The geriatric maternity ward

Last night brought just one surprise kidding with Beanie giving birth to a chunky boy around 3am this morning. She is about a week early, so wasn't expected just yet!

As Francesca and I were looking at the goats this afternoon, it suddenly struck us that one side of the barn is a bit of a geriatric maternity ward!  The youngest goat over there is Margot at 6 years old.  Betty, Wilma and Flora are all 8 years old and Tammy is 9.  But they all look so good for their age!

That's Tammy standing up at the hayrack.  Betty is in the pen nearest the camera, Flora to her right and then Wilma at the back on the left.

Wilma is due to come out tomorrow and will go back in with the main herd.  I suspect that she may be glad of the rest as her babies are getting very bouncy:

Tammy is our latest mum and produced twin boys with very little effort just before teatime this evening.  Popped them out, cleaned them up, fed them and then went back to the serious business of eating hay!  I was hoping that she would give us another daughter as this will probably be the last time we put Tammy in kid.  But, no matter .. we have a few daughters from her in the herd already so we will just have to be satisfied with them!

Poor Flora is struggling a bit though.  She is still barely able to stand and it is an incredible effort to get her to her feet.  I managed to get our acupuncturing vet to drop by this evening and give her a treatment, but Monica also wonders if Flora may possibly have a problem with her foot such as laminitis or an abscess.  We are also not convinced that she has cleansed properly after her traumatic kidding and so she has had a dose of the same hormones as Footsie had last week to make sure that everything is clear. 

However, she seems happy and not in pain, though obviously uncomfortable.  She is still eating well and looking after her tiny foster daughter who snuggles up right next to her at night.  Here she is keeping a careful eye on Francesca who is giving the tiny girl a quick cuddle.

And, as promised, here's that big chap of Millie's:

So, back off to the barn for me now ... Put the lights on, check everyone is settled for the night, try and spot who may be thinking about doing something during the wee small hours ... and then sneak off to bed in the caravan in the hope of getting at least a few hours sleep!