07/20/09, 04:40 PM
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Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: Alaska
Posts: 3,606
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Depends on "how huge".  If the udder is stretched tight (it may even look glossy if it's shaved), labor should be fairly imminent.
I have a friend that has a lovely Nubian that bagged up about a month before kidding and was so engorged that she actually blew her udder. She was told to milk the doe out before freshening, to save the udder, but she didn't think that sounded right so she didn't do it. Now the doe's udder looks really weird. Like a blown teat, the entire internal structures just fell apart and the shape is all weird (looks like two super long lobes that end in cones (teats) with a huge medial in the middle). The udder is still very useful and she gives LOTS of milk but it's no longer a show udder.
It's unusual but sometimes happens that a doe doesn't bag up much or at all before birthing (that sucks, ask me how I know).
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