I purchased a Nigerian Dwarf quad doeling at 7 days old as the runt. Litter was 2 doelings, 2 bucklings. Shes 3 months old now.
Her clitoris is enlarged and teats small. She's still very small for her age but vet said she was urinating properly and he palpated her. Shes definitely a girl. ( I feared hermaphrodite but no polled genes in pedigree) Any thoughts about the photos? I plan to see if she heat cycles before paying for testing. How young can you tell without testing.
Trying to post photos but not working.
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At this point, just keep an eye on her FAMACHA level to be sure she doesn't wind up with a worm overload because that could set her back really badly. But don't freak out and give her dewormer for no reason either.
A really good alfalfa will have 16-20% protein and a lot of calcium, so that's the next best thing to milk. Calf Manna is also very high in protein, but you can't feed very much of it.
There is not much you can do after weaning. Milk is the thing that puts on the pounds fast in the first few months. I won't sell a kid that's less than 20 pounds, which most will reach by 2 months if they are getting enough milk, and some surpass that easily. We had a couple of kids this year hit 24 and 25 by then.
Thanks! I've seen a hermaphrodite (stillborn) but this just didn't look right. Im optimistic. How can I help her growth?
It doesn't look that odd. I've seen stranger, so I don't think she's a hermaphrodite. Freemartins look normal but are sterile, so you don't know you have one until they don't come into heat. Then you can do an ultrasound exam to confirm, but I don't even think that would be possible on such a small kid if you hate waiting. But I'm pretty sure most vets would just tell you to relax and wait to see what happens.
Because questions like this come up so seldom, I checked the fourth edition (most recent) of Diseases of the Goat by John Matthews, and it doesn't say much more than that.
I'll also add that you shouldn't freak out if you happen to ever have a doeling that acts very masculine because some can just be more dominant than others. Eight or nine years ago I had a doeling that was mounting every other kid. I was really worried she was some type of intersex, but she was a totally normal female and had many kids through the years and is now retired. (I had to retire her a little early because her teeth went bad, so she has trouble keeping weight on.)
My biggest concern with her is that it sounds like she didn't get enough milk as a kid. There is no reason that runts can't catch up to their siblings within a couple of weeks after birth if they are getting enough milk. Unfortunately, if they're dam raised, the bigger ones often push them out of the way, just keeping them small from lack of milk. Since you're not supposed to breed them until they are 60% of adult weight (about 40 pounds for NDs), it could take her quite awhile to get to that size -- as in 18 months or so. Here is more info on that -- https://thriftyhomesteader.com/how-many-kids-can-doe-feed/
I hope you are right because I want to breed her! Here is the straight on photo.
20190710_202616.jpg
The vulva from that angle looks normal. Can you get a shot from straight behind her? Teats are always small on a young ND, so that is not significant.
It is theoretically possible to have a freemartin in goats, but I have never actually met anyone who had one, and I've helped thousands of people with goat questions through the years. Freemartins are much more common in cows. I've known far fewer cattle ranchers than goat breeders, yet I do know people who've had freemartins in cattle, including one woman who'd had multiple freemartins over the years. It happens a lot when you have male-female twins in cattle.
I don't think she's an intersex or hermaphrodite, but they are possible with horned goats. Here is more info on polled genes:
https://thriftyhomesteader.com/genetics-polled-goats/