A little pink...

[CaliannG]

This morning, the first two squirts into the strip cup on my doe's left udder came out pinkish... and then came out normal. Leading me to believe there was a bit of blood in the first couple of squirts. I went ahead and milked her out, and everything else was normal.

She is only milked once a day (in the mornings), and for the rest of the time her kids are nursing her. She didn't show any signs of pain or discomfort, and her udder felt normal. No lumps or heat, or anything like that.

So, opinions. Should I:

1. Immediately get the vet out here to look at her.
2. Wait and see if this happens again tomorrow morning, but check on her several times today.
3. Start throwing probios and such down her.

All of my goats were wormed with ivomectin series with the last dose occurring three weeks ago.

[Pony]

Me, I'd keep an eye on her for now, especially since she seems fine otherwise.

Couldn't hurt to give her some probios and maybe a shot of B complex.

It may just be that the kids were pummeling the daylights out of her udder. We milk once a day and leave the kids on, too, and wow! Those kids can sure get aggressive!

Maybe someone else will have something more/different to add.

keep us posted, okay?

[Heritagefarm]

Originally Posted by Pony

It may just be that the kids were pummeling the daylights out of her udder. We milk once a day and leave the kids on, too, and wow! Those kids can sure get aggressive!

Yes, they certainly can. It seems no wonder to me that some people wean their lambs off their sheep manually. Whenever we leave a goat with babies on her, she always ends up with crunchies in her teats... So we don't do it, unless she is giving so little milk it doesn't matter, which we did with an Ober. Funny, our bottle kids look much better than the ones on the Ober, so I've started taking them off the dam, and drying her up. If she doesn't give more milk next year, we'll sell her. Her babies oughta be better than she is.

[Alice In TX/MO]

I vote for watching for a day or two. Give her some chewable Vitamin C tablets.

[CaliannG]

Okay, I'll keep an eye on her. I spent part of the evening in the barn with the goats. There was a thunder storm and they get skittish abut those, so I go out and give them scratches and comfort. Yes, my goats are terribly spoiled. Her kids were nursing and she didn't show any signs of discomfort.

I felt her udder...again, no heat, no lumps, no nothing, so it might have simply been a capillary that got too much pressure. She ate a double ration of grain and BOSS (I am trying to get some more meat on her bones, so she gets double rations) and, for once, she finished all of it off, so she has a *better* appetite than normal.

I'll just watch her.

HF, when I got her, and certainly now, it was important to me to leave her kids on her while she settled in so she would not lose too much production while adjusting to her new home. Now, it is important to me to have the kids nurse her during the day until I can readjust MY schedule and plans for twice a day milking.

I also loathe bottle feeding. (Did it for WAY too long with calves!)

Will do on the Vitamin C and B vitamins.

Thank you, everyone!

[Heritagefarm]

Actually, we don't bottle feed either - we use a lambbar. MUCH easier than bottle feeding. Had to bottle feed for awhile, and individually bottle feeding 20 baby goats was way, way too hard, too often resulting in a hectic disaster.

[thaiblue12]

I refuse to bottle or lambar bucklings. Waste of my time and effort and cost if I have to buy milk for them, since most of them go as $50 wethers. Claire must have gotten mad at me since last time she kidded she gave me a pair of doelings and I sold them both, so this time she gave me twin boys and was allowed to keep them both to nurse them.
I too do not have a ton of time to milk a bunch of goats twice a day with my schedule right now so leaving kids on them is easier. This year I had to most bottle babies ever and after the first month they really get on your nerves. I trip over, have to move, avoid enough goats as it is, when then when you have half a dozen little ones bumping your knees for milk, screaming as soon as they hear you are a awake etc etc it does tend to try ones nerves.

I would not want to fatten Claire up much if I were you. Yes they tend to be a bit thinner after giving birth but they do gain it back. Goats gain weight on the inside first before you see it on the outside. Claire has always been a good weight unlike Itchy who is a tub and cost me $451 for a c-section, on a Sunday of course!

[CaliannG]

~chuckles~ I don't want to fatten her up TOO much...just a little. The stress of moving, etc., caused her to lose a little bit and I want to put it back on her.

No pink this morning, and everything is still perfectly fine as well as her appetite. I think it was just a little capillary or tiny stone or something, because she didn't even have that bit of pink today.

I am going to change her feed up a bit, though, and start giving her about 75% of her grain and BOSS in the morning, and only 25% in the evening. She tends to leave about half of her morning grain in trough to finish up the milking early, then *immediately* goes out and feeds her kids. I have the feeling that if she is a bit hungrier in the morning, she'll want to finish up her grain more.... leaving me a bit more time to milk her out.

Of course, I may just be milking too slow.