Flicka's Kids

Flicka had buck/doe twins this morning! 

I had slept outside the last two nights, and last night, before entering my sleeping bag, I texted Mom the following. "Doubt tonight, but Flicka's getting there. Udder hard with more milk, ligaments lower, and flanks look slightly more hollow." I don't think Flicka slept at all last night. She roamed around, ate, pawed holes in the ground, and stood on the fence. (I got her in trouble twice for standing on the fence because it makes a terrible crash when she jumps off. She didn't stand on it again after that.) This morning about 7:00, I knew she was having them today. Her udder was rock hard, and tailbone very prominent. However, she was showing no signs of real labor at that point.

I am making a video on raising kids on a CAE prevention program, so I took out the camera, showed the signs I was seeing, and said; "It's 8:10 or so now, and I'm hoping she'll kid by 2 in the afternoon or so. It could take her up to 24 hours, but I'm hoping she'll have them by 2." I put the camera away and started doing chores, when, not 5 minutes later, I saw Flicka squat to pee. Pee is not what came out-thick gunky mucus did. Her water had broken. I jumped on the stick and went in the house, pulled colostrum out of the freezer, told Mom, got the lube and cayenne tincture, and went back out to the barn. At 9:00, Flicka still hadn't even attempted to push, so I lubed up and went to check things out. I like to let nature take it's course, but haven't yet found the fine line between "she's not quite ready," and "oops, that kid's dead 'cause we waited too long." There were three factors in play with my decision to go in and check. One, these are Flicka's last kids with us and I wanted them alive. Two, Flicka's my favorite doe and I wanted those kids alive. Three, it's our first AI, and I wanted those kids alive. 

So, I found some legs and a head, and long story short, pulled that kid out. It took about ten minutes of hard pulling to get him out, and he wasn't a big kid at 9 pounds. Last year Flicka had an 11 pounder that came out fairly easy-certainly it was 5 times easier than this one was! Anyway, Flicka had not pushed until I started pulling on that kid's legs. And even then she wasn't a lot of help. I think she may not have been quite ready or fully dilated, but as I said before, I didn't want to take chances with these kids. 

The doe was born fairly easy-her toes were up by her ears, so I pulled them out of the way, but otherwise Flicka did it fine. 

Here they are! Doe on the left, buck on the right. I have ideas for names, but haven't confirmed them yet.