[xemonsus]

Hi am new to the forum and to goats but we are hoping you may have an idea what is happening with one of our ladies.

Not sure how old she is as we acquired her over the summer but we think shes an older lady, when we got her she was very thin as were the others we got with her. Over the weeks she had put on weight and is a lovely girl, however the last few weeks she seems to have dropped weight again, we thought it maybe to do with winter and so upped her food rations and wormed everyone again. Now today i have noticed she is bagged up more so on one side. Her udder isn't overly hot and the 'milk' doesn't seem infected when i looked.

A friend is coming to take a look tomorrow for us but just wondered what peoples thoughts are, i should say that to our knowledge she isn't pregnant.

Thanks very much I'm sure I'm going to have lots more questions, infact i know i have!!

Jane

[plumseverywhere]

Hi Jane

did she only have one kid? could it be that she was feeding on one side and the other dried up? 
My maiden girl always has one side that looks saggier than the other after milking and that was normal for her, could be that I guess.
you can always see if the milk goes stringy if you add washing up liquid as another way to rule out mastitis see this previous discussion too to see if it helps at all
 http://www.accidentalsmallholder.net/forum/index.php?topic=20350.0

Lisa 

[jaykay]

Hi  Welcome to the mad worlds of TAS and goats 

Ok, your old lady. Firstly are you milking her? If so, do you strip out each side evenly?
If not, I wonder if she's come back into milk a bit as you've got some condition back on her?

As for keeping condition on her, I've been struggling with one of my goats too and this is what's made the difference: I'm feeding her half dairy nuts (I'Anson's cos that's what the feedstore can get me) and half sheep mix. I was told to feed her more like a dairy cow than like a sheep  , makes sense I suppose. Then every month I give her a drench of minerals. I use Cox Agri's Formula Co +B12 with selenium. She only needs 5ml at a time, so the litre bottle will last a while.

If you don't like drenching, Wytsend on the goat forum sells powdered minerals that you put on their feed. Horses for courses, mine rotate around the buckets so I like to know that Ellie's had what she needs because it's (mainly  ) gone down her throat!

I also have a red Rockie mineral lick that they can always get at in the byre.

Hope that helps and that you're enjoying your goats - I really love mine, amazing quite how much they sneak into your affections 

[xemonsus]

Thanks very much for the replies,

She isn't milked and was dry when we got her, the udder seems to have become active over the last day or so!!
It odd you say about it happening as she has gained condition but i may not have been clear she has actually lost condition recently.

Thanks very much for your feeding tips will look into them, would it be OK to feed like that for none milk producing goats who just lack condition? We have a red mineral block and i have noticed that they have been having a good go at it as they have worn a hole into it now! lol

Your right re them worming their way into your affection, we started out with a friends castrated male who lived alone so we took him on and got him a friend, she came from the same place as the other 3 who were looking quite sorry for themselves so my husband went back a week later for them too!! Now we have the 5 and are slowly feeling our way around!!!!!

Ill try and up load some pics then some of you in the know maybe able to tell us exactly what we have as people have told us differently as to what breeds they all are!!

[jaykay]

Hi, yes sorry I wasnt specific, you can feed any under condition goat like this 
Will look forward to pics 

[xemonsus]

Brill thanks Jaykay, shall attempt pic upload as soon as!!

[Anke]

When exactly did you get her? And did the previous place she was at have a billy? If she has been with you for less than 5 months (or 150 days) I would think there is a good chance your girl is in kid and starting to make an udder. It would still be a bit too early for a dry goat to come into milk without kidding at this time of year.

But I may be wrong...
definitely feed her well, independently of her being in kid or not.

If you do not know that much about goats there is a good little book published by a longtime goatkeeper that I found really useful: "Goatkeeping without the nonsense" by Mike Oldfield. You can get it through his website on penborngoats.com

[Lesley Silvester]

Let us know the outcome.

[moody_mare]

we have had our first proper frosts and very cold nights here. my milker has upped her yeild, I wondered if it was due to the extra sugars in grass? could this be why xemonsus' s goat is bagging up?

[xemonsus]

Hi all,

Just to update our lady is still the same but appears to not be loosing anymore weight, ive just spent some time on the phone with Wynsted (think ive spelt it right) and now feel much happier about our ladies condition.

Shall keep you all posted on any changes esp now ive had some good advice re their diet.

Thanks very much all glad to have found such helpful friendly people.

[wytsend]

Hi Jane

It was great talking last evening.

My prefix is   WYTSEND.   

Sorry spelling is rather odd but British Goat Society insisted it was spelt this way back when I registered it in the the Mid 1970's,  so its their fault !!!!!!!!

Will check out the Herd number and get back to you.

[xemonsus]

Thanks very much for the chat last night wytsend it was reassuring and a great help to get redirected with our ladies care and feeding. I'm looking forward to learn more and enjoy the goats I'm sure ill have alot more to ask in future!

Its been great getting soo much help from people on this forum will keep people updated as we go.

Thanks all x