A Premie



Leia had her lamb today, her first, maybe about a week before he was really ready. He's a very pretty little boy, with Two Grey Hills markings, but he is so tiny. His hooves are not hardened (they all have soft hooves at birth, but not quite like this), teeth have not started to emerge, the wool is extremely short (it's not uncommon for Churros to have an inch of wool already when they are born), and he is weak. He can stand briefly, but not long enough to find mama's udder, and then he is completely worn out. He does have a sucking reflex and takes a bottle greedily. He also can hold his head up, but mostly just sleeps. We have him in a laundry basket in the house for the night. Although Leia tries to mother him, this lamb is beyond her ability to raise at this point.



Here Leia goes up on the milk stand to be milked so that her baby can have colostrum. She didn't want to get up there, and took some coaxing to get her to stand up, but once she did she cooperated better than a lot of first time freshening dairy goats do.