She''s Here BUT...

Contessa finally kidded Friday night and she had a doeling. See... positive thinking works. If it were to be a doe out of either of my two yearlings, I'm glad it was from Contessa. She's prettier and has a awesome personality.

This doeling is a beautiful thing and looks much like her cousins. She has fewer brown marking than the others and if she has her mama's personality, she'll be worth a fortune. Her mother, Contessa, is one year of age and hasn't been handle a whole lot. She let me trim her hooves last week and just stood there, no milk stand or lead rope to confine her. She will also let me milk her doing the same thing. As I'm forcing milk down her kid's throat, she's licking her offspring. What a sweet gentle soul she is. This little one nurses a little but not much interest and is very thin. Hence, why I started forcing feed down her today.  Her mamma offers lunch and the doeling will put the teat in her mouth, take a few sucks and quit. 

Anne said to look for navel infection though I did treat it at birth with iodine. I seem to remember it being a little bit swollen today but then it could have been the buck kid born Sunday as I was playing with both of them today. If it is his, he hasn't slowed down any. 

Hmm... I'm wondering. It has rained and rained and rained and it is raining again this evening. I've cleaned this shed two times since Friday putting new bedding down each time. The floor is a rubber mat and there is only two does and two kids in it but who knows. 

 

I like the way this little doeling is trimmed. She is really eye catching.  I guess I'll not only go again tonight to force feed this doeling but  I'll give her a little penicillin and squirt the navel and feet again. I think I'll add a few vitamins to the milk also. I'd really hate to loose this little one especially since a gal asked for a doeling two months ago. This was to be it.

I want to keep Cheyenne and Florence. Contessa will stay but her sister Katarina will go. You just can't keep everybody.  Next year, it is really going to be tough to decide. Four milking does is far more than we need, especially heavy milkers.

If anyone wants a good milking doe, Katarina will be a really nice doe. She just stood there on the milk stand and let me milk her when I bottle fed her buck a couple times to get him a good start. At first she wasn't sure about him nursing and so I bottled to get a good dose down. The third and fourth times, I let the buck kid suckle as she was on the stand and off they went together. No problems since. He is stocky, fat, and healthy. No squatting, no kicking, nothing from Katarina. That was the first time I'd milked her. She had not even had her udder handled. I haven't done it since but in a couple weeks, I'll start training her. She will eat out of your hand and I've a lead rope attached to her collar to help me get a hold of her and tame her more quickly. She will be well trained before I let her go. She comes from major milking lines. 

P.S. Update, I just got back and no it is not the doeling that has the swelling and the buck well his has only a slight one and that is because he piddles from that spot. So embilical cord infection isn't it. No shot as she looked a bit better and was more spry. I did force a little more milk down her. We'll see in the morning how she is.