Daisy’s Easter Miracle — Part One
I make my home on a few acres an hour north of San Francisco, CA.
Elk, antelope, and even buffalo used to run in tight herds here, moved along by predators, giving the plants and soil the intense grazing and long rest that was nature’s recipe for a vibrant ecosystem for many, many millenia before humans arrived on the scene.
A few years ago I began to strive to replicate this recipe for soil health on my own tiny corner of land, as many before me have.
I also wanted to nourish myself and my community. With these goals in mind, I acquired two miniature Nubian dairy goat does — Daisy and Hazel, two Jacobs sheep ewes —Lily and Clover, and a handsome rescued wether (neutered boy goat) Nico.
In order to make milk, sheep and goats must have babies. When my girl goats were well of age this fall, I started watching their heat cycles with the goal of healthy pregnancies followed by baby goats (more grazers!) and fresh lovely milk.
With this goal in mind, Daisy met a real live buck for the first time in early November of last year. Her sister Hazel was in heat, so I drove them both 2.5 hours each way to Stitch N Thyme Farms so Hazel could have a date with an appropriately sized dairy buck.
At the time Daisy was on day 13 of her 20–22 day heat cycle, so there was not much chance she was in heat, but we introduced her to handsome Blue Quartz just to make sure.
Three days later, on the 16th day of her cycle, Daisy went into strong heat — wagging her tail, calling out incessantly, and flirting with our neutered boy goat Nico. Nico thought she smelled great and did his best to get the job done, despite his lack of equipment.
I canceled everything that day, and once again made the long round trip. Daisy spent time there with Howard — the miniature Oberhasli with cute little horse ears, and Blue Quartz the mini Nubian. Howard seemed unsure and it wasn’t clear whether he had gotten the job done, but Blue Quartz definitely hit the mark. Both were lovely gentlemen and Daisy was reluctant to leave.
Six days later, to my shock, Daisy came into strong heat AGAIN. It was day 22 of her cycle, around when she would normally have gone into heat.
Of course I googled my brains out and discovered that very often goats will go into heat three days after meeting a buck for the first time in their lives, then come into heat again at the normal time. According to 95% of google, the second heat is “stronger”, and many doubt that the first heat results in actual ovulation. All advice strongly suggested that in order to have a chance at babies she should once again meet up with a buck.
So I googled like mad again and found an appropriate buck just a half hour away at Moondance Farm in Santa Rosa. Daisy jumped happily into the truck because she knew exactly what that meant, and I drove her a half hour north for a date with handsome Apollo.
Just a few weeks later it became clear that Daisy was pregnant, and not just a little pregnant. By the 10th week of her 21 week gestation she was the size of a goat ready to deliver.
As Daisy grew larger I became concerned that she was carrying two pregnancies. This is known as superfetation. It is considered very rare, and according to Wikipedia has not been proven to have happened in a goat. But searching goat groups and forums I found many cases of people whose goats had delivered multiples at different stages of development. In almost all these cases, the less developed fetuses were too premature to survive.
Normally goats have just one or two kids with their first pregnancy. Triplets are possible with goats that have kidded before. Quadruplets and more are fairly rare. I was concerned that Daisy was carrying more babies than her little inexperienced body could handle.
Despite her size, Daisy stayed active and healthy. She developed a very fast waddle in order to keep up with the herd. She was adorable.
A small goat like Daisy would normally have a gestation length of 145 days. A baby goat is considered premature if it is born before day 141. The Wednesday before Easter was 141 days past Daisy’s second breeding, and 147 past her first. I marked that day on my calendar as “Daisy Viability”.
Sure enough, on Wednesday evening Daisy showed signs of early labor. She separated herself from the other grazers and went willingly to the small kidding pen I had built for her. I could see on the camera that she was restless so I went out to check on her, and found she was having contractions.
Goats usually labor for just a few hours — maybe 12 hours maximum — before pushing a baby out. I wanted to be with her while she was pushing so I could assist if needed. It was cold and starting to rain and I texted my beloved cousin and right-hand goat doula Niki that I thought labor was starting. Then I went to hang out with Daisy in the cold barn.
From here things became a little blurry. No baby that night. Or the next. Or the next. Niki stopped by numerous times, because contractions would get stronger and we would think delivery was imminent. I set a motion alarm on the camera and Niki and I took shifts watching it. Whenever Daisy seemed extra uncomfortable I went out to the barn to sit with her. During this time I never slept more than two hours straight. At one point Niki came out and stayed until 2:00 am so I could rest, and I fell asleep on the floor next to the dogs.
My friends Alex and Tina expressed a fair amount of worry about her lack of progress. They had worked at a goat dairy and had delivered hundreds of kids. Alex told me that they were sleeping with their phones under their pillows in case I texted with news or needed help.
On Saturday I was really really quite worried. Daisy was mainly still her sweet spunky self, but she would have strong contractions for up to a half an hour, then kind of shake it off. Between bouts of contractions she would eat voraciously. None of what was happening looked like typical goat labor progression. Mid morning I called the vet who suggested I bring her in for an internal check. The vet found that she was barely dilated and seemingly not in distress. She thought Daisy was just still in early labor and taking it slow. She said to expect babies soon, and said she was on call Easter Sunday if we needed anything. She also took a look at her size and her udder and said “looks like she’s got a bunch in there”.
Saturday evening things really picked up. Daisy started calling out when she had contractions, and there was more and more discharge. Daisy didn’t want me to leave her side. So of course I didn’t. Her contractions were harder and more painful. Niki came out and massaged her neck while I massaged her hip bones. We were both sure she would soon transition to pushing out babies.
Easter Sunday dawned. I was playing Cat Stevens for Daisy while she labored, but turned off the music to listen to the congregation across the road sing outdoors for their Easter Sunrise service. I couldn’t stop crying. I suppose I was delirious, and very scared, and oddly also filled with hope and faith.
Mid morning Daisy put her head in my lap, took a deep sigh, and looked at me with absolute desperation. She was exhausted. I called the vet.
