Em Nau Farm BLOG

We have had more new inhabitants at Em Nau. On Sunday 16 June 2013 “Zee” (one of our Anglo Nubian does) had three little kids – one doe and two bucks.  The doe was the first one born at about 5PM and was a breech.  Unfortunately in the struggle Zee had to get her out we believe the does back/spine was damaged which resulted in her being unable to stand.

The second kid born was a big, and I do mean big, buck.  He was born about ten minutes after the doe and was very strong at the start.  Zee did all the normal goat things by cleaning up both the buck and the doe but we were worried about her due to the amount of blood she had lost during the two birthing and the fact she wasn’t standing to give the kids a chance to feed.  When we went up an hour later to check on the kids we found the little doe had been crushed under Zee’s weight and had suffocated.  As the buck didn’t seem to have fed we decided to milk Zee of some colostrum and use a syringe to force feed the buck.  This work to a small extent so we took the buck inside with us so he would be warm for the night.. Inside Heather made up a mixture of goats milk and colostrum (heated in warm water) and fed this to the buck.  He drank this with relish and all night it was up for two hourly feeds cleaning out the poo and wet (wee) towels. 

For those who are questioning me saying at the beginning we had two buck born fear not – when I left to go to work at 4:15AM on Monday (17 June) I went to check on Zee (to see if she was OK and able to stand) I discovered another buck.  This boy appears to have been born about half an hour previously.  Zee was standing beside him and looking very pleased with herself.  Heather took this buck inside as well to ensure he gets some warmth (it was very cold outside) and to give him the “special mix” she had made.

Around lunchtime on the 17^th the first buck passed.  We don’t know why as it was feeding well and appeared strong.

The second buck we have decided to call Raka (pronounced Rah-car) after one of the many house staff who worked with the Army in the Southern Highlands of PNG during the late eighties and early nineties.

On 18 June about 3:30PMish Heather was making some cheese and heard one of the does “scream”.  Heather thought it may have been Cyd (one of the Nubians) as she is also moments away from kidding.  When Heather went to investigate and saw both Cyd and Zee looking back at her with a “not us – it’s the neighbours” look.  Heather then saw Kiarna (Anglo Nubian doe) poke her head around the corner in the main enclosure and give out another scream.  H quickly moved Kiarna into the kidding pen so Kiarna could go about her business.  H thought I still have a little while before Kiarna kids so went back to finishing off making the cheese.  When she went back a short time later Kiarna had produced a doe and was in the throws of kidding a second doe.

We are going to call these two Muruk [pronounced Ma-rook (as in book)] the pidgin English word for cassowary and Mendi after the Southern Highlands capital where we lived when we were in PNG

As of the morning of 19 June the buck and two does were surviving so we hope that this a good sign of things to come