I'm concerned about Ginger.  She has always been heavier than she needs to be, since she was a kid just a few weeks old. That has not changed. However, her udder is concerning me. If I were milking her, I would REALLY be concerned but she has been dried up for over a year though it was not easy drying her up. Her little body kept wanting to produce milk and likely still would be, it took well over a month (September 2019). Lately, her udder has looked like it is full! It is actually fuller than it ever was when she was being milked. I presume this is because she is overweight though I have started wondering if I went through the motions if she would start producing milk.  (She cannot be bred again because of damage from her first kidding.)
I've taken photos of it and put them in an album on my forever account; detail isn't lost in the photos this way. When I sent photos to my goat care person, she said it looked like hormone induced lactation; I didn't follow up with her because her husband was in surgery for a burst appendix and didn't feel it was the time.
Should I be having the vet look at Ginger?

Honestly, if she would produce milk, I would love to milk her but I don't want to start something that might be harmful. I am concerned at how full (firm) her udder feels. 
Should I call the vet?

https://www.forever.com/app/users/glenna--1/albums/2021-0314-ginger-udder-photos/dvpcgktfw1px6o9sttfux6ncj

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  • If you want milk, yes, just start milking. You know the drill. :) 

    If anyone else is reading this, you should NOT just try to milk a goat like this to see if you can do it. When a doe has been dry, there is a plug in her teats that keeps bacteria out. If you milk her, you obviously remove that plug, so now bacteria can get into the udder. It seals up again shortly after milking, but the rule with milking is that you always need to "empty" the doe's udder as much as possible every time you milk, and you need to milk daily. If you just milk a goat randomly, you would be risking mastitis. So even though a doe has not kidded, if she gets a precocious udder, you are committing yourself to daily milking once you start. 

  • So are you saying that I can start milking and actually get milk?  If she can be milked again, I would be delighted.  She is also my favorite, the first born here, and the most social.
    She kidded in March 2016.  When I started to dry her up October 2019, she was still producing a quart a day (or more).  Usually when I dry up a doe, it takes a week or a little more with milking less each day, but not her.  I finally had to resort to just milking enough to ease her udder.  Her little body just did not want to stop producing.  Honestly, had my husband not gone into care, I would not have dried her up at all.  The stress of being here to milk her was a stress I could reduce though reluctantly because it was also a comforting time since she is such a sweetie.
    The udder looks like she might be miserable.  After her kidding before, the vet told me she cannot be bred again, to not even let her near a buck. He did tell me there was a way to get one in milk again but expensive; I never followed up and asked later.
    So, should I put her through the motions of milking her?

    Deborah Niemann-Boehle said:

    No worries! It's just a precocious udder. Since you mentioned that you had a hard time drying her up, I'm not terribly surprised by this. If you are ready to start milking again, congratulations! We've had people on here over the years with does that did this. I think it was on here that someone had been milking her doe for 3-4 years and could NOT get her to dry off. Her udder would get scary huge whenever the owner tried to stop milking, so she was afraid to stop. Some does will get an udder even though they have never been pregnant, and some people call them maiden milkers. 

  • No worries! It's just a precocious udder. Since you mentioned that you had a hard time drying her up, I'm not terribly surprised by this. If you are ready to start milking again, congratulations! We've had people on here over the years with does that did this. I think it was on here that someone had been milking her doe for 3-4 years and could NOT get her to dry off. Her udder would get scary huge whenever the owner tried to stop milking, so she was afraid to stop. Some does will get an udder even though they have never been pregnant, and some people call them maiden milkers. 

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