Cyclops Baby Born Yesterday!

Cyclops Goat

Our huge pregnant goat Blossom had her kids yesterday and delivered Quads all by herself!

Three of them were born big and healthy, 2 boys and a girl.

However the forth little goat was born with a rare condition called Cyclopia, a disorder in which the embryotic head doesn't divide properly to form two eyes, and instead the baby has just one eye and usually no nose.

That is exactly what happened, but our little goat also didn't have ANY HAIR except a few strands on the tip of his tail.  He may not have developed like his siblings and been born a bit premature before the hair formed, or maybe he was just a natural Sphinx??  Sadly, he did not live. 


The STORY:

  I was busy getting dinner ready for some guests when our goat Daisy started making distressed beatings.  I knew something had to be up in the goat yard, and guessed Blossom must be delivering kids and Daisy just had to let us know about it.  I told my children that our last goat might be delivering babies and they raced out back to go see.

  However, before I could get my shoes on, my oldest daughter comes running back in in near hysterics and tears.  "Mom!   Mom!  She had them too soon, and they look like Aliens!"   My oldest was very distraught.  I suddenly imagined Blossom with eight tiny babies that would not survive, and for some reason my daughter thought they looked deformed.  I tried to calm her down saying that sometimes this happens (not really knowing what had happened) as I hurried out.

  The first little goat I came to was the little Cyclops.  He was deceased but not so cold.  His deformity caught me off guard and I had to agree with my daughter, he looked like an Alien! 

However his appearance didn't gross me out, but instead intrigued me.  I wondered if he had been born alive or not and was suddenly very sad he had died. 

I mean, how awesome would it have been to have a living Sphinx Cyclops goat in my barn yard! No hair, and that huge head!  I had to pick him up before I located the little, single eye in the middle.  His skin was slick and delicate, his body soft and small.  I knew immediately I was looking at a rare Cyclops goat.

I quickly looked around for the others, wondering if I had a whole litter of Cyclops, but was relieved (yet strangely a little disappointed) to find three normal healthy kids in the barn, still wet, up and walking around, calling to their momma.  I was mainly relieved they were alive and was impressed by their size.  They were all bigger then Ebony's tiny baby, Alaska Star, and even the Cyclops looked big enough to be full term. 

Blossom is a good mother, nursing all three of her living kids, and I think they will all be just fine!

This picture is fuzzy, but it is of Blossom's 3 living kids, still wet from their birth.

More pictures of our Cyclops baby.  No nose formed and he has just one small little eye above his mouth.