how do you know when your goat is in labor?

Place you hand on the doe's spine, right where it starts to angle down. Put your fingers on one side of the spine and your thumb on the other side. Now run you hand slowly down her spine toward her tail, feeling along the spine and the areas just to the sides of the spine (about 1 inch along each side). As you run your fingers down the spine, you will feel the ligaments. The ligaments seem to come out of the spine and slant down toward her pin bones. They feel similar to the size of pencils. Feel for the ligaments because as the birth nears, the ligaments loosen. At first they will feel hard, like pencils. They will gradually start to soften and once they're "gone" labor is close at hand. As you feel for the ligaments you'll also be feeling for the physical changes in the tail head. As labor drawing near, the area along the spine will seem to sink and the tailhead seems to rise. When you no longer feel the ligaments and you can practically touch your fingers and thumb together around her tail head, the doe will probably kid sometime within the next 12 hours.

Ligaments are "gone". (See above) Feeling the ligaments and the tail head are my main warnings that kidding may happen within the next 24 hours. Note: Ligaments have been known to "come and go"; you can't feel them at all and then they reappear. I have not had this happen very often, but it can happen.

The doe's tail head is noticeably raised. (See above). You can practically put your fingers all the way around the spine right before the tail. Feeling the the tail head and ligaments are my main warnings that kidding may happen sometime within the next 24 hours.

"Far away" look in the doe's eyes. Eyes wide. The whites of eye may get slightly bloodshot.

Pawing at the ground (making a nest). A doe can start doing this many hours before kidding: they can do this all night long only to kid in the mid morning. When a doe starts pawing a lot, I keep checking on her knowing she could kid anytime, be it in 1/2 hour or 12 hours.

Laying down, getting up, laying down, getting up, laying down, getting up.... It's really hard to get comfortable when you are really pregnant and going into labor.

Long clear string of "goob" (mucous) hanging from the doe's vagina. If the goop is amber, it is amniotic fluid, and kidding should happen very soon. (Note: The doe can start having small amounts of opaque white discharge a day, a week or even a month before kidding; this is the "plug").

The doe's udder in full and tight. Some people refer to the udder getting "shiny" or "glossy"; this would be because if the udder getting full and tight, and thus the stretched skin becomes shiny. Be aware that though it is most common for a doe to "bag up" before she kids, she could wait until the last minute or even not really start "coming into her milk" until after she kids. Every doe is different.

The doe becomes more vocal. It a doe is normally quiet and all of a sudden starts making little sounds, it may be a good idea to put her up in the kidding stall.

The doe may do a lot of stretching and/or yawning. The stretching can be the doe trying to get the babies in the correct birthing positions. Stretching along with tail arching are actually contractions. I've never been able to figure out the yawning.

The doe may become more affectionate toward you. The doe may even start licking you. It is ok to let her do this. Keep in mind this does not always happen.

The doe may become more afraid of you or not want you to touch her. If the doe is "wild" she may get really wild as she gets closer to kidding.

If the doe is acting wierd or does anything that makes you say, "Gee, she never did that before."

they are a lot like humans. they become distressed, walking, laying down, and more abnormal things that they wouldn't do in such a way. they will have contractions and some "bahh" while haveing them. good luck