The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Goats => Topic started by: mojocafa on April 06, 2014, 06:03:54 am
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My smallest pygmy who is 2 , delivered twins about 7pm last night. Luckily I popped in to check on them possibly only minutes after the birth.
Mum took a while to get them cleaned up and would not allow them near udder, i thought this was because there was quite a bit of afterbirth trailing from her and i thought she kept moving away from them to prevent them getting close to the afterbirth.
I am unsure if they have had any milk as of yet. They are looking for it , and when placed under the udder mum is still moving away.
On looking at the teats they are very close together and both appear to be on the right side! Is this possible?
The teats are soft , pink and warm.
Cheers in advance, mojo
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Well if they are still up and lively this morning than they must have had some thing....
But. Her teat situation sounds strange - has she got a third one? Supernumerary teats are a genetic fault and you probably shouldn't be breeding from her anymore, not from her offspring. Have you been able to get any milk out of them? Can you get a photo?
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its it her first kids? sometimes you need to hold the nanny to give them a chance to drink in the first few days with first time mums.
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Is it possible she wasn't standing centrally (against a wall?) and they were both managing to get a teat but standing at the same side?
I'd be tempted to give them a colostrum feed anyway. Is she a first timer? I know from my own breast feeding that it can be eye poppingly painful and I wonder if it's like that for animals!
Our pygmy last year wasn't really interested in feeding, we would make her stand still and put the kid on, different sides each time. The kid would get milk if we did this but if left herself to do it herself, mum wasn't interested. We ended up bottle feeding, that's a commitment but it fitted in with me here all day, it does make the kids love you to bits though.
Interested to tell us how you get on, ours due May.
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Anke.......you were right, as you can see she has 4
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Anke...
If you have read previous posts you will know that I don't know how this happened :thinking:
And the one I have been most worried about is this one as she is small, anyway all seems ok at the mo so will keep an eye on things.
Only 2 left to go then I will get some sleep as I have been checking through the night.
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That's a typical double teat set-up. Definitely genetic fault. Normally you would check any newborn kid for teat faults, but some don't come out until they kid and the udder develops... :(
Can you express some milk from them? You may need to keep holding her still so the kids can get to the milkbar - first time mums are sometimes not sure about all this feeding malarkey... it is quite time consuming, but she should get the hang of it eventually. But you need to make sure these teats are actually functioning. If not straight onto the bottle and put her onto a hay-only ration to dry her up. Danger of mastitis obviously.
What are the kids - if boys they would still make good pets once they are ringed. Make sure you get them castrated whichever way you normally do, as these really should not be used for breeding and you can never guarantee if someone you sell them to will not eventually use them for breeding... Therefore you really do have a problem if they are girls...it's a shame really.
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I refused to keep them whether they were male or female and would never breed from the dam again
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Well..... The kids are both boys so that's a relief :relief:
All seem to be doing much better
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Sounds like she's getting the idea. My goat, Cloud, has a fish tail teat and that didn't become apparent until she was a few months old. She certainly had normal teats when she was five weeks old, which is when I bought her. I am breeding from her but only for the milk. Any kids will be called Cassie Role and Stew Pot.