I posted a discussion late last year about my doe who's not drying off (thank you, Deborah, for your advice!). I've been milking her every 48 hours and getting slightly over 3 cups each time for the past 3 months. She is getting 1/2 cup of alfalfa pellets and 1/3 cup of Southern States goat sweet feed in the am and 1 cup Barlett Milling Co. goat grain in the pm. with Coastal hay and pasture 24/7. I'm only giving her the sweet feed and alfalfa pellets to help her put on some needed weight. Well, now she is pregnant and due May 25th. This morning when I milked her she was 60 hours in milk and gave a full quart. I know she is not producing very much at all but the problem is, she IS still producing. I know I need to take her off the sweet feed and alfalfa and she really needs to dry up, but last time I tried that she continued to produce and lose weight. I obviously need to try again, but is their something I'm missing? Anything else I should try that might bring success?
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Well, it's possible she's not due until June 21st, but I have several reasons why I think she's due May 25th. I do know she is pregnant for sure. She was bred January 1st but came back into season January 27th right after my other does did so I took her to be bred again on the 28th. I've suspected from the beginning that it was a false heat, but I know I could be wrong. Also, because of how much she is already showing, I really don't think she's only 2 months pregnant. Unless, she has more than two in there, or a lot of fluid, by looks of it I would say she's due in May. However, like I said, the possibility of her being due June 21st IS there.
Here is a (not so great) picture of her 6 days prior to kidding with twin doelings (2011). Her first freshening she had triplet bucklings but I didn't own her then so I don't know how big she was.
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Oh, I thought you were trying to dry her up because you were going out of town. Are you sure she's seven weeks away from being due? My daughter and I used to argue about this all the time, and I'd insist that we stop milking when they were two month away from their due date, and every time we stopped milking a doe that was still producing normally, it turned out that she wasn't pregnant. I do know someone with a la mancha that milked through her pregnancy, so it can happen, but it's rare.
I'm not going out of town, but when I do my girls always go to the breeder I got her from who lives 15 minutes away, so that works out nicely. Anyway, I'm am going to do it this week. I'm just worried because she only has 7 weeks left in her pregnancy, and I really want her dried up NOW. So hopefully this works out well and her body gets the big picture.
Thanks for that idea, Marin. I'm glad it worked out well for you!
When we dried off our herd right before Christmas we just kept feeling their udders every day. Most of them were ready to be dried off so it wasn't a big deal but a few of them got really full after a few days so we'd milk just enough to take the pressure off, never milking them out completely. This was a method I pretty must just made up and there may be downfalls to it that I don't know about, but it worked for us and no one out of 15 goats got mastitis.
I've never heard any statistics on it, but this is the standard procedure for drying off a goat or a cow. It was even recommended by the holistic vet at the Midwest Organic conference in a session on mastitis. He said don't milk them for one week, then milk them out, and don't touch them again until their next freshening. I've never done that, but then I milk my girls until they are giving me so little that it's not worth my time, so their udders never fill up when by the time I stop milking.
And if you are still going out of town, it would be better to do this now so you can be there to make sure she doesn't get sick, rather than just leaving her in the care of someone who doesn't really know her.
How much risk of mastitis would there be? I will definitely try that though. So I'll see how she looks Tuesday morning and see if she can go another 2 days. Then I'll just hope that does the trick! But, like I said, what about the risk of mastitis?
I don't remember the exact number of days, but if an animal is seriously in milk or has a serious will to milk like your goat, you have to just stop milking her. Her body isn't going to get the message to stop until you haven't milked her for something like five to seven days.
And congratulations on having a doe that is such a great milker!
WOW!! That's one heckuva milker!! I don't have any advice, just wanted to state the obvious!! lol