I have a doe who acts very bucky when in heat. She mounts the other does, does the tongue flapping and makes awful groaning / screaming sounds. The sounds coming out of her are pretty intense, you would think she is being tortured. The other does are very vocal when in heat, but this is on a whole other level. She seems to go into these intense heats far too often and they often last 4 days. She does not follow much of a schedule however, sometimes she will be normal for 3 weeks, only to have a long bucky heat for 4 days, take 4 or 5 days off and be back at it. Last year she was bred for the first time to freshen as a 2 year old. I did not have a buck last year and had to drive her 2 hours away for her to be bred. We took several trips, always leaving at the first sign of her going into heat. The first time she stayed with the buck for 2 days, stood for the buck and was bred many times. The second time she stayed almost a month so that she was there for 2 cycles. The buck she was with serviced several other does successfully about a month before so I doubt that he was the problem. I thought she had settled as she did not come back into heat. About 4 months later she was in heat again, I had her ultrasounded and she was not pregnant. I don't know if she took and lost it, did not see anything abnormal. Took her back to see the buck again and she wanted nothing to do with him. At that point I gave up for the year and started looking for a buck to add to my herd.
This year I have a lovely little buckling. He is 6 months old now and has been in with the does for almost 3 weeks. 2 of the normal does went into heat and he put in an effort, but I don't think he quite figured it out. The bucky doe went into heat, did her horrible moaning thing for 4 or 5 days, took a few days off and was then back at it. I did see the little buck breed her properly at least once on the second heat. Now it has been almost 2 weeks since she has been in heat and I am desperately hoping that she will settle. I will move her in with the buck all winter if need be. She is a little plump, but is on hay (mixed grass hay, has some clover, dandelion and vetch mixed in) and only 2 teaspoons of grain per day when the milking does get their grain. Has access to loose minerals, baking soda and free choice selenium. I also give kelp but cut back on that because they were eating over a cup per day of the kelp and ignoring the minerals. I also give COWP every few months because they had fish tails and hair loss down the bridge of the nose. Perhaps there was not enough copper last year and that was a contributing factor but I don't think they were that deficient as they all had rich colour. She is fed the same way as the others, except that she receives very little grain. This year I have also been giving oral selenium, 1 ppm per month for a few months now and a few times per week a vit E capsule of 400IU. I don't really think they are deficient in these either as I had a doe with quads last year who had no issues.
Anyone have thoughts or suggestions? Anything I should change? For what it's worth all of my does are from health tested herds and the buck they were bred to last year was also a tested and clean herd too.
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The ultrasound was a quick scan to see if there were any kids so I doubt that they took the time to check if her anatomy was otherwise normal. I sure hope she is not a hermaphrodite, but I guess it's possible. She only has the bucky behaviour when she is in heat...at least I think so. Will keep a closer eye on her behaviour when the other does are in heat. I don't see any other male characteristics and her behaviour was not so extreme the last two breeding seasons. I am having my vet look into the hormone therapy and will let you know what happens.
I was going to ask, are you sure she's a doe? But if you had an ultrasound, I'm assuming they'd have realized it if the anatomy was not 100% female. But in any case, you will probably have to contact your vet, so you could double-check on the ultrasound results from last year. The usual recommendation in this situation is hormone treatment, which would be by prescription from your vet. It sounds like you've covered your bases nutritionally.
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I was going to ask, are you sure she's a doe? But if you had an ultrasound, I'm assuming they'd have realized it if the anatomy was not 100% female. But in any case, you will probably have to contact your vet, so you could double-check on the ultrasound results from last year. The usual recommendation in this situation is hormone treatment, which would be by prescription from your vet. It sounds like you've covered your bases nutritionally.