Hey guys. I've mentioned my mother is dying before. I am a little desperate here. I am considering possibly trying to spend more time traveling and/or staying up there w/ her and so I am trying to consider my options here with my girls.
I have two NDs who are 9-10 weeks post kidding
1 mini mancha 5 weeks post kidding
So all pretty heavily in milk. One ND has no more kids on her, the other one still has her singelton but only for a few more days and he's sold.
Mini has a daughter on her that we are keeping & a buckling who will be sold in 3 weeks.
How bad would it be to try and dry them off now...besides being uncomfortable are they likely to get mastitis or have other big problems?
My daughter will be out of school starting in May, so she could at least milk them down some...she might even get good enough to just keep them going for me. idk. Just trying to weigh the options.
Replies
So sorry about your mom. We just lost both my husband's mom and dad in the last three months, so I know it's not easy.
My crystal ball is pretty unreliable, so I can't tell you what will happen if you stop milking at this point. Whenever I've had a llama or sheep have a baby die or get eaten by coyotes, the mom has been okay. The real issue would be, if the doe already has a small amount of bacteria in her udder, it would get a chance to grow and cause an infection if you stopped milking her. Theoretically, if she doesn't have any bacteria in there, she should "probably" be okay. That's why commercial dairies inject an antibiotic in the udder when they stop milking. But that has its drawbacks also. I heard a vet say that increases the risk of thrush.
{{{ Juliana }}}