Is there any way to tell how many mama is carrying?

ladybug · #1 04/27/07, 09:11 PM

Hi all, I bought a doe back in February and she has gotten huge in the belly, I mean barrel round! You can see little legs moving around from the outside so I know there's a little one in there, but I'm unsure about the due dates too because I believe she was already bred when I got her. The lady I purchased her from said she believed she was born in either August or October so I'm hoping she doesn't have any problems delivering, I was told she is a Pygora. I'm probably just being a worry wart but I worry about her, My other does are each several years old so I don't worry quite as much as I do with this little one.

Thank you!

AnnaS · #2 04/27/07, 09:24 PM

As far as I know, here's no way to tell besides an ultrasound. Educated guesses aren't much good either. This year, I had a doe that I wasn't sure was even bred- triplets. And the doe that was HHHuge had a single buck.

prairiedog · #3 04/28/07, 01:23 PM

I knew some one that used a home preg test and it turn positive for her pregnant doe.

harplade · #4 04/28/07, 05:48 PM

can you post a picture? unless she's already had them
harplade

Oldntimes · #5 04/28/07, 07:30 PM

prairiedog...
Are you serious?? Did she do this often and it worked on positive and negative results???
Just curious if that would really work, did not think it could.
Would be kinda hard to catch the pee though :baby04:

prairiedog · #6 04/29/07, 07:35 AM

As far as I know she only did it once somene told her she would be able to tell if her doe was bred or not. I never wanted to follow mine around trying to catch pee.

ozark_jewels · #7 04/29/07, 04:08 PM

A wide belly can be kids or rumen, a low belly is a better indicator of a multiple kid load.

Spinner · #8 04/29/07, 04:41 PM

I've heard that you can use a stethoscope and listen for heartbeats. I have a prego doe and will try that to see if I can distinguish more than one heartbeat. It will be interesting to see if it works.

ETA: I tried the stethoscope. After listening for several minutes, I found a very faint heartbeat. I could hear the does lungs louder than the kids heartbeats.

khowellrn · #9 04/29/07, 07:39 PM

I think the home preg test must have been a fluke, they work by testing the urine for human chorionic gonadotropin, which I doubt is present in goats!

I had some ultrasounded an the vet's assistant wasn't real experienced at it and couldn't tell me how many were on board. But there is an optimim time to have them ultrasounded, I wanna say 45 days?
I wish there was an easy way!

Idahoe · #10 04/30/07, 11:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ozark_jewels

A wide belly can be kids or rumen, a low belly is a better indicator of a multiple kid load.

That makes sense . . . the doe who kidded twins on Saturday was wide as opposed to "deep" in the belly. The kids are mini Lamanchas, weighed maybe three pounds apiece, and she looked only slightly smaller on the right. In all she was very pregnant in appearance, and those two little gals couldn't have taken up much space in there.

I have a FF who does not look pregged unless she lies down and 'spreads', or unless you look at her udder. From the side, she's got the low belly, so I have goats doing the wide and the deep

. It makes sense with their anatomy, esp if they have nice big rumens.

Kazahleenah · #11 04/30/07, 11:54 AM

I always found birth to be the best indicator of how many.

Idahoe · #12 04/30/07, 11:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by khowellrn

I think the home preg test must have been a fluke, they work by testing the urine for human chorionic gonadotropin, which I doubt is present in goats!

Yes, a goat won't have human hormones in her pee

. However, I wonder why no one has developed a 'home preg test' for large livestock, seems that you could create a reagent for caprine gonadotropic hormone, so all you'd do is catch them peeing and have your cup ready

.

suburbanite · #13 04/30/07, 01:05 PM

You guys might try the home pregnancy tests anyway. Reproductive hormones tend to be pretty well conserved across mammal species--they're very similar because they are so critical to forming the next generation, and most mutations would decrease their functionality, reducing surviving offspring. For this reason, the goat hormone is probably close enough in structure to react with the detecting chemical designed for the human hormone, though the sensitivity is probably lower.

That is, false negatives are probably more likely if you try this than they would be if you were testing a human for pregnancy.

Try again with the stethescope. It's an acquired skill. Try different locations on the goat. A good web search might pull up diagrams of where to listen.