Is my wethers a buck?

MuldrowHomeFarm

Loving the herd life
Joined
Jul 7, 2020
Messages
180
Reaction score
544
Points
163
If Dixie were pregnant and her udder was larger, she would be in her last month of a 5 month pregnancy. Udders do not form until the end of pregnancy in goats. So neither Luke or Whiskey would be the sire.
 

Ridgetop

Herd Master
Joined
Mar 13, 2015
Messages
6,572
Reaction score
22,272
Points
693
Location
Shadow Hills, CA
She is a year old. It is not uncommon to see the young immature udder show up in a yearling and the nipples become more prominant. Palpate the udder area. it should be soft and empty like a soft glove. If it is hard and firm, call the vet. Dry does can get mastitis. Dry does from heavy milking lines can also develop premature udders and become precocious milkers. I had one of these, who milked at a year old WITHOUT being bred. There is also such a thing as a false pregnancy. I have seen one of these too. If this is what is happening then when her body tells her she is at term she will pass the empty placenta and bellyful of fluid.

You said your breeder is close by, call her and ask her to look at the doe. If she is close to kidding which the appearance of a real udder would imply she would have been bred 4-5 months ago. You have had her 8 months with no bucks around, If that is correct she cannot be pregnant since she was never exposed to a buck.

If by some miracle she is pregnant, she is one year old and will give birth without any problems. Stop worrying. there is nothing you can do about it anyway except have her checked by the vet for mastitis. DO NOT CONSIDER LUTELYSE TO ABORT A SUSPECTED PREGNANCY. It will cause more problems than it would solve.
 

Ridgetop

Herd Master
Joined
Mar 13, 2015
Messages
6,572
Reaction score
22,272
Points
693
Location
Shadow Hills, CA
Precocious milkers don't milk much - maybe a pint. They take a lot of care too. Since I had others in milk who were star mikers this was not worth the effort so I dried her up. Once she kidded she milked copious amounts of milk. Unfortunately, she was our Toggenburg. Beautiful doe with a champion udder, but Toggs are known for their disgusting tasting milk! Probably used to make Limburger cheese! At the time we were not yet raising calves so we eventually sold all our Toggs. We had Nubians - best milk, LaManchas - good milk also, Alpines - didn't like their milk that much either and sold them, but the Togg milk was awful. At the time the Toggs stayed in milk when the Nubians went off to be bred but in order to stomach the taste and get the children to drink it, I loaded it with chocolate milk powder.
 
Top