My 2-year-old LaMancha, the one we've had so much trouble getting bred (even after vet checks, diet checks, minerals, copper, etc.), now has had her udder filling up the last few weeks.

At first I thought, yay! Maybe she's finally bred. But her udder is only filled up on one side. I've tried milking a few squeezes, just to see what happens, and there's definitely milk in there. I also got a few squirts out of the non-filled side, it's just not full like the other half. Is it possible she could have injured that side somehow?

At this point, I'm waiting to see if she does have any babies. But if she's not pregnant, what would cause her to make milk? Is there anything I can/should do?

You need to be a member of Nigerian Dwarf Dairy Goats to add comments!

Join Nigerian Dwarf Dairy Goats

Email me when people reply –

Replies

  • Ok! I will just let her be and see what happens. This would be her first kidding, so I don't have any history for reference. Hopefully she'll end up being a mama! :P

    Deborah Niemann-Boehle said:

    If she got bred in February, she might not look pregnant yet. They say a goat should be at least 3 weeks before you try diagnosing pregnancy with an ultrasound. If your vet told you that it's possible to miss a pregnancy, then I'd assume that it has happened with this vet in the past, so I wouldn't put a lot of weight on what was or was not seen.

    Does can get a precocious udder, but it's unusual, so she's probably bred. Being bred is the most likely reason  a doe gets an udder. I would NOT try milking her, as you could wind up causing mastitis. If the udder gets big, it's because there is milk in there, but there is also a waxy plug that keeps out bacteria, so when you milk her, you've removed that plug. It will form again, but leave the udder alone until she kids.

    If she is pregnant, then I'd assume she is due in a month or two, so she might have gotten pregnant in January.

    If she has kidded before and had a kid that didn't nurse on one side, that would be the most likely cause for a lopsided udder, but I wouldn't worry about it until she kids because it could change a lot in the next month.

  • If she got bred in February, she might not look pregnant yet. They say a goat should be at least 3 weeks before you try diagnosing pregnancy with an ultrasound. If your vet told you that it's possible to miss a pregnancy, then I'd assume that it has happened with this vet in the past, so I wouldn't put a lot of weight on what was or was not seen.

    Does can get a precocious udder, but it's unusual, so she's probably bred. Being bred is the most likely reason  a doe gets an udder. I would NOT try milking her, as you could wind up causing mastitis. If the udder gets big, it's because there is milk in there, but there is also a waxy plug that keeps out bacteria, so when you milk her, you've removed that plug. It will form again, but leave the udder alone until she kids.

    If she is pregnant, then I'd assume she is due in a month or two, so she might have gotten pregnant in January.

    If she has kidded before and had a kid that didn't nurse on one side, that would be the most likely cause for a lopsided udder, but I wouldn't worry about it until she kids because it could change a lot in the next month.

  • That's the annoying part - with my Nigerians, I'm getting to where I can tell more and more. But with Ruby, the changes have been very, very minimal if at all. Right now she just doesn't "look" pregnant to me.

    But then I had a doe kid with twins this year, who I thought didn't look pregnant, so there ya go. :P

  • Interesting. My next question is, does her vulva look different to you? That's the first thing I noticed with my doe, that the rectum kinda flattens out and tucks in, and she got wrinkles around her opening. Before that, she was smooth and flat there. 

    You know your doe best, so you should know if things are different. She might have just stopped cycling, of course, my doe is one of the Nigerians that is a seasonal cycler. But putting it together with her having udder development, no heat, and vulva changes, something must be going on. Deborah can probably tell you more. 

  • Lemme see. She was bred on 10/25/15, 11/15/15, 12/5/15, 12/26/15, 01/17/16, and 02/8/16, although the last one in Feb, she wasn't quite as flaming as she was previously. But I put her with the buck anyway. She hasn't cycled since then that I've noticed, either because it finally took (HOPING), or she just quit cycling for the year.

    When the vet ultrasounded her at the beginning of March, he didn't see anything, but he did say sometimes it can fail to show up, when they are actually bred. Plus it hadn't been long since her last breeding.

    (Sorry for being long winded. :P Short version: Feb 8th was her last known cycle.)


    Julieanne Cook said:


    When was her last heat cycle?


  • When was her last heat cycle?
    Rachel Griebenow said:

    Do you think she could be????? You have given me hope!!


    Julieanne Cook said:

    I'm curious about this too. My new older doe has a lopsided udder too, but I know her last kidding was twins and one died, so I assume the surviving kid only drank from one side.

    That looks like a pregnant vulva to me.

  • Do you think she could be????? You have given me hope!!


    Julieanne Cook said:

    I'm curious about this too. My new older doe has a lopsided udder too, but I know her last kidding was twins and one died, so I assume the surviving kid only drank from one side.

    That looks like a pregnant vulva to me.

  • I'm curious about this too. My new older doe has a lopsided udder too, but I know her last kidding was twins and one died, so I assume the surviving kid only drank from one side.

    That looks like a pregnant vulva to me.

This reply was deleted.