The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Goats => Topic started by: Brucklay on March 08, 2012, 09:01:13 pm
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Piper kidded Monday - 2 little boys and all was well - they fed, pooed etc - but now I think they are both using the same side. I know the reason, well sort of - she does have uneven udders at the first year she had a single who would only use one side - last year she had twins and I don't recall any issues but I notice this morning she seemed very full and felt this evening one was very full and one was soft and a nice teat - right or wrong I milked the full side to releave a bit of pressure and although she wasn't happy to start off with seemed to feel relieved after a bit - should this sort itself out when the kids get a bigger appetite? Is there anything else I should do
PS Pygmy so milking may be good for her but gives me a sore back!!
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I think you did the right thing to milk out the full side - and it sounds like you need a higher milking stand!
I don't know if they will sort themselves out - the other possibility is that her unused side just reduces milk production. When this happened with Ellie's kids last year I intervened and took the least dominant little boy and kept putting him round the other side til he got the idea - he caught on when he realised he got it all to himself I think :)
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Used to have this problem when I had Pygmies.Just keep encouraging the kids to drink from the other teat once you've eased the pressure a bit.Was the milk easy to draw,does she have nice teats rather than a bottle udder and check there's not a supernumary distracting the kids from the right teat
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Thank you for the posts - JJ - yes the milk was very easy to draw and tbph not sure what a bottle udder is - but I don't think she has - as I would describe as 2 good full udders but one is rounder and have a well used teat and the other is more of a cone shape (the problem one) as it was full they didn't want to use it - I'm thinking as long as I milk off any pressure hopefully the kids will even things out in time - funny I didn't see this last year though