Hi,
I am wondering if anyone has ever had a pregnant doeling and if you can share with me your experience? I am devastated! In the fall my two bucks broke through their temporary fence and got into the girls. At the time I was not too concerned as I didn't think anyone was in season, so we separated them again and didn't think much of it.
Now my doeling is making an udder and I have felt a baby moving around so I know we are not far off. She is a year at the end of march. She is a beautiful doe and I would be soooo sad if something happened to her. It is too soon for her and I wish I could turn back time!
To make it all worse my two bucks both got into the girls and one buck is her full brother. I am so upset at myself and feel like a terrible goat mama. So there is a 50/50 chance that she was bred to her brother. We were not home when they broke the fence so didn't see who bred who.
Can anyone give me some ideas of what to expect? I know a bit about line breeding and that full brother to sister is not a good idea. Might the kid be deformed? I am praying that she will be okay and that hopefully at least she was bred to my other buck who was more mature than her brother was back in the fall.
Is there anything I should know about helping her when she freshens with being so young? Does anyone have any experiences of their young does having kids? How did they do?
Any stories or feedback would be so appreciated. Feeling like a terrible goat mama these days!
Replies
Thanks Marty,
that was really helpful info! She has never been line bread as far back as I know...always unrelated as my breeder friend does not line breed at all...if she kids bucklings i would weather...no brainer....not so sure if she has a doeling...If in fact she was bread by her brother (pending DNA test) would I still register the doeling? Right now I am thinking I would not...and maybe sell her unregistered (or keep her!) as a pet doe?
So far no signs of kidding...can still feel her ligs and today her udder seems smaller and less obvious as it did two days ago. and so I am just waiting and hoping for the best and for as much time to pass as possible. She will be 11 months at the end of feb...the closer I can get to her year the better I will feel.
I think she might be 2 monthes sooner than a commen age for first freshoning, which isn't just terrible. I've never had one that young kid though. Still, unless she is still quite small (less than 70% adult size) things will probobly be as OK as for any first timer. I'm sure you should be prepared and watchful, however.
As far as genetics, if she's not allready tightly line bred, her kids should be just fine even if her brother mated her. I doubt you will get any deformaties from the mating itself if she wasn't from a mating to her grandparent or great grandparent allready, more than once. Trust me, does from breedings to grandpa, are then bred back to him themselves, still have normal kids. They get even closer to each other in some lines. This will probobly be OK.
For us personally, if we could not have got her to the vet we would have just shot her rather than let her suffer like that.
She was a good little girl, and I have since re-homed her to a pet home where they do not keep a buck because I felt that I would never have the nerve to try and breed her again after the ordeal & it was stressful to have her around with the bucks escaping as they sometimes do. We have learned to always have TWO fences between bucks and does, where hopefully the second one will hold until I discover that the boys have gone through the first.
I don't think for a minute that anyone on here spending their free time talking about how to take good care of their goats is a bad goat mom, although I admit I had some guilt over the whole thing with Truffle, but we were new to goats and we all know better now about a lot of things...
At any rate, #*% happens and we owe it to our little critters to see it through one way or the other. I have heard tons of stories of young does kidding just fine, but possibly just not being great moms of they are too young. Very very good luck to you & hope your little girl has no trouble.
Thanks Juliana for that story. It has motivated me to follow up with my vet today and see about her ability to do surgery if needed. I am hoping that it will not go that route and I am hoping that she kids during the day as the closest large animal vet is over an hour away. She has told me if I have problems that I would need to bring the goat to her which I fear is too far to drive with a goat in crisis. I am going to call around and see if she is even able and willing to do a c-section on my girl if it came to that....or even if she would attend the kidding if I needed her to. Thanks for sharing your tale Juliana - it helps me to be better prepared!
Jewel is small but has continued to grow well. She has not been getting grain so I am hoping the kid(s) will be on the smaller side. The bucks are just a year old so hard to know about their true size yet ...but both are registered ND.
Thanks again everyone for your stories! I will keep you posted.
Juliana, as tragic as your story was, I think you were right to share it. When someone writes in with a question and a problem, they need to hear it like it is. My story about little Ivy giving birth to little Surprise could have been the exact same scenario as yours. Little Man was just a buckling and had just recently berm moved to the boy's box. He was still getting his tiny ration of grain, outside the box from the milk stand tray. He is a Nigerian and Ivy is our tiniest most delicate Pygmy (we have several others who are quite stocky and ok squat) She is narrow and slender. In our case, we had absolutely no idea she had been bred or was even pregnant.her delivery was a complete surprise. It is still a mystery since little Surprise is as tiny and delicate as her mommy. Little man however did not grow to be as large as your boy.
I am so sorry for your loss of that baby , but I am so happy the mother survived.
We are all at risk of these things happening and I hope our shared stories let Lisa know, she is not alone. And that these events makes none of us bad goat mommies.
I can only offer the worst case scenario to this happening, and maybe I should keep my mouth shut. But here goes- the buck who broke out and bred my 5 month old doeling has later turned out to be a whopping big boy, may very well not be not purebred ND but crossed with something bigger because he is at least 24 inches tall and thick, too. So that is the grain of salt that you have to take the rest of the story with. (he was young when he bred her so I did not yet know how big he would get to be)
My doeling tried to kid at 10 months and there was no way that baby was coming out. Luckily, we are only 10 mins from a small/large animal vet and it was during business hours so I was able to rush her over and they did an emergency C section and saved her, not the kid.
For the sake of being prepared for the worst- perhaps try and find out if there is a vet who could do the surgery if need be and have their # handy, and try to monitor the doe a lot. If we had not been there at her failed kidding she certainly would have died.
Again- her inability to get the kid out was more than likely due to the big sire and she was a real petite and narrow girl to begin with.
Shame on you Patty, you better keep that baby a doe this year or she will never forgive you!
such cute little guys! Thanks for sharing!
I am hopeful that my doe will catch up with her growth next year. Thanks Marin.
Margaret, my oldest daughter is still mad at me for selling the doeling from lat year. Those twins were the sweetest and that doeling was so pretty. This picture is the first doeling. She's at Bay Valley Farm now. Wren Farm Skittles is her name.
Bay Valley Farm
Margaret Langley said:
The two doelings that I had kid at 9.5 months did slow down in growth compared to other goats their own age, but they seem to have caught up now (a year later).
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