Our two wee guests are hanging in here. It has been an up and down roller coaster ride over the last few days. They are so small that there seems to be little literature that can give us a guideline as to how much they should be drinking each feeding – let alone each day. We think we are skating the line of a condition called “Floppy Kid Syndrome”. It is caused by too much drinking. It could be that our early interventions to help their mother cope with the four of them that we inadvertently ended up encouraging them to drink too much in a nursing session with our additional bottle feeding supplements. Floppy Kid Syndrome ends up making kids wobbly-legged. They tend to stagger like they are drunk. That pretty well describes what we were seeing … on and off. And then when they get far enough away from a ‘hearty serving’ they get steadier on their feet. We were targeting Little Grey as he was the runt and the one to get pushed away from his mother’s teats. Today Cari decided to milk one of the other goats whose kid had just been separated. Really … we should have had a video of that process! Or … not! 😉 We found that we got about 20ml from a teat … NOT the amounts we were attempting to feed them. Hmmm … so we’re going to do many more feedings over much shorter intervals. Does anyone know what the size is of a young kid’s stomach?
I helped Cari take the other two quadruplets into school today in honour of her little guy being the star student in his class this week. He was delighted to share them with his classmates. When I arrived we passed through the barn on our way to the goat stall. And – voila! – there was a brand new just born lamb. I was relieved. “Relieved?” you say? Yes, you see during the week I am the daytime duty nurse. I’ve been wondering just what I would need to do when I came across my first little one. Glad to be with the expert today. I think I’m ready. Fourteen more to go.
Meanwhile out in our paddocks the jennies and Guineas are riding out the storm indoors. Glad for company that brings food and cuddles! Hope you are warm in your neck of the woods!
The Meadow View 