We are fairly new to the goat world, only had a few for the last year and a half. I brought home a new Alpine doe yesterday to add to our herd. She is a yearling, just bred for the first time at the end of October. When we picked her out a couple of months ago (they kept her until she was bred for me), she was amazing looking, already showing signs of an udder forming. Not big, but enough to make all of us think she'd have a nice size udder and plenty of milk when she does kid.
When I brought her home yesterday however, I noticed one side of her udder is about 3 times the size of the other side. The teat and half of the udder are both bigger. When I squeezed the teat, I can definitely feel fluid in there (milk, I suppose!). The other side looks just like it should for a goat who has never been in milk before.
I emailed the woman I got her from, who said not to milk it out, just to leave it alone, and when she does come into milk, she will be evened out. She said her twin sister has the same thing. These were all bottle fed babies, they did not suckle on mom so I don't think anything could have gotten passed down to them that way.
Doing internet research I get conflicting info - some say precocious udders present this way, others say they only come in evenly. Some say to milk it out and send away a test sample, others say not to because then you're opening up the teat to infection. Some say it's definitely subclinical mastitis and I should be treating it now. I'm so confused!
I would have no problem asking the vet to come look at her, but that would run me $100, and the fact that I'm just outside NY city means that the vet does not have much experience with goats! There are no farm animal vets around here that really know what they're doing.
Any help would be greatly appreciated. We do drink the goat milk raw, and I'm wondering if that might be an issue with this doe when she freshens. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
When I brought her home yesterday however, I noticed one side of her udder is about 3 times the size of the other side. The teat and half of the udder are both bigger. When I squeezed the teat, I can definitely feel fluid in there (milk, I suppose!). The other side looks just like it should for a goat who has never been in milk before.
I emailed the woman I got her from, who said not to milk it out, just to leave it alone, and when she does come into milk, she will be evened out. She said her twin sister has the same thing. These were all bottle fed babies, they did not suckle on mom so I don't think anything could have gotten passed down to them that way.
Doing internet research I get conflicting info - some say precocious udders present this way, others say they only come in evenly. Some say to milk it out and send away a test sample, others say not to because then you're opening up the teat to infection. Some say it's definitely subclinical mastitis and I should be treating it now. I'm so confused!
I would have no problem asking the vet to come look at her, but that would run me $100, and the fact that I'm just outside NY city means that the vet does not have much experience with goats! There are no farm animal vets around here that really know what they're doing.
Any help would be greatly appreciated. We do drink the goat milk raw, and I'm wondering if that might be an issue with this doe when she freshens. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
