Merlot was due any day now. So Susan came up the other morning & said she thought Merlot was looking different & that I should check her out. Anyway I came down & saw that her cervical plug had bust. So I ran up to check the Breeding Goats book. It said that she would experience between 12-36 hours of labor pains. I decided to leave to go see a farm with a mate of mine named Jack. I then called him, as I was concerned about the birth (had the birthing kit on ready), & said lets go Thursday instead. After more consideration & a chat with Susan, I called him back to say I would go.
So I checked on Merlot & then headed off with Jack.
I arrived back about 3 hours later & went to do the chores in the chook house (water, food, collect the eggs, etc.) & then went to check on Merlot. She was in the 2nd barn still. There was loads of blood & other stuff on the ground in the barn & I thought this may have been part of the pre-birth. So I casually went to Merlot to say "Its okay girl hang in there..." when crikey... there was lil' Crikey behind the partition!!!!
Quite a surprise for sure. So I raced for the camera, after checking that all seemed fine & took some photos. I then cleaned up the mess on the floor & collected the placenta from up on the barn roost where Crikey & Merlot were both looking at each other stunned. Merlot had cleaned her up (critical in the bonding between doe & kid).
What a brilliant surprise.
