, with a flashlight looking at a goat that was clearly having a bad day.
She was just laying there trying to push this kid out and not really getting anywhere. I was told that when an animal in labor needs help it will stop running away from you. About a half an hour earlier, the goat was still standing up and moving away when I got too close, but I tried again and she didn't move. What do I do now? I'm a engineer not a veterinarian! My wife had left me with a few printouts with illustrations of how goats are supposed to be born that I had consulted while I was arguing with my own kids. The jist of it was the the hooves are supposed to come out first.
So there I was sitting on the ground in the dark with my son holding a flashlight looking at the aft end of a very, very, pregnant goat. I decided the only thing to do was mimic what I'd seen the doctors do during my the birth of my six children. I spoke softly to the goat and told her not to worry, that it is supposed to hurt like that and the pain is good because it will help her push, and that she doesn't need the anesthesiologist to come give her more medicine. I also told the residents to come in and check her.
They said she was a 10, crowning and complete. Then I stuck my hands in there to figure out what the problem was. I knew hooves are supposed to come first, and if they aren't coming then you push it back in and try to grab the hooves, but I wasn't sure what a goat head felt like. I figured it was the head so I waited till the contraction lessened and tried to push it back in so I could feel around and grab the hooves. The goat was not having any of that. She just kept pushing, so I tried to loosen things up, like they do with my children being born, and continued to verbally encourage the goat. That seemed to help a little, but she looked like was starting to get worried, so I tried to grab whatever part of the goat it was coming out and pulled a little bit on it, and out it popped, followed by 2 more. (WARNING GRAPHIC PICTURE!)
