Marci's goat
Posted by: dhaley <dhaley@...>
I've got an interesting scenario at my house. I've just discovered that the
majority of my Saanen does bred back sometime in May. One of my yearlings
(I was just sure she didn't get bred back...the buck had only been in with
the does a short time and it was not the time of year for them to
breed...especially Saanens)....well....she went off feed last night and her
milk production has dropped significantly over the past three days. I've
been testing for mastitus...she's clear. Much to my horror her milk was the
color of yellow colostrum this morning. I'm going to have to immediately
dry her off. We did manage to get her to drink some molasses water and then
she ate some. She's not in a bad way but I'm fairly sure she's gone
ketonic. Always a risk when you don't dry does off two months before
kidding. I happened to pick up two stethascopes at a garage sale a couple
of weeks ago so we decided to listen to her belly to see if we could hear
anything. We heard a definet heart beat of Elsie (the goat) but when you
listen to her tummy it's a faster whooshing sort of beat. Whether or not
this is a heartbeat of kid I don't know but the fact that she appears to be
producing colostrum would give me indication she is going to kid.
I'm trying to adjust to the thought of a bunch of new kids on my place.
It's a bit overwhelming at the moment. I still have a yearling and 3 doe
kids to sell from this Spring's kidding. Maybe I'm supposed to go into the
dairy goat business the way we are unexpectantly multiplying!...Deanna