Sunday, February 20, 2011

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. 

5 comments:

  1. Good prep work, you seem to be ready.

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  2. Cooler is a much better way than mine. I have been using a big old diaper bag I got at a thrift store. Plus another one for the baby blankets I use (instead of paper towels) but the cooler could hold everything... thanks!!!

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  3. I hope you are able to take pictures. I don't have any experience with goats and think it is very interesting.

    You sound very prepared.

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  4. The cooler is a great idea! Off to clean out our big cooler.

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  5. I pick up coolers at yard / garage sales & thrift stores every chance I get (that is if they are cheap enough) even if they have small cracks in them or a bit banged up. The mice haven't chewed through them (they chewed through the lids of the plastic 5-gal buckets), they are easy to clean and pretty heavy-duty. And they have to be if I'm going to be sitting my big behind down on it!

    gld, I'm hoping that we'll get a good photo journal of at lest one of the kiddings....there are four of them so I think the chances are pretty good.

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