Holly

Holly finally had her kids a couple weeks ago. She had a rough labor, in fact, Fran had to come over and help deliver them. We don't think her cervix was opening all of the way and the first kid got stuck. One of the reasons this may have happened was because she had a prolapse throughout the entire end of her pregnancy and her insides were hanging out of her vulva when she layed down. Her ligaments just couldn't hold her heavy load in. Perhaps there was some scarring from this.
This is the first time I have had to help get a kid out and wasn't sure how to help without tearing the cervix. I had my hand inside of her for a couple of hours massaging it seeing if it would open more. It felt very tight like it wouldn't be very elastic and I was scared to pull on the kid hard thinking the cervix might tear. Fran got here and got them out right away. There is a bit of technique to it and now I know I can be a bit more forceful.
Of course, after all that trouble, she had 2 boys. I was hoping she had quads in there because that would explain the prolapse but there was only 2. They are the cutest little guys we have ever had here though. They are Nubian/Alpine crosses. The first guy was the biggest with the second being considerably smaller.
Holly decided she hates her first born. Not just indifference but hate. She won't feed him and if he comes close to her she bites him and flings him away from her. Poor fella. For the first few days I put her on the milk stand to let him eat several times a day but then she didn't really have a lot of milk and she started to develop mastitis. Now Flower goes to the milkstand a few times a day to feed him. She is such a piggy she doesn't mind at all as long as there is food around.
Since he has no really mommy he follows us around and when we leave the barn area we have to sneak out so he doesn't run through the electric fence. We were going to butcher these two with the other bucks but the boys have friends down the road that have decided they want to keep them as land clearers and pets. So now Bubba (abandoned kid) and Cow (Holly's favorite with black and white spots) will have a new home to go to in a few weeks.
I'm not sure how much longer Holly will be in this herd. We are going to be making some difficult decisions soon.