Our weather for today wasn't good, and despite waking to a dry morning it wasn't long before it started to rain. It also wasn't long before Geena decided it would be a good idea to go into labour!! What is it with water births here lately?!
I had noticed at breakfast that she was looking slightly dilated and Geena is a rapid birther to say the least, two minutes last year from nose to being on the ground. So I decided I didn't have time to go and put my waterproofs on.
This was a slow delivery in Geena terms at 18 minutes from the first glimpse of a nose to being on the ground. Even Geena thought something was wrong when she came over to me as if to say something isn't quite like before. The sack was extremely thick, so much so that the feet were struggling to pop it so I helped them out and the rest as they say is history.
Geena has so far only ever produced boys for us and we've had her since 2006 so we were well overdue a girl and thankfully she delivered just that, and she's black. We, well I say we, more I, have called her Patience.
It wasn't long before she was kushed and being greeted by the rest of the herd, Oonagh (white), our herd matriarch was first.
At this point I felt it was safe to nip back in for a complete wardrobe change and put the waterproofs on.
Geena is a particularly stressy sort of girl so doesn't like coming in, not ideal when you decide to give birth in the rain and the cria needs to dry off. She also doesn't produce enough milk to feed her babies so they always need topping up with a bottle so once she had fed from mum (her colostrum will be better than what I can give) I gave her more from the freezer.
As the weather didn't really improved until tonight she had been penned with Chiquita and Pasha in the overhang of the barn to help dry Patience off, I can't wait to see what her fleece looks like, she is from Black Sabbath, owned by Beckbrow and we've not seen any of his cria yet. She has a lovely head though.
I will post some nice dry pictures tomorrow, it was getting to dark to get a decent shot by the time she dried out!
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3 comments:
Congratulations on your lovely new arrival, well worth the wait for a little girl.... Patience is a virtue so they say, looking forward to seeing some nice dry photos ..... Jayne
Congratulations - and a girl!
Congratulations Debbie... so pleased you have a girl from Geena at last. Even wet I can see she has Black Sabbath's head. Looking forward to more photos!
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