Kidding Kit

With kidding season just a few weeks away (and Nettie making me wonder if it will be earlier than anticipated) I’ve started getting things ready.  I cleaned out the kidding stall, let it air out for a day then put in fresh pine shavings.  Washed out the kidding pen water & feed buckets.  Dug out my Kidding Kit from the depths of the barn and went through it.  Of course, after a year of sitting idly in the corner of the barn, the cooler I keep all the kidding supplies in was just covered in dust, feathers and other icky unidentified barnstuffs. 

Here’s what I keep in my Kidding Kit: Wee-wee pads, bulb syringe, weak kid syringe, dental floss (for tying off umbilical cords), Iodine, cotton balls, scissors, latex gloves, lubricant, thermometer, ProBios.  Not shown is the Iodine, paper towels (lots & lots of them), empty paper feed sacks and garbage bags.

Not sure what happened to the Iodine, so I’ll have to steal some from our medicine cabinet.  I use the paper feed sacks to spread on the kidding pen floor to catch the majority of the goo from birthing.  After the kid is out, I’ll wipe it down with paper towels, then place it on the wee-wee pads for the doe to finish cleaning it off.

Then all of the stuff goes into zippy bags, into another lidded plastic container, then into an old cooler. 

The cooler also acts as a handy-dandy seat while waiting in the stall.

This will be our fifth year being midwives to the goats and I’m still a little bit nervous.  It’s Nettie’s fifth pregnancy, Ishtar’s second, Annette’s second and Cloud’s first.  If Paul is around for any of the kiddings, I’m hoping to take pictures so I can post them on here.