Learning Resources

Kidding Essentials

Your kidding essentials will need to be specially tailored to your own needs... however, as a helpful guide to getting started, I will share what I keep on hand for kidding.

Clean shop towels or paper towels Help the dam clean off the kids and get them

warm and dry quickly (without adding to my

laundry pile!)

Gloves Keep things clean when you need to help with

delivery

Thermometer This should be a staple year round

B-Complex Good for stimulating appetite

Premier One Heat Lamps Our winters can get really cold- this is a

controversial topic, but I use these heat lamps

and couldn't get through kidding in the winter

without them

Kelly's Kid Puller I am not affiliated with this company at all, but

these are my favorite kind to use. They are an

absolute must for delivering mal-positioned kids

Colostrum I keep this on hand in case of the loss of the doe,

or in case there isn't enough for all the kids, or

any other unexpected event

Barn Camera This is so helpful for round the clock checks.

Liniment Great for congested udders, or kids with frost-

bite

Syringes Within the first 15 minutes of birth, I use a

syringe (no needle) to get some colostrum into

the kid. Often, this gives a good energy boost

and stimulates their drive to get up and nurse!

Bottle & kid nipple Fun fact, Pritchard nipples fit on Sparkling Ice

bottles (as well as several others!) I have a big

bag of a knockoff brand of that style nipple, as

well as several cleaned out bottles from

Sparkling Ice. These are great to have on hand

in case I need to keep a kid warm inside, or for

when a dam has a whole litter (haha) and I

choose to pull the excess & just leave her two.

Ice cube tray I like to freeze fresh colostrum each season as a

just in case for next year. I prefer the silicon ice

cube trays with the long skinny cubes meant for

narrow bottles. I find they thaw quickly, and the

silicon tray makes for easy removal.

Karo/Maple Syrup & Cayenne Pepper great options for stimulating a kid- I have used

this often when bringing back a cold kid

Banana ok, this one is definitely more optional- but I

find dams love a treat after all their hard work,

and this one gives a great boost to dams. ALso

warm water with syrup is a good boost.

Frost Bite/Hypothermia

This year (2026) we are experiencing extremely low temperatures, and as luck would have it, one of my ff does kidding ahead of when I expected. She must have conceived the cycle prior, and had a false heat the cycle after when I marked her as covered. At any rate, she kidded, and the kids laid there for 2 hours before I found them. I looked online to find resources to help save these two kids, who had frozen legs and ears, and were barely clinging to life. Unfortunately, there is little information on line as far as the progression of frost bite, so I decided to document my experience so that others could learn.

Day One (Friday night). Around 8pm I discovered 2 doelings in the group pen. After reviewing my camera I determined the first kid, Lily (black doeling) was delivered first around 6pm, and her sister Kita (solid brown) was born shortly after. I have handled hypothermia in goat kids several times, so I immediately gathered up both kids and brought them inside. I placed them in large bowls inside a trash bag, and ran hot water (hot to touch but not so hot it hurt my hands) in the bowls to essentially submerge their bodies in the water within the bag to keep them dry. It took approximately 1.5 hours to pull them up to 100*, at which point I took them out of the water bath and laid them in warm towels in front of a space heater. From past experience, I don't like to leave them in too long and risk making them too hot, so this is my preferred method to pull them up that last degree. Kids were fed once pulled up to temperature (normal temp for goats is 101.5-103.5) and kept inside overnight. Kita demonstrated the ability to stand, but Lily appeared weak, and could only stand up with assistance.

Day Two (Saturday). Kids continued to demonstrate improvement. They were eating well, taking a bottle every few hours. I moved them into a less climate controlled room to start to acclimate in preparation for moving back outside. This room was probably around 50 degrees, so slowly allowing them to adjust to the cold that I wanted to move them back out to. By the time they reached 24 hours old, Lily was also able to stand and walk around. I brought them outside to their dam, in a smaller stall with a heat lamp and deep bedding. Boo, their dam, wasn't sure she wanted all that responsibility. I pinned her against the wall and held a leg to allow the kids to nurse. The kids then snuggled under the lamp. Later that evening I assisted the feeding again. I also made an overnight visit to assist feeding, although by this time Boo was standing better as long as I was supervising her. Kids spent most of the time beneath the lamp as observed on additional checks overnight.

Day Three (Sunday). During morning feeding, I observed that Lily's one ear was swollen. I noted that it was cold to the touch. I examined her other ear (also cold, but not swollen) and Kita's ears (also both cold, but no swelling). After reaching out online, I followed a recommendation to apply liniment to the extremities. I applied liniment to each of their ears, as well as all four legs from the knee/hock down. I also decided to bring the kids back inside to the cooler room that was still worlds warmer than outside. I ran hot water over Lily's ears, both the swollen ear and ear that was still visibly normal. I placed the girls back into the dog kennel.

Day Four (Monday). Swelling has mostly gone down in the effected ear. Both kids are vigorous and eating well.

Day Five (Tuesday). Swelling is gone. I am starting to notice that the lower portion of Lily's ear is hard- almost leathery. I am wondering if this will die off or if it will be ok. It is not cold to the touch.

Day Seven (Thursday). Kids have been holding steady. I am going to move them out to the barn. No changes to the ear since Tuesday. I took a larger crate (XL dog crate) and set it up in the barn. I placed it up against a solid wall- the one outer corner has a thick horse saddle pad around it, and then I have a light weight horse blanket draped over top, covering half the top and hanging down the sides to create a cave. I set up two heat lamps that hang just above the cage wires over the open half not covered by blanket. The crate is deep bedded in shavings with straw on top.

Day Nine (Saturday). Noticing some small round pieces of hair loss on the very tip of Lily's effected ear. They are maybe the size of an eraser and isolated to the very tip of the ear. Both kids are now on milk bar, and look fat and sassy. They like running around the barn during chore time. All limbs still appear to be completely unaffected.