The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Goats => Topic started by: benkt on September 08, 2014, 12:13:04 pm
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1. Our first time milker, Clementine had one billy kid in June and I've just started to separate him at night and milk her in the morning. The thing is, she only produces any significant milk on one side (left), the other udder is almost empty - I can get a few squeezes out but nothing more really. I'm not quite sure how to proceed with her - she's well in herself and billy kid is doing well, is there anything I can do now to stimulate the other udder in to producing or perhaps I should have noticed sooner and could have done something then? Either way it would be good to know even if just for the future.
2. The other problem is a bit subtler, one of our older nannies, Diva, has been milked through again this year (she kidded three years ago now) so as to get her in sync with our other goatling so we can kid two goats a year alternately to even our milk yield. She's milking fine, maybe four pints a day and has been for ages now. However in the past two weeks she's been looking a bit 'off'. Nothing concrete, sometimes sitting down for a bit longer in the mornings, sometimes just standing around on her own instead of joining the rest of the herd. There's no real problem obvious so I'm wondering if there's anything else I should look out for, or if its just a mood related to the other goats having their kids out with them now or what really. Its obviously nothing I can take to a vet as she's perfectly healthy, she just gives me the feeling she's a bit out of sorts somehow. Any advice or suggestions most welcome!
Cheers,
Ben
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Some thoughts on your first question..: Has billy kid the chance to get his head through the bars of any hurdle that separates them? What des her empty half look like during the day? It could be that this half never got emptied at the beginning (as kid preferred one side to drink from and not the other - goats are much more like that than sheep) and started to dry off - lopsided udders are quite normal for single kids, unless the goatkeeper makes sure everything is evened out right from day 1. So if she has a single again at next kidding empty out both sides regularly, and it is actually easier to milk the dam out twice a day and bottle feed the kid. Keeps the udder even and keep milk yield higher for longer. Most goats will produce more than a single kid needs (2ltrs per day at peak time) and you will have excess for the house or for lambs right from the start.
2nd question.: How old is your "older" girl? If nothing specific I maybe would give her a mineral/vitamin drench to perk her up a bit, and also maybe dry her off to give her time to rest a bit before milking again, and put her in kid as soon as possible.
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Anke is right, single kids do favour one side of the udder. I usually milk out the other side myself in this case, as quite often it becomes tight......But if the kid had not been sucking on both sides, I am sure you would have noticed.
As to the older female, I too would think about giving her a supplement. Hopefully she will perk up.