I'm looking for input on one of my does.
Gardenia is now 6, almost 7, and has freshened for us 3 times, Nov 2009, Feb 2011, and June 2012. The June kidding happened while we were having some severe mineral deficiency issues that we had to sort out, and we had a lot of weak/stillborn kids that year. Gardenia's were some of them. One stillborn, one died shortly after birth, and she retained one dead one that I had to go in to pull out. I'm confident that I made the right decision as the kid was nowhere near the birth canal and had clearly been dead for a few days. After I pulled the kid she delivered the placenta, and I gave her injectable antibiotics every 24 hours for 7 days.
She has not settled since then, even though we've left her in the pen with a proven buck.
I believe we're on top of our mineral issue now, and she gets copper every 2-3 months (her line seems very copper needy), and a loose mineral that does contain both copper and selenium.
She may be a little chunky, not too bad I don't think, but only has access to pasture in the summer, and grass hay (occasionally some alfalfa hay, but we try to keep it away from the non-pregnant does). No grain. It would be hard to restrict her calorie intake further short of putting her in a very small pen and limiting hay.
Any thoughts?
She hasn't had any discharge since then, but maybe an underlying uterine infection?
Maybe I damaged her internally when I pulled the kid?
Her behaviour has become extremely bucky. She's turned into a really good "heat detector" for the other does. Hormones out of whack? Any way to fix that?
If she doesn't settle again she'll get to retire here, but I'd really like to have another doeling or two out of her, particularly with one of our newer bucks. She's a good milker.
Replies
And Sarah, thanks for the info. If nothing works I'll consider it a possibility and just let her retire:-)
Or maybe an ovarian tumor. I remember the vet telling me that one of my does may have one (she's settled 1 time in the 1.5 years that I've had her), she'll mount the other does occasionally, she's more aggressive than the other does. I keep mine with my herd sire also, hoping to get a doe before having to retire her. She's already nine, I think?
Anyway, the vet was telling me that there's a type of ovarian tumor that affects horses and that maybe she had the same thing (I'm their only dairy goat client). The vet told me it's not the kind of tumor that spreads. I wish I could remember the name of it, but maybe that will give you a starting point.
It sounds like you have everything covered. She could have a damaged uterus or a lingering infection. It does sound like her hormones may be out of whack since she's acting so bucky. Some people in this situation might get lutalyse from the vet and try injecting her with that.