This is our first time kidding and milking, so we'd appreciate some input form the "Voices of Experience". Our doe kidded 3 weeks early with 2 doelings. The first sadly died after a half hour. The second lived! Hubby and I rotated shifts for the next 48hrs caring for the doeling, too weak to lift her head or stand let along suck from her mama (although she was interested). Hubby milked mama and I fed it to the baby with a dropper, she only took a ml here and there. We kept holding her to her mama's teats to encourage feeding and bonding. On day 3 we had a breakthrough, she took her first few sucks from Mama. She had no interest in taking milk from a dropper or bottle so we stopped and let mama do the job. Slowly she gained strength as we keept holding her to mama every few hours. Day 6 she woke up from a nap, stood up and walked to Mama and fed on her own!
She is now 2 weeks old and happily bounding around, playing with our other doe and trying to climb on rocks. We named her Buttercup. She feeds from Mama, but Mama is not so cooperative and often walks away. Buttercup is not so pushy, at least yet. Buttercup doesn't get all the milk, so hubby milks mama to give her relief. We collect 1 1/2 to 2 cups a day. If hubby corners mama so she can't run away, Buttercup will almost drain the udder.
Question: We had planned to take 2 weeks of vacation in 3 weeks time. We have a responsible friend set up to house sit and look after all the animals (goats, chickens and dog) but goats are new to her. We had hoped buttercup would be robust enough and we could leave, she would continue to feed from Mama and grow. When we returned refreshed from vacation, we planned to wean her and milk 2/day. We despirately need a family vacation (haven't taken one in years!) but we dearly love our goats and don't want to leave them if there is a real risk. Will Buttercup be OK? Or are we worrying too much given her challenging entry in our world and that we are new at this and navigating each day as it come? Your thoughts and suggestions are appreciated.
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I've always given up after three or four days of having to hold a doe to allow a kid to nurse, so I can't say from personal experience how good the odds are that the doe will let the kid nurse at some point. The only experience I had with premature kids that survived, the mother looked at the babies like they were aliens! Her hormones had not kicked in yet, and she had absolutely no maternal feelings towards them at all.
Buttercup aside, if you are getting almost 2 cups of milk and you stop milking her, the doe's milk supply will drop over the two weeks, and you probably won't get it back up again, although I never say never. So you also have to think about how much milk you want.
I think that in a couple weeks, you'll be fine leaving!! Sounds like Buttercup should be a pro by then. :)
Is your friend literally staying at your house or just coming by to take care of things? If staying, will the friend be there most of the time or working at a job too? Do you have any backup in case they get sick or hurt? The most important thing will be how baby does between now and then. And might I make a suggestion that you make sure your friend knows about our forum and how to get on here to talk to us if they run into problems and can't get you. Just a thought. Maybe I should WARN you all, but I have instructed my 14 year old daughter that if a kidding starts and does not seem normal or any accident happens etc. and I can not be reached, to log on here and post for help from you guys. She knows I trust a majority vote on her more than any vet. She is great with computers and I told her to get on the forum and tell you all who she is and what is happening. She also knows that if she gets no response and it seems like a real emergency to look up farm names, hunt websites and look for phone numbers and call to ask for help. FAIR WARNING! If a kid from Mobile, Al. calls needing help with there goat, its probably my kid! Wild emergency plan right? At least it is a plan and it stands as a testimony to all of you about how important I feel you all are!