Here's the deal: I have a young buck who is just now around 8 months old. I started using him around 5/6 months. First two does I used him on haven't come into heat since breeding and tested preg on Biopryn.
the next two does I used him on don't seem to be settling. One of them is on at least her 4th try and the other maybe the 3rd try. Both of these does I recently purchased as adults and both traveled pretty far (12 hrs each in a trailer). Reba came in August. She has now been bred to Jimmy 4 times, approximately 2 weeks apart, then she starts yelling for him again. (Sept 1, Setp 16, Oct 8th, Oct 21) Besides coming into heat Reba also Biopryn'd not pregnant Oct 3.
I got the other doe, Appy, at the end of September. She was one of the 4 who were sold as "bred", none were actually pregnant. They all went into heat immediately when they arrived & then tested neg on Biopryn. She has now been bred to Jimmy 3 times, 10/2, 10/21, and I must have forgotten to write one down or I am wrong and she's only been bred twice.
Don't think there's anything wrong with Jimmy since he got the other two taken care of. Reba at least was in milk when I bought her so I don't think there's anything wrong with her fertility. Both does have had copper boluses...Appy was not in great shape when I got her, underweight, lice, but I have gotten rid of the parasites and she is putting weight on.
Stress of the moves making them slow to settle or what? Is there something else I am missing here? One thing is that with the first two does, I left Jimmy in a pen with them for most or all of the day they were in heat. Reba gets bred once or twice and then gets mad at him and yells at him and rams him and has a fit so I tend to let him breed her and then put her back with the does rather than leaving them together. I was thinking I might just pen the 3 of them up together tonight.
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I had two who were hard to get bred last year, both finally took. I think that the problem was actually my buck. he was quite small at the time and the two who were hard to breed were the two tallest Nigerians. I think he was having technical difficulties.
Resurrecting this thread.
Juliana, did your doe get pregnant?
I have a doe here who won't get pregnant. She kidded in 2009, 2011 & 2012. In 2012 she had triplets, one stillborn, one died at birth, and one that I pulled after she'd been pushing without results for over 30 minutes. That one had been dead for a few days. I gave her a week of antibiotics at the time, and we seem to have resolved the nutritional deficiencies that I believe lead to the poor outcome. She has not settled the past two years, even though we left her in with a buck for a couple of months this past fall. She is now getting very bucky in her behaviour too.
I'm wondering if I may have damaged her when I pulled the kid so she can't sustain a pregnancy, or if it may just be hormonal. Any suggestions? I do have lutalyse around, but I'm not sure if she's cystic as I haven't really noticed her going into heat at all.
I left Appy in a horse stall overnight with Jimmy tonight, since she is acting in heat. I figure it'll give her a chance to have a nice big flake of hay all to herself which sure won't hurt her and she seems real mellow about the boy, hopefully she won't be mad when I get down there in the morning!! Maybe that will give him enough time to get it right. I did give him at least a whole afternoon in a pen with the other two that he succeeded with and they are much shorter than her.
I did some reading on it, and she is acting bucky too. She is mounting other does and making the "waaah" noise that only bucks make. I guess that could just be normal for her, I don't really know because I don't know this doe real well.
The only disadvantage to waiting that I found in Matthews book was that you could run out of time with dairy goats because breeding season ends. But with NDs in Florida, I would think that most of them would be more likely to be year-round breeders.
Will it do her any harm to wait and see for maybe another month before I go to the vet about it? If she is cystic I mean. I'd rather give it a little more time & maybe try the other buck if the height thing is an issue.
I think I'm inclined to go with the stress theory...especially when you consider both groups of does had a big move, and although Reba had been here longer, the other 4 were added in and therefore the whole herd had to go through another mini upheaval with all the new faces. Plus Jimmy is little and inexperienced.
Appy does not seem to compete well for food. I give everyone a meal of pellets when they get locked in for the night. Until I left town I was separating her and one other thin doe to eat in the barn and the others all ate as a group (they are all fat). Appy was starting to look pretty good. I told my daughter to just feed her with the group while I was gone (4 meals) and I could tell she had lost a little weight when I got back. I will be separating her again starting tonight to get her weight back up. If she can't compete, that's fine, I will just keep feeding her away from the herd. She's a weird one too, she won't touch grain or even calf manna! I never saw a goat period that wouldn't inhale calf manna. But I tried to give her a little to help boost her when I got her and she won't eat it. But she eats alfalfa pellets, timothy pellets, and lespedeza pellets with gusto, but no grain or manna. Weird.
Reba is 4 and if I recall she kidded last in Feb of last year. She still had milk when I bought her & I am drying her off now. Appy is 2.
Forgot to answer this specifically -- yes, a cycstic doe will stand to be bred. And nymphomania is even listed as a symptom of ovarian tumors.
Juliana Goodwin said:
According to Diseases of the Goat by Matthews, short cycles can be a symptom of stress, which is why he says that goats being brought together for a breeding program should be grouped at least 3 months ahead of breeding. Ovarian cysts and tumors are also both mentioned. Cysts can sometimes cause continual heat. Do you know the goat's age and when she was last bred? My daughter once bought two 11-year-old bred does, and although one did give birth, the other one was not pregnant and never got pregnant.
Appy's poor body condition could also have contributed to her not ovulating.
Will a cystic doe stand to be bred? Because she definitely does stand for him. Once or twice. Then gets mad at him. But I've seen other does do that, and if I put her back with him a few hours later she will stand for him again.
I guess I am a little hesitant to worry about Reba when he couldn't get Appy to take either. Am bringing in a new buck soon, and he is older. Might give him a shot at the two of them and if that doesn't work, see about the vet
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