Lucy and Lucas

Tsica had her babies January 27th. I was lucky enough to be spending the day out at the ranch doing some maintenance and cleaning. She was acting a little off, which for her is not eating, so I figured it was her time and got the birthing suite ready. She was moved to a stall within the goat pen, given fresh straw bedding and her own pale of water. Because she believes she is the queen of all gots, this suited her just fine.

WARNING: To follow are rather graphic goat birth images. So now is your chance to look away if you don't want to see.

I hung out with her when she started to groan. She began to push and look very uncomfortable as you can see in the picture to follow:

Goat and sheep births generally begin with the appearance of a 'bubble' which is part of the placenta showing itself. Sometimes the bubble remains intact and sometimes it pops and the animal's water breaks. In the following picture you can see the bubble making itself known:

Here is a picture showing the bubble on its way out:

This birthing went well. The first baby is presenting hooves and head first which is very, very good. If you look closely, you can see the baby's tongue sticking out of its mouth sideways. You can also see the white hooves.

Here the head and hooves have slipped out a little more:

Once he head is free of the birthing canal, all the rest slips out much easier and her very first baby girl ever, named Lucy, is born:

Once the pathway is cleared, any additional babies tend to fall out quickly. It happened so fast that I didn't have time to get any pictures until this one was nearly all the way out:

His name is Lucas.

Tsica's son from last year looked on at his new siblings.

Yesterday, I opened the gate to the birthing suite and soon had to close it back up. Tsica made it clear to her older son that he is no longer welcome at her side. It was sad to watch. She made some frightening howls and rammed him anytime he came close to her. I guess he's off to go be an adult now. Poor fellow.