Hi I live on Vancouver island in Canada. I have two 2 year ND does, one of which delivered beautiful twin doelings in June while the other did not get pregnant. This doe(lily) is impossible to tell when in heat. Only by the change in behaviour (mounting/irritable when milked) of her pen mate or when the buck came to visit can you tell. She was bred 2 months ago and within about 2 wks she had a total change in personality. She went from quiet and skittish to constantly noisy and needy of companionship. In the last 2 wks she has quit eating anything but hay and not much of that. As a result she has lost a lot of weight, to where I am concerned as I can easily count ribs, vertebrae and hip bones when handling her. We unfortunately have few large animal vets on the south end of the island and basically none that know anything about goats. The breeder I bought them from is very helpful but also at a loss. What do you think - pregnant or could she be an intersex with some other health issue developing? The breeder was so surprised when she didn't get pregnant before as she has had virtually 100% success rate with stock that she raises and sells(20 years). Her pen mate is healthy and gives me about 1 qt of milk a day. Ideas????
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Things like mineral absorption, copper levels and those sorts of things can impact fertility too. I would check for worms, and find some minerals with high copper levels. I have a doe that is hard to get pregnant, and IMO she has some issues with mineral absorption.
Thank you so much. Some of the timing(she's not that far along) points don't fit but it is definitely worth thinking about. Do you /anyone else know if there is a risk from treating for it if she isn't actually hypocalcemic? Does erring on the wrong side cause more/other problems?
I'm no expert and a newbie but I spend many hours researching goat health so I can learn. I just read an article about hypocalcemia which occurs when pregnant does do not get enough calcium to balance the phosphorous intake. I don't know if this is what's going on, but it's possible! Here's the article and it tells what to do:
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Things like mineral absorption, copper levels and those sorts of things can impact fertility too. I would check for worms, and find some minerals with high copper levels. I have a doe that is hard to get pregnant, and IMO she has some issues with mineral absorption.
I'm no expert and a newbie but I spend many hours researching goat health so I can learn. I just read an article about hypocalcemia which occurs when pregnant does do not get enough calcium to balance the phosphorous intake. I don't know if this is what's going on, but it's possible! Here's the article and it tells what to do:
http://kinne.net/hypocal2.htm