I pray that you never have to do it…but just in case you need help with a newborn kid that has been chilled – wet and very exposed to harsh winter temperatures, unresponsive (or nearly so), I am repeating a post that may help you:
Reviving A Chilled Newborn Goat Kid
Best wishes with your kidding season!
This helpful post saved the life of my chilled little kid last spring. In fact, that was how I came to Annie’s Goat Hill Soap blog in the first place. I followed all of Mary’s instructions and my kid came back to life, miraculously. Unfortunately, he passed away a few days later from floppy kid syndrome. Now I keep these instructions hanging in my kitchen…Thanks, Mary.
Thanks, Diane. I hope nobody has to use any of the methods, but if they do, I really do pray that they have success.
Now…the next problem (with a bit of humor), how to get the warm kid back out into the cold after they have been acclimated to room temperature! I am dealing with one special “challenge” as I write this.
I look for less than 20 degree variance – between outdoor and indoor. It isn’t easy to find this time of year!
I’m glad we haven’t had to use that method here! We try to be there when the goat kids are born though but we don’t usually have kids born in the winter time anyways but if we do, we usually try to dry them off the best we can and if we need, we’ll use the hair dryer and then put goat coats on them. But right now we don’t have to worry about goat kids being born since we haven’t bred anyone and haven’t had any goat kids since ’07.
Amy
The problem is many people cannot be home all of the time. You know how the does are, they pick and choose when they will have their kids. A couple of mine are good at not showing signs of impending birth. Go to the supermarket and you KNOW they will have kids as soon as you leave.
Yes, I have been there, done that in our time of raising goats! So, one time my Mom left me with the does and she went on errands and I delivered a set of twin bucklings by myself for the first time and then from there on I delivered everyone and I became the main milker as well since my hands are smaller than my parent’s. When my sister was still at home, she helped me milk the Nigerians when we raised Nigerians before the Mini-Nubians.
Amy