I recently received a private e-mail asking to list what is needed at kidding time. After going through our goat supplies, I started making a list of what I like to have ready. Now I'm sure that I'm missing a few things, or perhaps someone else could recommend something better than what I have, so I decided to post my reply to this forum and ask for further advice. Also included are a few things for the doe. So, I'll start the check list and please feel free to add to it.

I keep most kidding supplies handy in a clean 5 gallon bucket:

phone # of vet or experienced goat person

iodine

small container to dip navels (35mm film case or baby food jar)

ob lube

syringe and tube for tube feeding

nipples and bottles

have colostrum ready

bulb syringe for cleaning out noses

scissors

dental floss for tying off cord if necessary

bath towels

cut-open feed bags (try to catch the kid)(helps at clean-up time)

leg snare

hair dryer

wool baby coats

BoSe (needed only if kid has weak legs)

Bucket of warm water with molasses for mom

Probios for mom

wormer for mom

nutridrench for mom

Please add to this list.

-- Charleen in WNY (harperhill@eznet.net), January 14, 2002

Answers

I alway keep a bar of good antibacterial soap in my kit in case I need to scrub up and rearrange. Also my girls expect a piece of pepperment candy after delivery :>)

-- diane (gardiacaprines@yahoo.com), January 14, 2002.

Oh, and as a former OB nurse I highly recommend that you gals of child bearing age use long rubber gloves........clamydia is really around in the goat population and is transmittable to humans and is a big cause of spontaneous abortion in humans.

-- diane (gardiacaprines@yahoo.com), January 14, 2002.

It looks like you covered everything there! I always give my does a bowl of oats soaked in hot water afterwards. I think it is soothing to them....they never told me so!

I didn't know that about chlamydia, Diane. Thanks for mentioning it.

-- Doreen (animalwaitress@yahoo.com), January 16, 2002.

I have never used gloves- probably already have it? Is this something you can develop immunities to? I guess I've always felt it is hard enough trying to sort out the parts, sometimes through membranes, without a thick rubber membrane covering my fingertips.

-- Rebekah (daniel1@itss.net), January 17, 2002.

My list is similar also. I do keep gloves in my kit, but only use them on other folks goats. I also keep a small bottle of dawn dishwashing liquid, I use it to lube up before entering the doe. I like a shoe string rather than a leg snare, since the only time I have used it was to halter the head to pull it down from the tail bone, rammed up there with head up. I have switched from bath towles to the large bag of white terry shop towles wallmart sells, just larger than a wash cloth. I also keep cut open feed sacks to sit on and to deliver kids into, squeegying off all the slime, then just rolling up and throwing in the trash burn can. I also have my test tube, wet ones, teat dip and 4 cup measuring cup to intially milk out some from the doe, and to test the colostrum. I also collar the kids immediatly with the velcro cattle leg bands from jeffers, cut in half lengthwise to make two collars, and write the dams name on it. I also keep babyfood jar lids, and duct tape, to fix any ears that are not perfect. A surgical kit to cut of wattles when we had LaManchas and to castrate less than perfect bucklings, which keeps me honest, ob wire, dopram in the fridge, and a clear idea before she kids, if I would call the vet, field c section her to save her kids and sacrific her, or sacrific her to save the kids in an impossible kidding. My goal this year is to find a csection case, for myself or someone else, and successfully c-section the doe with her and her kids living. I have watched a vet do 3 up at the dairy, have never had a c-section here, and the only one I have performed the mom was bleeding out anyway, so we just sacrificed her. Anybody ever try? Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh TX (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), January 18, 2002.