Saving A Newly Born Kid Goat

    This is something that happened in March of 1988.

    Owning any kind of animal is a huge responsibility, because you become god over their lives.  In the 1980’s I owned a growing herd of Angora goats.  Angora goats are shorn, like sheep, and that is where mohair comes from.  I wanted to have some kind of livestock that you didn’t have to kill to benefit from.  

    One Sunday after spending most of the day inside, doing the books of my costs and expenses for my goats in preparation for my income taxes, I decided to step outside for some fresh air.  Once out of the door, I heard the high-pitched wail of a kid goat.  When I went into the barnyard to investigate, I discovered a newly-born kid goat that had dropped from its mother, and had landed right into some wet mud.  It was very weak, and cold.

    I knew that I had to get the kid warm and make sure that it got some of her mother’s milk.         The first milk that comes from the mother contains a substance called Colostrum.  Colostrum is the first thing that the goat's udders produce days after kidding. It is a richer and fattier form of milk and it helps kids through their vital first few days, when they need to gain weight and immunity, so it is very important that a newborn kid gets it.

         I took both the mother and the kid into the barn and got the newborn to suckle a little bit, but her mother began getting irritated , so I left the two of them alone for a while.  Of course when they were left alone, I couldn’t be sure if the kid was able to get milk from her mother or not, so later, I manually milked the mother, and then, using a syringe, I fed the kid by dropping the milk into her mouth, just to make sure that it had gotten milk.

    The baby goat did strengthen, and it and her mother established a normal mother, daughter relationship.

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