# Do goats ever stop and start labor?



## farm mom (Feb 25, 2008)

We have a goat due anytime now. Second freshner. Very sneaky, not many signs and will pop them out when you turn your back. Tonight she was off feed, heavy breathing, rubbing on the fences, arching her back and stretching out. Then an hour later she decides she will come out to get on the milk stand and scarf down her grain, gobbled up her alfalfa pellets and stopped her rapid breathing. Her ligaments are mushy but I can still sort of feel them. She is a big built girl so it is hard to feel them. Can they stall out and come back in later? She is driving me nuts trying to figure her out (she is a new doe for us)!


----------



## Sondra (Oct 25, 2007)

yes have even seen ligaments go and come back and tis a real nightmare when you don't know the due date


----------



## Guest (Feb 28, 2008)

I've also read that some does have been known to eat, push, eat, have a contraction, eat some more. So just because she scarfed down her grain does not mean she stopped labor. But I guess you probably knew that. Keep watching. 

-Kim


----------



## Oregonian Chick (Oct 26, 2007)

What Kim said is correct. My one doe Brandy was eating during contractions AND kids :sigh. Crazy girl...although I do think they can stop and start labor somewhat. Brandy did that this year. Although she had reason to. She ended up going over her due date and I had to go in and rearrange kids because they where all weird in there and not even in the birth canal or anything. I had sworn before she had gone into labor before but she didn't do anything but now looking back I am sure she went into labor and even started pushing but when no babies started coming I think her contractions slowly stopped.

LOL I am NOT saying that this will happen to your doe! But I am saying that I do think yes that they can stop labor and start again.

Justine


----------



## NubianSoaps.com (Oct 26, 2007)

A doe who spend alot of time rubbing on fences, getting up and down and sometimes the getting down they nearly bounce down on their sides, and stretching is trying to maneuver kids around. It's a huge warning sign to you that a kid may not be in a good presentation or dead. Vicki


----------



## farm mom (Feb 25, 2008)

Well, to be honest I have been worried about this doe. Supposively she bred 9/19 which made her due 2/15. We purchased her in December. She freshened last year with twin bucks with no assistance. Have seen no signs of labor or even being ready. No bag, no goo, no signs of labor until today. I called the breeder last week (also my daughters 4H leader) and told her no babies yet. She said she thought she did get bred 9/19 but was in with the buck until end of November so could have been bred on the next cycle. I'm unsure what to do at this point. This doe does rub on the fences a lot but besides that is acting exactly the same as the rest of my other does.


----------



## Kalne (Oct 25, 2007)

We just went through this. Could have sworn this girl was in labor a week ago. Every day we'd say this is it. THen we started getting worried that something was wrong. Went to the vet and got some lute. Gave it to her last night around midnight. She just gave birth to quads an hour ago (so 24 hours after the lute). We totally missed it. Everyone is doing fine. What a relief.


----------



## Guest (Feb 28, 2008)

Couple of times I had this happen to me, it was as Vicki said a warning, both times I ended up with train wrecks.. I don't wait now, if they are in labor and stop.. I go in and check, give calicum also 
Barbara


----------



## farm mom (Feb 25, 2008)

If labor seemed to stop can I go in and check? Will the cervix be open enough to even tell anything? I'm worried that if she isn't due I will do more harm than good by either going in or inducing labor.


----------



## Guest (Feb 28, 2008)

If the doe is due, then this start and stop thing would/should be a red flag for sure........with that said, my older doe's seem to take a little longer when it comes to getting their bodies prepaired for delivery. Maybe this is because bones and other things just aren't as flexable as they used to be, and it takes a little more time to stretch them out.
Learning the signs between what is pre labor, light labor, and true labor can be sometimes a little confusing, and will vary a bit from doe to doe.
Stretching, biting at their sides, rubbing fences more than usual, starting to stare off into space.....and lots of other little quirks like this, can all happen in the last few days of pregnancy......and I call most of this pre labor. This can come and go it seems.
Staying in the barn, nesting, ears begining to lay out to the sides, tail starting to lay abnormally (crooked a bit most times), some stretching, can't stand still sometimes, mucus strings, getting extra freindly with me, and an overall sad look on their face, is what I call light labor.....and it is time to get ready for the next stage. My experiance has been that light labor should not last for days, but only a few hours at the longest. Much over 8 hours, and I start to get concered a bit here.
Once a doe is down and pushing, ligs loose, breathing has rapidly increased...true labor, then there should be no turning back at this point.......I want to see a bubble or something with in a couple hours at this point, If I don't, I start getting prepared to see what is blocking the birth canal......
Everybody's sees things differently I know.....and almost none of my doe's have identical birthing signs. My FF often spit them things out with very little warning at all :crazy

Spend as much time with your goats a possible...get to know their personalities, their walk, and their talk.....you will know when something drastic is changing in them most of the time.

Whim


----------



## NubianSoaps.com (Oct 26, 2007)

If labor seemed to stop can I go in and check? Will the cervix be open enough to even tell anything? I'm worried that if she isn't due I will do more harm than good by either going in or inducing labor.
.......................

Gals  remember braxton hicks contrations? Goats have the same thing....nest, moan and groan, grunt a little and go shopping! Also did having a doctor do a pelvic cause you to go into labor? We wish it was that simple! vicki


----------



## farm mom (Feb 25, 2008)

Thanks Vicki and everyone else. Dove is resting quite comfortably all day today. Ligaments are soft but not all the way gone yet and still no bag so I think we have a little more time.


----------



## Corky (Oct 26, 2007)

My doe that just kidded did not have good labor at all.

I have never had a bad delivery before and even though I have read a lot I never read what it meant when lots of red goo came out hour after and nothing else.
Doe did not do much but squat, pee and pass bunches of the goo but only about once and hour.
She never pawed or stretched or anything.
She did finally lay down for a while and chew her cud and then get up and squat and pass more goo.
She never stopped chewing her cud or fussed at all.
She watched TV.
I now know that is a sign of trouble. Since she never seemed uncomfortable at all I just let her go for hours. I kept expecting her to start pushing.
I know better than to do that now.
Everything I read about birth showed the bubbles and all my goats have done just that. There were no bubbles this time.

Just read your last post. No tight bag is one of the things I watch.
If the bag is still soft and floppy even if it is big I don't worry.
Mine have always filled out that udder just before labor and it gets tighter and tighter durring labor.


----------



## Tracy in Idaho (Oct 26, 2007)

Vicki McGaugh Tx Nubians said:


> ....................... Also did having a doctor do a pelvic cause you to go into labor? We wish it was that simple! vicki


You know, when I had my first baby, NO ONE told me exactly what a pelvic exam consisted of. :nooo :blush

Silly me. Here I expected a nice speculum, and when that nurse shoved her hand......well. Let's just say I threatened her life if she touched me again, and then promptly locked myself in the bathroom for 2 hours. :lol She's darn lucky she didn't get kicked in the face.

I was such a good patient, lol.

Tracy


----------



## Rose (Oct 26, 2007)

Well, actually, when he 'stripped my membranes' on that pelvic exam and didn't TELL ME what he was doing, yes, I went into labor about 10 hours later. And that was, of course, in the middle of the night, in a thunderstorm that flooded the building where the doc's answering service was. :mad


----------

