The Sad Part of Nature

This little guy, nicknamed Bruiser, weighed in at 9 pounds today, and is exploring quite ably on his own.

His little six pound brother didn't do as well. The local kids had school canceled, still due to the week-end storm and the cold temperatures, so I had extra help trying to get things going today. On my early morning shift I realized that he was trying to nurse on a small teat that did not have milk. So he was sucking with no reward. Also he just had a hard time standing. His back knees seemed to buckle backwards. We were always trying to stand him up from moment one.Abby and Claire

With four of us assisting, we milked Twee twice on her unused side, also trying to prevent mastitis. We syringed the milk into the kid, trying to stimulate his sucking reflex. The first go around we though we had done a good job, and let him rest in the warming barrel. After an hour or so, we visited again and thought he looked better, but he was no longer standing on his own.
With everyone still available, we milked again, with two holding Twee, Bruiser at her side, and the other stimulating the little guy. Another dose of milk didn't seem to bring on any sucking reflex, although some swallows. When we placed him to rest in the warming barrel again, his cries got very weak, and so I finally brought him to the house. I didn't want to separate him from his mother, especially since she was trying to take care of him, but the more active kid was taking most of her attention.
Only moments in the house, the cries got weaker, and before I could do much more, he died in my arms. I'm afraid that some of the milk may have gone into the lungs, although we were very slow and careful, to try and get swallows. Perhaps there was nothing we could have done, but we put a lot of hard work into trying. The girls will be very sad, but I thank them for their efforts.