Lactation Before kidding

This morning while checking my pregnant doe Falene. I was quite surprised to find she's lactating clostrem! I also checked her tail ligaments and, although they're soft to the point where I can wrap my fingers around her tail head, I can still feel them. She's due this Saturday. so it's seems to me that she's gonna give birth sooner than that. From what I've read lactation indicates a doe being within 24 hours of kidding. This is her second batch of kids and day 141 day of her pregnancy.

Is she still likely to give birth Saturday? or is it gonna be today or tomorrow for sure? 

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  • Great! I think she's just as excited as I am to meet her babies. Smart girl :) she keeps trying to follow me into the kidding pen. She loves being a mama. I hope she has a pretty doeling that I can retain:).

    Thanks for all the help!

    (P.S. I'm surprised spell check didn't catch me misspelling "colostrum" as "clostrem". As far as I know "clostrem" isn't a word.) 

  • Sounds like maybe she's got nice big orifices for the colostrum to come out so nice and easy. :)  Hopefully she's just doing her goat mama thing, and in about a week you get some lovely kids.

    I can't wait for July, when I have 2 does due.


  • Lately I've been checking her over every morning and night for early signs of labor. Things like feeling tail ligaments, fetal movement and seeing if her udder is full yet. So Tuesday night when I felt her udder her teats were a little cold a definitely didn't have milk in them. She was also a little jumpy when I touched her udder so I massaged her udder to remind her to stand still as if I was milking her, because she hadn't been milked in 3 months.

    The next morning I did the same thing only this time when I massaged her udder milk dribbled out of her teats. Her udder wasn't full and I wasn't trying to milk her but this was definitely clostrem. So I'm a little worried that either she gives birth on her due date and has fully matured milk or she's gearing up to give birth on the early side, like she did last year.

    Today her udder still isn't full but her ligaments are Sooooooo soft, and she is extremely friendly which unusual for her, who has always been antisocial towards people. 
    Patty Meyer said:

    It's not entirely clear to me what you noticed?  Did she just have a full udder?  Was colostrum coming out of her teat(s)?  Did you milk her?

    If all that happened is you see her udder and teats are full, then she's fine.  She'll still have colostrum for her babies.  Just to make sure it's clear to anyone seeing this, a doe shouldn't be milked at all before she kids, since this would disturb the little plug in the end of the teat that prevents germs from entering it.

    :) Best wishes!

  • It's not entirely clear to me what you noticed?  Did she just have a full udder?  Was colostrum coming out of her teat(s)?  Did you milk her?

    If all that happened is you see her udder and teats are full, then she's fine.  She'll still have colostrum for her babies.  Just to make sure it's clear to anyone seeing this, a doe shouldn't be milked at all before she kids, since this would disturb the little plug in the end of the teat that prevents germs from entering it.

    :) Best wishes!

  • Ok so will she still have colostrum even if she kids 4 days from now?

    On her last kidding she gave birth on her 143 day of pregnancy. 

  • No worries. Goats have milk way more than 24 hours before kidding. I'd still look for kids 145 to 150 days after she was bred.
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