My 3-yr-old doe refuses to stop producing milk. I took her off sweet feed and alfalfa over a month ago and she's just getting coastal hay and plain grain. She was at the breeders for a week in November and in with the buck for 3 days so I'm really hoping she's pregnant. I need her dried off by Dec. 31st as we'll be going out of town for a few days so she won't be getting milked. I only milk her in the evenings but she is full every morning and by evening her udder is somewhat hard. I'm getting over 3 cups of milk from her each evening and like I said, she's just getting basic grain and coastal hay... and has been since the beginning of November. Is there anything else I can do? She could also put on at least 10 pounds as she is quite a slim girl. Even when she's close to kidding she hardly looks pregnant but she had 2 doelings (2lbs and 2 1/2 lbs) in June and 3 bucklings last year. So, how can I get her to dry off and possibly gain some weight?
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If she was in heat, it's too late to breed her now. However, if she's pregnant, you'll see the milk continue to drop. Some does dry off sooner than three months into their pregnancy. Even if a doe is not pregnant, you will see a gradual decrease in milk production as a doe progresses through her lactation.
Ok, I put her back on the sweet feed and alfalfa Thursday. I've been getting 3 full cups from her every evening until Sunday night. I only got 2 1/4 cups from her and tonight I only got 2. I know, I really should start weighing her milk instead of just measuring it. Anyway, on Saturday I noticed her vulva was red and same on Sunday. I checked her several times daily and never noticed any discharge all weekend. Could she be in heat? She didn't act like she was and her vulva looks normal today. It just makes me wonder if she is though because her milk production is down even though she's back on sweet feed and alfalfa now. If she's pregnant she's only a month along... could it be something related to her possible pregnancy? Or do I need to call the breeder and run Cymbol back over there? I'm thoroughly confused.... :/
P.S. She's not being nursed and I'm the only one getting her milk so there's not a possibility of the kids taking it.
Yes, her kids are with her 24/7. We don't have a separate pasture to put them, just a separate "stall" for at night but they are now sleeping with her. She wears just one piece of teat tape on each teat and they don't try to take it off. When she came back from the breeders she wasn't wearing teat tape and one of them nursed for a second or two but that's it. I think she was just super excited to have her mommy back. So yah, I'll try what you suggested. One of them (Chrysanthemum) will probably nurse but I doubt her sister (Iris) will do much. Chrysanthemum even tried to nurse of another doe I had several times because she was being deprived of her momma's milk and was not happy about it in the least. Iris, however, acted like she was too mature to nurse off her mom after 2-3 months. So, I'll probably come back to a lopsided doe that has been nursed on one side. But anyway, I'll definitely go with what you suggested. Thanks!
If the kids have been separated for awhile, there's no telling how they'll respond. They might try right away or next week or not at all.
If you've already tried not milking her for a week, and she didn't dry up, her body really doesn't want to dry up. With a lot of goats, if you milked them out one last time after a week, their udder wouldn't fill up again. Are her kids in with her all the time? If not, I'd probably put them with her 24/7 now to see if they will start really nursing again. If they will really nurse, that would be great while you're gone, but if they're just going to take a sip here and there, that would not be good because her udder will fill up, and it's not going to feel so great when they bop it the way kids do.
Ok, I'll put her back on the sweet feed and alfalfa. I tried not milking her for a week but her udder got very hard and was starting to turn red. Of course, I really don't want to take the risk of her getting mastitis so I've been milking her every evening ever since compared to 2x a day milking beforehand. Here's a new question (I know, sorry!)... while I'm gone, should I let the doelings nurse her as they please to keep her udder from becoming hard and being painful for her? She doesn't really let them and they don't really try to but occasionally I'll see them get a few sips from her when they are allowed to nurse.
Thank you for all your information. I really appreciate your answers and advice!
Well, I'm seeing your options are (a) stop milking her now and hope she dries up in a timely manner, or (b) stop milking her before you leave, then check her udder when you get home, and if it's full, milk her out and see if it fills up again. If she got pregnant in early November, her body might be ready to quit by early January if you stop milking her -- at least more ready than it is now. In any case, I'd continue to feed her like she's in milk as long as she is in milk, which means a higher protein feed. Some goats might produce less milk if you give them lower protein, but some will start to lose muscle, and you don't really have much control over how their body chooses to allocate its nutritional resources.
I have only heard of one goat that did not dry off when she was pregnant, and it was a la mancha. After prematurely drying up several does over the years, I finally decided to listen to my daughter who insisted that they all dry up when they're 2-3 months pregnant.
She is not getting nursed and no, I'm not positive she's pregnant but she was in heat when I took her to the breeders so I'm really hoping she is. I probably won't breed her next year and just keep feeding her sweet feed and alfalfa and milk her until she dries off on her own. The grain I feed her is Bartlett Milling Company's Goat Pellets which has 17% protein and 1.20% calcium. She gets 1 3/4 cup of that 2x a day. She's not underweight so I guess I should just be happy with her milking abilities and dairy body. Her sire is Kids Corral Pat's Tenor. I'm looking into taking her to a milking competition (ADGA) next spring so maybe she'll earn a milking star?! I'm keeping both her daughters and plan to show them next year and maybe take them to milking competitions some day. Their sire is 4 Fun Warrior *S and one of them is the spitting image of him in female form of course. :) SO, should I put her back on the sweet feed (Southern States ) and just keep milking her even though I won't be here for a few days for New Year's? And she'll dry off on her own if she is pregnant?
Your doe obviously has a very strong will to milk, which is generally a good thing. Any chance she still has a kid that might nurse while you're gone? Flexibility with milking is one reason I like dam raising. With a doe that milks that well, you could have probably milked her straight through for more than a year without breeding. In fact, if you're only gone for a few days, you might come home and find that you can pick up and continue milking right where you left off. I would not recommend that people plan to leave for a few days without milking, but some goats just have that strong of a will to milk.
If you're not sure that she's pregnant, and you don't own a buck (meaning it's a pain to breed her), I wouldn't be trying too hard to dry her off, or you could find yourself with a dry doe for a rather long time. If she's pregnant, she'll dry up a couple months before she kids.
Cutting her feed is not a good thing. A doe like that puts everything into her milk is still going to keep producing and just lose more weight. I also wouldn't give a goat plain grain because it's not nutritionally balanced, although depending upon which grain it is, it could be high in fat and/or protein, which means it would not even accomplish what you're hoping to accomplish. A calcium deficiency can kill a milker, especially if she's pregnant.
Being with a buck for a week means nothing unless you know she was in heat during that time. If you're pen breeding, you should leave the doe in there for at least 4 weeks because does come into heat every three weeks.
As far as not looking pregnant when carrying twins, that just means she's long bodied. When I was new to goats I thought that a very dairy doe looked underweight, but dairy does just look very bony. They also happen to be some of the best producers with a very strong will to milk. As for body condition -- you should feel meat on both sides of her spine, as well as the base of her tail. If she feels like a spinosaurus -- you can sink a finger on each side of her spine -- or if her tail looks like a rat's tail rather than a triangle (thick at base), she's underweight. If you were feeding a generic "sweet feed" rather than a goat feed, that could be part of the problem because the generic sweet feeds don't have much protein at all. You need at least 16% protein for milkers. Some people feed 18%.