My milker dried up! :(

deafgoatlady · #1 07/31/08, 11:42 AM

I am just upset now. I think she is dried up for good. Not sure. Becuz the weather got so HOT yesterday and three days ago. Right now it is little cooler than before. I wondered how can I make her milk come back?! I love her milk becuz she dont bleed like the other milker. The other milker's milk is always pink and never got better. She dont have mastitis either. Very frustrated. The other milker still gives me milk no matter what how hot outside. UGH. I dont want to get rid of the milker who dried up becuz she is so sweet. They are FF and they are purebred. They are Stagelight. I do know that their prevouis owner won 8th place in national in KY. I dont know what should I do. Thanks for listening and if you have any thing to say. Go head. Thanks.

Vicki McGaugh TX Nubians · #2 07/31/08, 12:30 PM

Milk is supply and demand. If you milk a doe although they can give dismal amounts of milk, a doe doesn't just dry up overnight or even over 3 days.

Look at her diet, without calories to milk they won't. Without a good water source they stop drinking and milk is nearly all water. Is she dehydrated, what is her temperature?

Does she have any signs of milkfever?

On your doe with blood in her milk all the time. How bad is the udder? If it flaps against her or things as she walks, or if she goes to lay down and she lays on it, make a bra for her. This will keep the udder high and tight and will stop the blood. When you are milking are you only grabbing the teat or are you grabbing udder also? Vicki

deafgoatlady · #3 07/31/08, 01:53 PM

I feed all of them with horse feed that have 16 or 18 percent. And I add black sunflower seed. I put 3 big buckets of water for them. And They eat free choice of alfalfa hay and loose mineral stuff and baking soda. How can I tell if she is dehydrated?? She looks happy and eating a lot of food.

The other milker. what do u mean grab. I dont grab like jerky way. I just touch the teat and start milking her like I always do. Her udder dont look bad. There is pictures of my milkers in different thread that no one see it. The thread was about sticky for udder (to learn about udder) I hope u know what I am talking about.

I will check her temp.

Alice In TX/MO · #4 07/31/08, 02:06 PM

Vicki, if you don't mind, I'm going to answer the "grab" question....

What she means is..... when you are hand milking, are you very careful *not* to have any of the udder tissue pinched in your milking hand as you close the top part of the teat off and then close the rest of your hand to squeeze the milk out of the teat orifice?

If you have your hand pressed up tooooo firmly against the udder, it's possible to get some of the milk producing tissues between your thumb and first finger. This will bruise the inside of the udder and cause the pink milk.

Be extra careful to only close off the top of the teat, not part of the udder. This is a problem with my First Freshener because she has short teats, and my hand is wider than her teat is long.

Rose

deafgoatlady · #5 07/31/08, 03:27 PM

No i didnt press against the udder. I just squeeze the teat becuz she have long teat. I am wondering if my husband might have cause it bleed. becuz I just saw him stripping. I told him not do that anymore becuz i think it is causing her like that. I am not sure. I dont bump her either becuz I was afraid to make her bleed inside.

Alice In TX/MO · #6 07/31/08, 09:31 PM

I don't strip, either.

deafgoatlady · #7 08/02/08, 03:12 PM

oh well. I give up. She is dried up for good. I guess. (SIGH)! The vet check her and said she is fine and healthy. They dont know why. SHEESH.

R&R Farm · #8 08/02/08, 03:37 PM

my dad and I have an on-going dialog over whether goats should eat oak leaves. I let 'em eat what they will and he's a little concerned about certain trees and shrubs. He talked to a pretty knowledgeable fellow the other day who says the only down side to them eating oak is that the oak leaves will cause a lactating goat to dry up.

Just a thought....Mike

Alice In TX/MO · #9 08/02/08, 03:55 PM

We drive down the road on our four wheeler daily and cut oak browse.

Our goats milk fine.

HollyBearFarm · #10 08/02/08, 04:41 PM

Some kinds of mint can cause milk productio to go down. So can sage.

Alice In TX/MO · #11 08/02/08, 07:00 PM

I think it's the heat!

Vicki McGaugh TX Nubians · #12 08/02/08, 07:33 PM

My property is made up of pine, oak (red, white and live), hickory, youpon and underbrush....maybe it's the kind of oak? I know it doesn't effect anything here. Vicki

yarrow · #13 08/02/08, 07:47 PM

I've got heat & oaks ...... and we are drowing in milk. I've not a single doe drop production. I'm surprised. I actually thought as hot as it got this week, that they would all go down. Not only has it not affected them, I'm having a hard time drying up the four does I want to stop milking. All have been milking since the first of Jan & don't WANT TO STOP LOL. ME? I'm not having fun in the milk room. It's hot & I'm whinny. I just had several other does freshen two weeks ago. I have to milk those, so want the other to be good and stop! This is the first summer babies for us (and the last!) I thought the does would produce a lot less having kidded in the heat. All of them are milking as well as they do in winter, laying around eating hay & alfalfa pellets all day. They are getting zero hay & are out in the heat browsing (mostly oak). Still just milking like normal. (they get some pellets in the morning with a bit of oats, then some 16% grain on the stand at miking times) I'm happy to know they will milk the same, no matter the time of year they kid...but it's still miserable out there at milking time..

susie, mo ozarks

smwon · #14 08/02/08, 08:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rose

We drive down the road on our four wheeler daily and cut oak browse.

Our goats milk fine.

Oh what a good idea!