Post by mainelady on Jul 6, 2021 18:11:13 GMT -5
It feels a little bit like if something can go wrong with livestock, it will go wrong with mine. Everything was more or less fine, but the other night I realized that one of my doelings (the nicest one, of course) had this lopsided udder and one side seemed like it maybe had something in it. I have watched the youngest two kids try to nurse off of not-their-mother, so I immediately became suspicious. I have never seen them go for another kid, only another doe in milk, and a yearling doeling who is pregnant (and kicked the snot out of them, so I didn’t worry about it). Generally my goats have stuck to their own mothers, and the mothers have NOT tolerated each other’s babies. The exception is that one of the does had triplets this year and when all three tried to eat at once she gave up making sure it was the right three. The point is just that I’ve never had a goat-nursing-on-not-their-mama problem before, and everything I’ve observed has made me not worry about it.
But- now I have this doeling with a little bit of a udder on one side. I put her on the stand to look, didn’t seem hot, hard, nothing that would make me feel like it was just swollen. Gave her teat a gentle squeeze…. Milk. I didn’t know what else to do, so I tried to very gently milk this tiny goat, and get her all disinfected. Every thing I’ve read about this happening with young heifers the solution seems to be “milk whatever is in there out and give dry treatment.” So I milked it out. No weird consistency, lumps, smell.. but there definitely shouldn’t be milk in my 14 week old doeling. I’m not sure how to dry treat a baby goat? I think l call the vet in the morning and discuss, but I thought I would see what all of you thought, and whether you would send it out for testing or do anything special I haven’t thought of. Any thoughts on if she will be “ruined”? Any thoughts on if it would be caused by anything else? It’s so hard to imagine goat kids nursing on each other and this one ALLOWING it, you know?
I also just wanted to complain to people who would get it.
But- now I have this doeling with a little bit of a udder on one side. I put her on the stand to look, didn’t seem hot, hard, nothing that would make me feel like it was just swollen. Gave her teat a gentle squeeze…. Milk. I didn’t know what else to do, so I tried to very gently milk this tiny goat, and get her all disinfected. Every thing I’ve read about this happening with young heifers the solution seems to be “milk whatever is in there out and give dry treatment.” So I milked it out. No weird consistency, lumps, smell.. but there definitely shouldn’t be milk in my 14 week old doeling. I’m not sure how to dry treat a baby goat? I think l call the vet in the morning and discuss, but I thought I would see what all of you thought, and whether you would send it out for testing or do anything special I haven’t thought of. Any thoughts on if she will be “ruined”? Any thoughts on if it would be caused by anything else? It’s so hard to imagine goat kids nursing on each other and this one ALLOWING it, you know?
I also just wanted to complain to people who would get it.