Whew! Got through this one.

Yesterday afternoon was a very eventful time at the farm. Upon arriving home a little early, I immediately checked the goats as one of the girls was two days past due. When I got to the goat yard, I noticed that Zoe was in the birthing process. I noticed a nose and a foot were out,so I figured that the birth would be finished in a few minutes, so I went about letting the chickens out and checking horses. In about ten minutes and there was no progress, it was then that it dawned on me that we only had one foot out and this is not good.that means on leg was back and the shoulder was holding the birth process up. Luckily our daughter is a vet, so this was my first call. According to her, what needed to be done was to push the kid back in rotate her and then redeliver her.I tried as hard as I could, but I just didn’t have the strength to do it. I called my husband, he was thirty minutes out. I decided to call my farmer friend Eddie, he is only about three mile away. At this point, the only thing I could do was to try to keep our baby breathing. With each contraction I put my hand in and kept her neck from being constricted. By now both the mother and the kid were in distress. It seemed like an hour till Eddie arrived, but it was only a few short minutes. Once he arrived, we got my daughter back on the phone. Eddie had his daughter in law with him, she has really small hands, just what we needed.Chris started talking us through the process of trying to save two lives. We struggled with trying to push the kid back in. Mother struggled with contractions and trying to push. Chris was trying to prepare us for the likelihood that we would at least loose the kid and maybe the mother. By now our baby is very purple and is showing signs of edema. Mother collapses to the ground. Chris says it is ” highly unlikely” that we will be able to deliver this kid, and we may loose both of them.  Amazingly, Eddie says ” I like highly unlikely.” he gets the kid to turn just a touch, maneuvers the shoulder and gives a tug, we have a birth. Our little doe is here, but she is purple and very stressed. Mother is pretty stressed and has suffered some intense trauma. But both are alive. In just a few minutes, mom starts to clean the kid up. We are astonished at how well they seem to be doing. Fast forward thirty minutes, kid is standing, trying to nurse and mom is doing remarkably well. According to my daughter, the vet the next twenty four hours are critical. We checked them several times through the night. Our mother is doing well considering what she’s been through. She has lots of swelling and discharge. Our little girl has some swelling and discoloration. By this morning both our mother and kid are a bit more lively. I spent the day checking on her about every hour. By late afternoon mother is eating hay and baby is playing in the yard. For all intensive purposes we are out of the woods. On last check tonight and our little girl is nursing and mom is calm!