First Pregnancy Question

beverrlly · #1 09/12/07, 10:20 AM

Well, it's MY first goat pregnancy--not hers! But anyway--I have 4 Nigerians. One wether, 2 does and 1 buck. One doe is pregnant. I bought her bred and their method of breeding was to keep a doe with a buck for 1 month and assume she's bred. It seems to have worked but I have no idea when she is due! I have it narrowed down to the last 2 weeks of Sept or the first 2 weeks of Oct.
Anyway-my question is this. Today I put the pregnant doe out to browse with the buck and wether for a few minutes so she could get out of her pen. Usually when I do this she goes her way and the boys go another but today the buck wouldn't leave her alone. Sniffing her <ahem> rear and trying like heck to mate with her. She wouldn't have any of it but I eventually had to put her away because she was just running away from the buck and not getting to eat. Does his sudden interest in her mean that she could be due soon or that her body is giving off some sort of signal? Thanks!

DocM · #2 09/12/07, 11:53 AM

If she's been bred before, she should be making an udder by now - is she? Put her on the milkstand and press lightly right in front of her udder - do you feel kids? Press lightly on her lower right side, do you feel kids? By this time, you can feel them kicking. She should be getting a rounded shape, like a little barrel with legs. Is the other doe in heat? She could have picked up the scent from the other doe. Is the buck young? Younger bucks will attempt to breed anything once they've gone into rut. When she gets closer to being due, she'll most likely slow down, not want to get up and walk around and graze a lot, more likely to lay around a bit and chew cud, perhaps groan when getting up and down. When she's really due, she'll scrape at her bedding, turn her head and look at her hind end, nicker to her unborn babies, and her ligaments will get loose. The ligaments should be firm enough to feel now if she's not due for a few weeks. At the base of her tail, feel her spine. Feel up her back a couple of inches. Radiating out from the spine in the shape of a peace sign (back towards the hips) you'll feel a hard thin ligament on either side. Make a point to start feeling those ligaments every day. They'll slowly start getting softer each day, until they seem to disappear completely. In a doe that has kidded before, it will seem that you can put your fingers completely around her spine just above her tail, they'll be that soft. When she feels like that, it's probably 12-24 hours before you have kids. Now is the time to assemble your kidding kit and decide if you're going to dam raise or bottle raise. Start putting her on the milk stand every day so she doesn't fight you when you want to milk her. And don't panic! A majority of the time, nothing bad happens during a kidding. If she were mine, I'd give her a CDT and a BoSE now, and be ready to worm her when she kids.

beverrlly · #3 09/12/07, 04:11 PM

Thanks for all the good info! She's already gotten her CD&T yesterday and I think we're in one of the few areas where Selenium isn't deficient so I wasn't sure about BoSe. I'll definitely try to feel for kids and she has a small udder now--looks a little fuller than it did before. I am having the darnest time finding those ligaments though. I guess practice makes perfect for that one.

DocM · #4 09/13/07, 01:22 AM

Do a search in goats for ligaments, someone posted pics at one time.