Any livestock breeder strive to ensure that the number of his pets can increase naturally. Therefore, Goat lambing is only joy and an increase in condition. But one should not overlook the fact that this process is quite lengthy and can be associated with many undesirable and unexpected moments that may even cause a miscarriage in a goat.
That is why a person should show a lot of attention to the animal during the period of sukoznosti and provide him with everything necessary. Very often, even lambing does not do without human intervention. How exactly does a lambing in goats and what are its features will be discussed below.
- Peculiarities of keeping an animal in front of an okot and preliminary preparation for childbirth
- How to run a goat before the lamb?
- Where is the best place to arrange a goat lambing?
- Signs indicating an approaching goat
- Description of the process of lambing goats: what to do and how to help the animal?
- Actions during the complication of the process of childbirth: saving goat offspring and goat itself
- What care is necessary to provide a goat and kids after lambing?
Peculiarities of keeping an animal in front of an okot and preliminary preparation for childbirth
In general, the entire process of pregnancy in a goat goes almost unnoticed, although in time it takes a period of 5 months. Only by the middle of this period you can notice that your animal has changed a little: the belly has increased, its sides have taken asymmetrical forms, the behavior of the goat usually becomes calmer, it consumes more food and lies a lot. All this time, a goat can be kept along with the rest of the animals, without fear for its condition.
Of course, that excessive activity will be extremely undesirable to her, but the animal itself feels and will behave more carefully.
Goats are very rarely kept for meat. Their main value is milk. But for the period of gestation of a goat, the uterus should be started, that is, to stop milking. After all, it is very important only to start the formation of a goat to get the maximum amount of nutrients that during milking can leave the goat’s body along with its milk.
Usually, the animal itself ceases to give milk, but if this does not happen, then it is necessary to start the goat independently about 4-6 weeks before the lambing. In parallel with this, it will be necessary to change the feeding characteristics of the goat: give as little as possible succulent fodder and concentrates.
1-2 days before the start of lambing itself, concentrated feeds are generally removed from the diet of the goat. They are replaced by wheat bran or seeded oatmeal. Juicy food to give the animal also can not. They are replaced by small green hay, mowed during the flowering period of grass.
How to run a goat before the lamb?
It is important to note that the launch time of a goat is highly dependent on its physique and fatness. After all, the thinner the animal, the longer the period without milking should be (about 2 months). It is necessary to start a goat gradually, gradually reducing the number of milkings from three to one. With that, every time you need to finish it a little. With the transition to a one-time milking, it should be carried out first every other day, then after two, and then the goat itself will cease to give milk.
Milking is usually stopped when all the milk from the goat is no more than 1 cup per day. However, you still need to inspect the udder. If in a few days it increases and hardens, it will mean that some milk remains in it and boil. In order to avoid various kinds of inflammatory processes, the animal will need to be killed once again.
Where is the best place to arrange a goat lambing?
Before approaching the period of lambing in a goat, the animal is very important to put in a separate room. If it is summer, then the goat is still kept in the pasture, but as close as possible to the house and, preferably, separately from other individuals. It is important that in the vicinity there are no water bodies and marshland, as well as sand. Goat will need to lay out something like a nest: impose a lot of dry straw or hay.
But, the best thing is for the lambing to take place indoors, because even in summer the weather can be very unstable. In particular, the goat should be given a separate pen, where the animal will be safe and comfortable. It is important that it is dry, windless and warm. On the floor you need to sketch as much hay as possible. The floor and feeders in the pen must be washed and sanitized. For this You can prepare a special solution consisting of:
- Two percent hot caustic soda solution.
- A five percent solution of soda ash.
- 1% formaldehyde solution.
For the period of lambing it is very important to ensure stable and warm temperature conditions in the room with the uterus.Optimally, the temperature was close to 15ºС. Lower temperatures are not very desirable for a newborn goat, but very high temperatures can adversely affect the condition of the goat, which already has body temperature during lambing.
Immediately before starting the lambing, a bucket of warm water should be brought into the room with the goat and the necessary goat should be prepared in advance. In principle, lambing at a goat can go very quickly and human intervention is not needed at all. Therefore, already with the appearance of signs of approaching childbirth (we will tell about them below), you need to feel the goat's belly.
This will determine the position of the fetus. The correct position is considered to be in the position of a diver when the tolerable legs of a goat lie in the aisle, with his head on them. It is very bad when the fetus is in the unfolded position or the pelvic part is down.In such cases, it is better to immediately contact the veterinarian so that he will be present during the lambing process and help to transfer the fetus to the correct position.
Many livestock breeders who have been breeding goats for many years recommend that you prepare very well for this event by transferring the following, in their opinion, necessary things to the room with the uterus.:
- Large paper towels.
- Old bath towels, pre-washed and well-rinsed from the remnants of the powder.
- Hairdryer, which will need to dry the kids after the uterus heals out.
- The solution of iodine in the bottle (in order to moisten the umbilical cord).
- Scissors to cut the umbilical cord if necessary.
- Lamp for heating (so that the newborn does not suffer from low temperatures).
- Bottle of molasses or fortified sugar.
If you expect litter in the amount of several kids, you can prepare a special cardboard box. Dirty rags or old bath towels need to be laid on its bottom. In the box, kids can better relax and dry out.
Signs indicating an approaching goat
In general, the period of goat lambing can be set in advance, since the carrying of the fetus in these animals usually lasts exactly 147-150 days. But this is possible only when the mating was carried out directly under your control and you know its date. But when the goats are kept in a large herd and it is difficult to follow this natural process, it will be necessary to determine the approaching lamb, as well as the pregnancy itself, by some signs.
To date, animal pregnancy can be determined in the same ways as women. To do this, even in the earliest possible time, you can do a blood test or milk. On very large farms it is even possible to use ultrasound diagnostics. Among the signs of pregnancy itself, which can be seen even with the naked and inexperienced eye, the following should be mentioned:
- After a period of hunting, the goat recovers stable and high milk yield.
- In a goat near the vagina, the skin usually has many folds, but during pregnancy it becomes completely smooth and smooth.
- The pelvic bones are markedly widened by relaxing its ligamentous apparatus.
In the second half of pregnancy, it is possible to probe well the enlarged uterus and the fetus itself. But this should be done carefully, so as not to harm the animal and not cause a miscarriage. But before starting the lambing, not only the behavior of the uterus, but also a number of physiological signs are subject to change. First, before the lambing, the udder significantly increases in size, it becomes hard and hot.
This is the most noticeable sign, since during the launch period the udder was almost imperceptible. Before lambing it is collected by milk, with which the goat will feed its newborn fetus. Secondly, the external genitals of the animal swell considerably, the vagina opens a little and turns red. Some animals stop eating hay altogether; some, on the contrary, begin to grab it in shreds and chew nervously.
Besides the fact that the goat will go to bed very often, before this she will carefully inspect her cage, listen to everything happening around, choosing a place that is comfortable and safe for lambing.
The fact that the goat constantly lies down and rises and is the first stage of childbirth. At this time, in some queens, mucus can begin to move away, and only after it will the fetus be released. Some straighten and give birth almost dry.
Description of the process of lambing goats: what to do and how to help the animal?
If the whole process of carrying the fetus in the uterus was correct, and you do not have the slightest concern about her and the fetus, then you can also not worry about lambing. After all, it is best if a goat is born without human intervention, which, due to inexperience, can become a real sabotage. By nature, a lamb at a goat usually lasts no more than 30 minutes, and often much less. With the correct position of the fetus, the goat even practically does not feel any pain.
The task of a person with such a natural lambing is to take the kids and wipe them from mucus with the help of bath towels. The umbilical cord that connects the fetus to the uterus usually breaks off itself, if you help the goat stand up. Only in rare cases, it has to be cut with scissors. Only the newborn goat itself itself immediately begins to lick.
This is not only important for them to dry out and not get infection through a torn umbilical cord. With the help of the tongue, the goat stimulates the processes of blood circulation and vital activity in its offspring. If she does not do this, then it will be necessary not only to wipe the kids, but also to soak the umbilical cord with the help of a previously prepared iodine solution.
The goat immediately after lambing should be drunk with a drink consisting of several zhmeny milled oats, poured with boiled water. But the most important thing is to ensure that the goat is cleansed, that is, the afterbirth has come out of it. Under natural conditions, this should occur without human intervention for 6 hours after lambing. If this does not happen, then you will need to seek help from a veterinarian who will remove the afterbirth manually.
If you have noticed in advance that the goat has difficulties in carrying the fetus and the lambing process itself, resort to the help of a specialist. If this is not possible, you will have to help the goat yourself.
Actions during the complication of the process of childbirth: saving goat offspring and goat itself
The most common situation, when the need for human help arises, is when the legs and head of the calf are already showing from the vagina, but it seems to be stuck in the aisle. In such a situation, first of all you need to use a paper towel or bandage to clean the kid's nostrils so that it can breathe. If after some time the process does not advance, then you can begin to quietly pull the fruit out of the goat, without making any sudden movements.
But if you notice that the goat has a very long time to make an effort, and at the same time the fetus has not appeared outside, you need to determine the reason for the delay. To do this, you need to wash your hands very well with household soap, calm down and insert one hand into the goat's vagina. If you feel that the legs are the first to go, and their heads are on them, then just as in the previous case, you will need to slowly begin to pull the fruit by the legs.
The same actions will be necessary if the fetus is lowered to the pelvis with its hind legs. If the legs are not straight, but bent (which often prevents the birth), then the fetus on the back side needs to be slightly pushed back and the leg straightened.
What care is necessary to provide a goat and kids after lambing?
Immediately after lambing, it is important to drink a goat, but the animal should not drink more than two liters of water at a time.At the same time, it is necessary to give an opportunity to drink every two hours so that the animal can fully restore its water balance.
But, besides water, it is important to give goat and drink. We have already described oatmeal swill, which is very nutritious for this animal. However, a goat can be given and swipes with the following composition: we dilute a handful of flour and a tablespoon of sugar in hot water. Also, it is important to give steamed flax seeds to the goat. It is believed that their use has a positive effect on the separation of the placenta.
On the second day it is also important to give the goat plenty of fluid, preferably not only clean but also warm. For three days after lambing, goats are not given fodder, grain crops, and bran. Such food may be too heavy for a weakened animal and cause additional weakness. Transfer the goat to a normal diet should also be gradually, starting with half the dose.
After the kids lick the mother and they are completely dry (naturally or with a hair dryer), they need to be fed. In order not to strain the goat and the goatlings themselves, they hand it over independently and water the babies from the bottle. Pacifier for this you can use the most common nursery, purchased in a pharmacy. When you first feed a goat, 150 milliliters of colostrum will suffice.
Then they are left in the box and covered with something warm. If the lambing occurred in the winter, the box should be placed near the heat lamp. Sending goats to the goat immediately after lambing is not worth it. Let the animal gain strength and move away from such an important and exhausting process.
In the future, kids can be kept both near the mother, and separately. Of course, that with the joint content you will have less fooling with feeding babies, because they will piss the milk themselves. But, in any case, the goat must be regularly sown, so that the milk in the udder does not stagnate. Keep babies near the mother no more than two weeks. During this period, they must learn to eat independently.
