Kidding Season Prep: Supplies

It’s early January; our first doe due to kid for 2020 is just a little less than two months from her due date, so I’m starting to take inventory of the supplies in our kidding kit, see what is missing or needs to be thrown out and replaced, and make a list of what we need to order. I started making a master list of everything I like to have on hand, and I figured it might be a good idea to share it on the website, too.

This is by no means an exhaustive list—and everyone has their own preferences and likes and dislikes. My list and what ends up in my kit is also subject to change (when we know better, we do better, and I learn new things and get new ideas all the time). And finally, none of this post constitutes advice, especially of the veterinary variety. We’d just like to share a list of the things we find helpful and/or like to have on hand just in case during kidding season!

• Your vet’s phone number
• Phone number of goat friend(s)/mentor(s)
• Towels*
• Absorbent chux pads/puppy pee pads
• Paper towels
• Gloves (both short nitrile and long-sleeve poly)
• Lube
• Kid puller (we like the “Kellie’s Kid Puller”)
• Nasal syringe (we like the “Nose Freida” brand/type much better than the typical bulb-type)
• Iodine**
• Small disposable plastic or paper cups***
• Dental floss
• Scissors
• Tube-feeding supplies (catheter syringes and tubes)
• Molasses
• Tums
• Calcium drench****
• Ketone strips (some breeders are now using ketone monitors instead; more accurate)
• Dextrose 50% solution
• Trash bags or empty grain bags for disposable mess like chux pads and gloves

And below are some things that live full-time in our general medical kit, but are also appropriate/helpful to have on hand during kidding season. We like to make sure we are stocked and ready with these items, too, before kidding season begins:

• Thermometers (always keep multiple backups)
• Full supply of various needles and syringes (the sizes we use most often and always have on hand are: 3 cc syringes with 22 gauge/ ¾” needles, 3 cc with 20 gauge/ ¾” or 1” needles, and 6 cc with 20 or 18 gauge/1” needles)
• Syringes for dosing oral meds (we always keep extra 3cc, 6cc, and/or 12cc syringes, as well as larger 30cc “catheter” syringes, for oral dosing)
• Electrolyte powders (our goats are fans of Goat BlueLite) and/or liquid energy/nutrition supplements for stressed/weak animals, such as nutri-drench or power punch
• Any medications you might ordinarily keep on hand, such as pain medications, dewormers, and antibiotics

Have we forgotten anything? Let us know!

* And then more towels. Take the number of towels you think you need, and then triple it. Really. Hit up your closet for old towels, thrift stores, Walmart for cheap $2-3 towels, etc. I prefer cheap, not-so-fluffy towels—they just seem to be better at getting birth goo off newborn kids.

**Strong solution of iodine for dipping navels; not teat dip. We tried the Vetericyn Super7 navel dip one year—had issues with infection. Back to dipping with iodine and have had no issues.

***For use with the iodine for dipping navels. Have also come in handy when dosing oral meds (pour out a drench into the cup and then draw up with an oral dose syringe vice contaminating the bottle by drawing out with the syringe directly).

****Most calcium drenches and pastes are very caustic and painful for goats to swallow. We keep the Durvet Oral Cal MPK calcium drench on hand; it’s not caustic, and easy to get into them if needed.

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